https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.325f7f9fecec
For most of the past six decades, the Republican Party could count on Charlie Heimach. The retired Air Force colonel donated money to President Richard Nixon, backed Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, and cast his ballot last year for Donald Trump.
But in the recent Virginia governor’s race, Heimach voted for the Democrat, because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, and its attempts to deport a ballroom dancing instructor from the studio where Heimach, 79, likes to Lindy Hop.
Since May, Heimach and a disparate crew of lawyers, military veterans, a dog walker, an entomologist and others united in their love for dancing have been on a crusade to protect the instructor they call “G,” an undocumented immigrant from Mongolia who was arrested twice in 2016 for drunken driving.It sure seems like its unfair to ruin a man's life simply because he likes to drink and drive. The truth is that people who are caught driving drunk are just extremely unlucky; statistically speaking your average drunk driver will drive drunk 80 times before he or she is caught. Driving drunk is also a situation where the person doing it is technically not in his right mind when committing the actual crime, which further clouds the issue of how harshly drunk driving should be judged.Gantulga landed a job at the Arthur Murray Dance Center in Alexandria and worked his way up to a top instructor.
But he was also drinking, sometimes too much.
In July 2016, police arrested him for drunken driving. Four months later, he was arrested again, for driving under the influence and a hit-and-run that involved him striking a parked car and leaving the scene. He was convicted both times and served about a month in jail.
Gantulga lost his DACA protection while his second criminal charge was pending. Soon, the government told him that they would try to deport him.
“Mr. Gantulga entered the United States on a nonimmigrant visa but currently does not have lawful status in the United States,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell. “Gantulga has proven himself to be a public safety threat.”
Gantulga says the drinking and driving “definitely wouldn’t have happened if my parents were here.”
But he also said he took responsibility: “It was something that I did.”
Of course, the other side of the argument in this case is that Gantulga has an extreme problem with driving drunk, making him a danger to other people on the road since he even was involved in a hit and run while intoxicated. This might be a stronger argument than the desire of his students to keep their favorite dance instructor.
So what do people think about this issue?