Deporting to Death?  A Los Angeles gang-peace organizer faces an
immigration ruling that his supporters say could be a death
sentence.  | Fri Feb. 15, 2002 3:00 AM EST Alex Sanchez has
worked for years to calm the violence between the warring gangs
that dominate Los Angeles' Pico Union/Koreatown area -- a role
that has won him the respect of gang members as well as some of
California's leading politicians. But now he faces a deportation
hearing that could not only end his peace-making -- it might
also lead to his own violent death.  Sanchez, a 30-year-old
citizen of El Salvador, former gang member, and current program
director of the Los Angeles and San Salvador-based youth
organization Homies Unidos, is facing deportation charges before
Immigration Court Judge Peters Collantes in a trial beginning
today. Neither side disputes his undocumented status. But
Sanchez's supporters say deportation would be tantamount to an
execution order.  Advertise on  Many current and former gang
members deported to El Salvador