Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Cubans’ deaths trouble aid agency

Three murders this week have involved Cuban immigrants -- a fact that has more than Metro Police concerned.

Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada is also troubled because Tuesday's stabbing victim was a refugee they'd help place in Las Vegas in the past week, as was the prime suspect in a stabbing death Wednesday.

"It hurts," said Catholic Charities spokeswoman Rosette Wirtz. "We have developed close relationships with these people. We see them almost daily. ... Our goal is to help them get a new start in life, and for something like this to happen is horrible."

Catholic Charities workers were shocked to hear on the news that police were looking for Manuel Pedroso, 27, based on accusations that he stabbed and slit the throat of a 32-year-old neighbor at the Stewart Arms apartments off Stewart Avenue and 11th Street, and then disappeared into the darkness Wednesday night.

Pedroso was still at large this morning. The motive for the killing, police say, was a love triangle and drugs. Pedroso allegedly had been romantically involved with the victim's wife, said Metro homicide Lt. Larry Spinosa.

"We were so surprised," Wirtz said. "He's such a nice guy. He didn't seem like the type of guy that would do something like that."

The killing occurred on the second-floor balcony of the Stewart Arms, one of seven apartment buildings in Las Vegas that the organization is using to house a growing number of Cuban refugees arriving each month in search of freedom from their communist country.

The six others, including one apartment complex in the 300 block of West Cincinnati Avenue where 18-year-old refugee Livan Rodriguez Perez was stabbed to death Wednesday, had two things in common with the Stewart Arms: They are low-rent buildings in high-crime neighborhoods.

"There's definitely a narcotics problem in those areas, most definitely," said Lt. Steve Gammell of Metro's narcotics section. "But it doesn't matter what race these people are or where they come from. If you take a criminal and put him in a nice place like Summerlin, he's still going to get into trouble."

Detectives have not firmed up a motive for Perez's death. Police are still searching for the two men who chased Perez down and killed him, then fled in a blue car. Pedroso was also last seen in a blue car.

It's a double-edged sword that Catholic Charities workers are dealing with in some cases -- placing refugees in unfamiliar and potentially dangerous territory.

"Unfortunately, that's all we can afford," Wirtz said. "Finding places for these people to stay requires leg work. We call the apartments, explain how we are trying to help these people. ... We're looking for places that will permit several single men rooming together ... and families ... because we can't afford to get each of them their own apartments."

Diocese contributions pay for most of the organization's programs -- everything but the refugee and immigration program, which relies on federal dollars.

For years, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has served as a detention camp for tens of thousands of Haitians and Cubans seeking asylum in the United States. The decision to close down the camp effective Jan. 31 has seen a massive migration of the refugees into the United States.

Las Vegas has been receiving what Wirtz described as "record numbers" of Cuban immigrants in the past few months -- at least 100 refugees a month since November.

That's more than double the monthly average Catholic Charities had been receiving in 1995, Wirtz said.

Las Vegas is second only to Miami in receiving the most Cuban refugees through the Catholic assistance program.

The booming tourism business is the obvious draw. Thousands of jobs exist here, from washing cars to cleaning hotel rooms, readily available to people with limited English skills.

But Catholic Charities is also attracting larger refugee numbers than other cities because of the success rate of its program. They get jobs for immigrants quicker, which means the agency is paying out less cash assistance.

But the nightmare for the organization, Wirtz said, are "the dregs of society" -- the criminals that are mixed in with each batch of arriving refugees.

"Once they break the law, we have nothing more to do with them," she said. Catholic Charities must dip into its limited pot of funds to pay for the bad lot's return to Cuba, "but it's worth it. We don't want them here if they're going to start trouble."

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