Posted on 01/05/2006 6:12:43 PM PST by quidnunc
Susana Loera remembers the first time she heard her boss tell somebody to break the law. It was in early 2004, and the parents of a Mexican man arrested in Dallas had come to the consulate seeking advice. Luis Lara, Mexican vice consul for protection, found out that U.S. immigration had neglected to put a deportation hold on the prisoner, meaning he could still be released on bail. Lara turned to the anxious parents as Loera stood nearby.
"He said, 'My advice to you is to go bond him out now and go back to Mexico,'" Loera says. "He said, 'If he stays here, he's going to get convicted. The American justice system is very corrupt. He's going to get an outlandish sentence, so you need to bond him out now and run to Mexico.'"
Loera, a round-faced, energetic 33-year-old Texas native of Mexican descent, was in the second day of an internship serving as a legal assistant in the Mexican Consulate in Dallas. The job would be the final requirement for her degree in criminal justice from UT-Arlington, and she had high hopes of helping Mexican immigrants negotiate the twists and turns of the U.S. legal system as she prepared for law school. She never expected to hear them told that the best course was to head due south.
At first, Loera thought she'd somehow misunderstood Lara — but in the weeks and months ahead, she says, Lara repeated that advice dozens of times to Mexican nationals accused of everything from petty theft to murder. "I had problems with two things about telling these people to run to Mexico," Loera says. "One, it makes [the accused] look guilty, and maybe he's innocent. Secondly, maybe he's not innocent — maybe he's guilty, and there's a criminal out there now who's running to Mexico for a small period of time and changes his name and he comes back and he's living next to me."
Loera has since left the consulate and is now leading a campaign to put an end to the "many ethical violations and in some cases the blatant disregard for the well-being of Mexican nationals," as she wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Another charge she's leveled is that consul officials allow Dallas attorney Pablo Alvarado special privileges in exchange for cash and favors. Several supporters have rallied to her cause, including former consulate employees and Loera's current employer, Dallas attorney John Read. "It's pretty damn unethical as far as I'm concerned," Read says of the atmosphere at the consulate. As a result of Loera's efforts, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched an investigation into its Dallas office. Requests for comment from Lara were directed to the diplomat in charge, Consul General Carlos Garcia de Alba, who insists that Loera's story is baseless. "We have nothing to hide," he says.
According to Loera, suspected criminals weren't the only ones Lara advised to return to Mexico. During her time at the consulate, Loera says, victims, too, were often told they would be better off escaping to Mexico than looking for justice from the U.S. legal system. Heated arguments became a regular feature of Loera's job as she protested against the policy, first to Lara, then up the chain of command, eventually reaching Garcia de Alba, who was appointed in March 2004. She says her protests were ignored, and her initial incredulity gave way to frustration.
-snip-
You know . . . we did defeat Mexico once before. It wasn't easy but we did it.
It would be a hell of a lot easier today.
I hear where you're coming from. I was referring to the military aspect of such an operation.
I'd never expect this administration to conduct such a campaign, believe me.
Get a load of this!
Well, well, well. Now I think we should not only close the border, but suspend diplomatic relations.
Don't forget, these are our "friends."
I'm shocked....shocked I tell you.
L
He is one of the few diplomats in either the Mexican or the US government who is instructing Mexicans to go home.
Good for Susana.
Maybe something will come of this...
With friends like this; I have to ask, do you know the difference between "F" and "S"?
This time, they have a ten million man 5th column already in place on our soil.
Try thirty million plus.
The ten million figure was concocted by the open borders crowd.
Could be.
I keep trying to tell people that this is the world of tomorrow that our children and grandchildre will face. What kind of country will they be living in when America is controlled by Mexican drug dealers, and one notch below them, the Mexican politicians, and one notch below them the American politicians?
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
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