Scott was a teacher, baseball coach and father of two young children. Just before his death, he had been ordained as a deacon in the First Baptist Church. (See the family website of remembrance and activism at the Gardner Family Circle.)
The mother of a Gaston County teacher who died in a July 2005 hit-and-run crash in Brunswick County caused by an illegal immigrant pleaded with the panel for a solution.Scott Gardner was on vacation with his family when their car was struck by a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos, who was intoxicated and had a history of drunken driving arrests.
Wife Tina Gardner remains in a vegetative state at a nursing home, her mother-in-law Emily Moose said Friday. The couple's two young children are effectively orphaned.
Gallegos was sentenced earlier this year to 14 to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.
"If you break the law to get here, you're not going to respect the law once you're here," [Rep. Patrick] McHenry said. [Using local law to stem illegals is just a stopgap, panel hears, News & Observer, 8/26/06]
Also attending the hearing was Rep. Sue Myrick, who introduced the Scott Gardner Act on September 14, 2005. She was disturbed by the case, in which an illegal alien who had been arrested several times for DUI was not deported and went on to destroy a young family.
Her bill requires that an illegal alien convicted of driving drunk be automatically deported. The legislation was successfully added as an amendment to the House immigration bill.
As Rep. Myrick stated when introducing the bill, "You're drunk, you're driving, you're illegal, you're deported, period."
It is legislation that will absolutely save lives if signed into law.
