Mother of slain girl supports immigration agents in jail

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | May 3, 2008

By Juan Castillo

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Ann Hayden can’t relate to the outcry over plans to put federal immigration agents in the Travis County jail full time.

Just as she believes her daughter would be alive today if Austin police aggressively enforced immigration laws, she is convinced of the need for increased screening of illegal immigrants at the jail.

“It seems like common sense that it would be beneficial,” said Hayden, whose daughter Jenny Garcia Hayden was murdered in Austin in 2004 by a Mexican citizen who was in the country illegally. “Undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes or endanger society should be deported.”

Hayden and her husband Humberto Garcia, who has since died, sued the City of Austin in 2005, alleging it had a policy of not reporting undocumented immigrants, which contributed to their daughter’s death.The city says it has no policy that prevents employees, including police, from calling immigration officials.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the slain girl’s parents did not show a link between the alleged policy and her death.

Jenny Garcia Hayden, 18, was killed in her family’s North Austin home by David Diaz Morales, who pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence. Her parents said that Austin police should have turned Diaz over to federal authorities for deportation when they suspected him of child molestation two years earlier. Diaz wasn’t arrested in that case; the district attorney’s office said there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

Diaz “should have never been in our country,” said Ann Hayden, who now lives in El Paso. She said her husband died of a heart attack last Thanksgiving during a visit to Austin, when he visited his daughter’s grave. Her murder caused his death, too, Hayden said.