Illegal Alien? You make the call

This Metro section article is actually from the Sunday, 11/18/2007 edition of the Sacramento Bee, but the case is still definitely ongoing. I will reprint for you, the first two paragraphs of the lead article in Metro, and then ask yourself if the perp is legally or illegally in our country:

For the past week, while Sacramento police searched for Miguel Carranza in connection with the Nov. 8 double homicide of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, he was already behind bars - 103 miles away in Santa Rosa.

Authorities there, apparently thrown off by a plethora of aliases, took days to realize Carranza, a Mexican citizen, had already been identified as a person of interest in the shooting deaths of 29-year-old Martha Lopez-Pachecho and Jever Lopez, 32.

As usual, the Bee engages in literary gymnastics in order to avoid identifying someone as an illegal alien. I have written on this subject before, and the Bee never seems to tire of giving me fresh material.

One more thing - and this doesn't have to do with the illegal alien angle. What is this person of interest nonsense? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like that term has only started to be used by law enforcement in maybe the last five to ten years. I don't ever remember hearing that term before then. Either you're a suspect or a witness. What the hell is a person of interest?

Good Day to You, Sir

*Update (11/20/2007 0705hrs) - I can't believe I missed this the first time, but later on in the article, there is this quote from a Sacramento police spokesman:

The guy has something like 14 or 18 different aliases... when you have an individual without documentation and no identifying characteristics who utilizes a number of aliases, it can be very difficult for our system to track him."

What?! If he's a Mexican citizen in this country, there should be all sorts of documentation to track a foreign national within our borders, right? Right?

Good Day to You, Sir (again)