Posted on 05/10/2006 5:01:15 PM PDT by az4vlad
INTERFERENCE BY MEXICO PROTESTED
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas Asks State Department to Intervene
In a letter of protest to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, County Attorney Andrew Thomas today accused the government of Mexico of interfering in the internal affairs of Arizona by attempting to void Arizona’s Human Smuggling statute, which was enacted by a bipartisan majority of legislators and signed into law by Governor Janet Napolitano.
In an attempt to undermine Arizona law Los Angeles lawyer Peter Schey, at the request of Carlos Flores-Vizcarra, Consul General of Mexico, has filed legal motions intended to thwart the prosecution of a “coyote” and 48 illegal immigrant conspirators arrested by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on March 2, 2006. If this attempt by the Mexican Government succeeds, Thomas noted, the citizens of the State of Arizona will be deprived of their right to uphold public order and to protect themselves against the Mexican government’s systematic, unlawful export of humanity into the state.
“The Mexican government encourages those who are unhappy with political, economic and social conditions in Mexico to flee to America to seek unlawful employment here and to send back to Mexico an estimated 16 billion dollars”, Thomas said.
The 48 illegal immigrant conspirators have been offered the opportunity to plead guilty in return for a reduced sentence. To date four defendants, Sergio Perez-Santos, Baltazar Ramirez Solano, Roman Gomez and Omar Soto-Lopez, have pled guilty to the crime of Solicitation to Commit Human Smuggling, a 6 Felony. Besides the felony designated, they have served 60 days in the county jail, will be placed on probation for three years, and will be deported to Mexico. Additional guilty pleas are expected.
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The Honorable Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State United States Department of State 2201 C Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Secretary Rice:
This letter is to request respectfully that the U.S. Department of State lodge a formal protest with the government of Mexico for its covert attempt to dismantle a new law in Arizona designed to combat illegal immigration and, specifically, human smuggling. As the elected prosecuting attorney for Maricopa County, the third most populous county in the United States, I am charged with prosecuting those who violate Arizona’s new anti-smuggling law or so-called coyote law, A.R.S. § 13-2319. I write because the Mexican government, through allied legal counsel, is seeking to nullify this new law by organizing and possibly underwriting the legal defense efforts of criminal defendants currently under indictment for violation of this statute.
Last year, in response to the flood of illegal immigration Arizona suffers from Mexico, the Arizona legislature passed a law to ban human smuggling. An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of legislators in both houses voted for this measure. Governor Janet Napolitano signed it into law. Our office has commenced prosecutions under the law against both smugglers, or coyotes, and illegal immigrants who provably conspire with coyotes in violation of state law.
On March 9, 2006, I received a letter from Carlos Flores-Vizcarra, Consul General of Mexico in Phoenix, questioning these prosecutions. He also requested that I present certain evidence before the Maricopa County grand jury. In a letter dated March 24, 2006, I responded to Mr. Flores-Vizcarra (copies of correspondence enclosed). I noted that his attempt to “instruct this office on how to present evidence before the grand jury is presumptuous and highly troubling,” coming as it did from “a foreign government that actively encourages illegal immigration to the United States.” Also, I observed that for years, “the Mexican government has practiced a form of latter-day mercantilism towards the United States.” Under this de facto policy, the Mexican government encourages those who are unhappy with political, economic and social conditions in Mexico to flee to America to seek unlawful employment here, and to send back to Mexico an estimated $16 billion in annual remittances.
On May 4, 2006, in their coverage of my office’s prosecutions of smuggling cases, the Arizona Republic and other media sources reported that attorneys at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, based in Los Angeles, California, had been “brought into the case by the Mexican Consul General’s Office in Phoenix.” (Copies of news stories enclosed.) The Arizona Republic article quoted Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law as preparing to mount legal challenges to prosecutions made under the coyote statute.
On May 5, 2006, Mr. Schey and his office filed motions to dismiss the charges brought against illegal immigrants indicted for being co-conspirators. One motion claims that Arizona’s coyote statute “amounts to an attempt to regulate immigration, conflicts with federal immigration law, and injects the State into a field fully occupied by federal law.” Accordingly, the motion argues that the courts should invalidate the coyote statute (Copy of motion enclosed.)
