Posted on 04/18/2006 6:51:49 AM PDT by I_Publius
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Mexico_Migrant_Shooting.html
Monday, April 17, 2006 · Last updated 6:34 p.m. PT
Mexican officer shoots local man in raid
TULTITLAN, Mexico -- A state policeman fatally shot a local man whom he apparently mistook for a Central American immigrant during a raid on undocumented workers Monday, infuriating residents who overturned and smashed two immigration service trucks.
People of this town just north of Mexico City expressed outrage that police would open fire on fleeing migrants and said the victim was a construction worker on a lunch break whose dark skin and work clothes may have made him look like a potential target.
State police commander Jorge Cruz Cid said several officers from the Mexico State police force who were helping federal immigration agents in the raid had been detained for questioning.
Tultitlan is frequented by Central Americans who slip across the Guatemala-Mexico border and ride trains north in hopes of reaching the United States. Immigration raids here are frequent - migrants often stop to buy or beg for food - and residents say police often detain townspeople mistakenly.
"They come and grab people just because they are dark-skinned," said Virginia Sanchez, a Tultitlan housewife.
The dead man was identified as Roberto Lugo, a Tultitlan resident who was around 20 years old. Residents said he was neither running nor trying to confront police when he was shot at point-blank range.
Townspeople and Central American migrants interviewed around the scene of the shooting said Mexican police frequently rob and abuse undocumented migrants before releasing them without charges.
"If you're carrying any money, they take it from you; federal, local police, all of them," said Carlos Lopez, a 28-year-old undocumented migrant from Guatemala City. Sitting nearby, 18-year-old Jose Ramos, of El Salvador, agreed.
"If you're on a bus, they pull you off and search your pockets and if you have any money, they keep it and say 'Get out of here,'" Ramos said.
In December, the Mexican government's National Human Rights Commission issued a report corroborating reports of abuses against migrants in Mexico, and condemning the use of police to detain undocumented workers.
Geeesh...Central Americans are just doing the jobs Mexicans won't do
: >
So true.....
They're just workers, not illegals! Right??!
Not only that, but I'm betting that was their land before it was Mexico's and that the darn Spaniards/Mexican's stole it from them.
Shouldn't Mexico be finding a path to citizenship for these people? After all, they make a vital contribution to Mexico.
Ping!
Yet the Mexican Consulars have the hubris to lecture us about how we treat their citizens as they break the law to come here.
A state policeman fatally shot a local man whom he apparently mistook for a Central American immigrant
The more pressure we keep on Mexico, immigration-wise, the more reformers
inside of Mexico can be emboldened and empowered to scale back monopolists'
abuses down there which keep our own country flooded with economic refugees.
Here's an interesting new thread on new legal reform progress that finally
emerged in Mexico I think as a result of immigration reform's failure:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611677/posts
We can make a difference for our sake, and their's as well. Isn't it the
neighborly thing to do?
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