ST. LOUIS — We are learning more about the man charged with hitting and killing St. Louis Police Officer David Lee.
Ramon Chavez-Rodriguez faced a previous DWI and domestic assault charge in St. Charles County and there have been a lot of questions about his immigration status.
Chavez-Rodriguez faced several charges back in 2020 in St. Charles County and Prosecutor Joe McCulloch said he was put on probation for those charges and did not violate it.
In fact, he was scheduled to complete his probation on Oct. 1.
“During his period of probation, he had absolutely no violations while he was on probation. He had one, what they call a citation, which is not a probation violation, which was for falling behind in some payments for intervention fees. So he was behind $40 he caught up on that,” McCulloch said.
Chavez-Rodriguez is originally from Honduras and has been living in the United States illegally.
It's been four years since that case in St. Charles County, and some people are asking why it has taken so long for an immigration hearing.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore said a hearing was supposed to happen in the coming weeks. At this point, it's unclear if the new charges in Lee's death will change that.
David Cox, a St. Louis immigration attorney, said if a person who has been here illegally is facing criminal charges, the sentence in that case is often carried out first before immigration proceedings and possible deportation.
Cox said he is not surprised the process has taken years and there are several contributing factors.
“I would say there were three sources. COVID, the surge that happened. I would say at the time the Biden administration took over, and people thought there was going to be a more lenient immigration policy. So more and more people came because of that. And now most recently, it's the interest in enforcing our immigration laws because of the election,” Cox said.
Cox said once a decision is finally made by a judge, they also have to get the proper paperwork and passport if they are being removed from the U.S. He added that right now there aren't enough immigration judges to get through the rising number of cases that are already very complex.
“There are only certain locations where they have judges. For here in St Louis, the closest immigration court is in Kansas City. So all of our immigration court cases are held there. There are some in Chicago for those who live in the southern part of Illinois,” Cox said.