While Mr. Schey and his office purport to represent only one illegal immigrant, they have indicated they are seeking to organize the legal defense of all illegal immigrant defendants currently under indictment. The legal argument Mr. Schey has offered—again, at the behest of the Mexican government—challenges the right of the state of Arizona to pass laws to combat illegal immigration in any manner.
By seeking to invalidate Arizona’s coyote law, Mexican officials are pursuing a consistent policy. One year ago, on May 3, 2005, Consul General Flores-Vizcarra and Mr. Schey jointly visited the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office on a different matter. Last year, Patrick Haab, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, was initially arrested after detaining several illegal immigrants and a coyote at a highway rest stop until law enforcement authorities arrived. After reviewing the case, I concluded that Sergeant Haab could not be prosecuted for detaining these individuals because he had performed a lawful citizen’s arrest.
It is noteworthy that Messrs. Flores-Vizcarra and Schey worked jointly to lobby this office to reinstate prosecution of Sgt. Haab, an individual who had committed no crime under Arizona law. The only discernible common thread that runs between this prior meeting and the current joint efforts of the Mexican consulate and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law is their coordinated attempt to facilitate illegal immigration into Arizona.
I have taken the unusual step of writing to you and asking for your assistance because of the important stakes involved in this dispute, and the circumstances of this challenge to Arizona’s laws. Under our constitutional system of government, the people of Arizona have the right to uphold public order and to protect themselves, through the state’s criminal justice system, against the Mexican government’s systematic, unlawful export of humanity into the state and nation. As it now stands, a foreign government is directly challenging the rights of the people of Arizona as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Admittedly, given the Mexican government’s frequent complaints that the United States interferes in the sovereignty of Mexican affairs (often simply because of American attempts to curb illegal immigration from that country), the Mexican government’s efforts to nullify duly enacted state laws in this nation are highly ironic. Yet that is the current state of affairs.
I respectfully request your assistance, and that of the U.S. State Department, in protesting this extraordinary attempt by a foreign government to deprive Arizona of its ability to defend itself against the tide of illegal immigration fomented by that same foreign government.
Sincerely,
Andrew P. Thomas Maricopa County Attorney
cc: The Honorable Jon Kyl, U.S. Senate The Honorable John McCain, U.S. Senate The Honorable Rick Renzi, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Trent Franks, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable John Shadegg, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Ed Pastor, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable J.D. Hayworth, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Jeff Flake, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Raul M. Grijalva, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Jim Kolbe, U.S. House of Representatives
Let the games begin and sadly Americans are the losers.
At the moment, that'd probably be more than half the land area of each of the adjoining Mexican states.
He can forget Condi or any Republican in this administration helping. Condi and Bush will do nothing.
I'd say transfer an oil well per illegal and we'll start talking turkey.
Actually, Mexico has broken the agreement signed at Campo de Cahuenga....war should resume.
Andrew Thomas is a GREAT County Attorney, much better than his do-nothing predecessor. He works side by side with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and is a great conservative. Now if we could only do something about the Governor...
Begin? Sorry, the game is over and we lost on 9/12 when the border wasn't secured.
None of those people are as easily intimidated as the quislings of California.
As for Ms. Rice, she will no doubt side with Mexico, as per El Jefe's instructions.
Ping for Mr. Thomas' return fire...
FMCDH(BITS)
When I was a kid, America was a sovereign nation. Kind of like what the Indian tribes have today. My parents and grandparents would have told the Mexican government to go pound sand.
This Mexican Council is the same guy that claimed on his website that the US Border Patrol gave him location of the American Volunteers so they could route the illegals around them.
If he had checked THIS:
"by Miroslava Flores La Voz de Aztlan Tenochtitlan, Mexico D.F. - March 11, 2005 - (ACN) The Secretary of State of the USA Condoleezza Rice said, "My country will not tolerate illegal actions by the Minutemen vigilantes" yesterday at a press conference here in Mexico City. The press conference took place at the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) after her meeting with Mexico's Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez. Rice assured that her government "will not pardon any extra-legal actions by border vigilantes nor do we support the activities of these groups". She added, "Even though we can not interfere with these activities, you can rest assured that if they violate the law, they will be held accountable".
first, then he might have spent his energies elsewhere.
They are all in bed together in D.C.
In politics and governance, I have never seen anything so reprehensible and hopeless in my life.
This outrage should have happened with the blocking of proposition 187. Grey-0ut-Davis killed it and refused to let it go to the courts to be tested.
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