Posted on 05/10/2006 1:48:26 AM PDT by M. Thatcher
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is refuting a Daily Bulletin report that the U.S. Border Patrol provided information to the Mexican government about the whereabouts of civilian border watch groups.
Read the disputed article: U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols
See the Mexican Government Web page: www.sre.gob.mx/eventos/minuteman/reporte3
"Today's report by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, `U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols,' is inaccurate," read the statement issued Tuesday evening. "Border Patrol does not report activity by civilian, non-law enforcement groups to the government of Mexico."
Kristi Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, would not elaborate on the agency's statement other than to say the U.S. gives information to Mexican officials under the rules of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963, which provides foreign nationals being detained by a government the right to consular access.
"This is the same agreement that protects United States citizens when they travel to foreign countries," according to the statement.
An August 2005 document, "Third Report on the Activities of Vigilantes" -- posted on Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site -- suggests U.S. officials were giving out more details than required by the Vienna Convention. Part of that information was the location of U.S. citizens participating in volunteer border patrols.
The Daily Bulletin reported on the contents of that document and two others on the Mexican Web site in a story published in Tuesday's editions.
Mexican consulates also went beyond the boundaries of the Vienna Convention, asking U.S. Border Patrol officials to provide them with information on "vigilantes" operating along the U.S. border, according to the August 2005 document.
Some of the information cited in the Mexican document originally was given only to U.S. Border Patrol and law enforcement officials, border watch organizers said.
"Nobody but law enforcement and Border Patrol knew where we were at," said Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based nonprofit group Friends of the Border Patrol. "So how is our base address on a Mexican government document dated last August? Nobody, not even media, had this information."
Ramirez said he revealed the location of his base camp only to local and federal officials. The Mexican document gives the exact location of his group's site, which was on private property near San Diego.
According to Ramirez, the group had no encounters at that site with undocumented migrants, which would have been the only cause for that information to be revealed under the Vienna Convention.
On Monday, Mario Martinez, a U.S. Customs and Border spokesman, told the Daily Bulletin that when illegal immigrants are apprehended in the U.S., they have the right, under the Convention, to be represented by their country's consulate office and to information regarding their apprehension.
Information contained in a Border Patrol agent's field report, which is filed when a person is caught, would reveal the location of the detainee and therefore the area where the volunteer group is operating, Martinez said.
Martinez did not deny that information on the border volunteers was being shared with the Mexican government. He added that the group's whereabouts also were identified by numerous media outlets.
However, the Mexican report also contains specific information on civilian groups operating much farther inside the United States.
For example, the document notes that 50 Minuteman volunteers work in Chicago, focusing mainly on employers who hire illegal immigrants.
Minuteman volunteers said specific information -- such as the number of volunteers and their plans -- could have been provided only by law enforcement officials at that time. The document credits the various Mexican consul general offices in the U.S. with providing the information to the Mexican Foreign Secretary for the reports.
"How did they know the number of volunteers in Chicago? And why should the Mexican government care?" asked Connie Hair, spokeswoman for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in Washington, D.C.
The three reports on the Mexican Web site documented the activities of the civilian groups based on concerns the Mexican government had about volunteer patrols on the border in 2005, said Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.
"The Border Patrol does not report activity of the Minutemen to the Mexican consulate," Laveaga said. "But it's all a matter of perception. If a migrant requests to have counsel, which is their right under the Vienna Convention, then the information is provided to the counsel."
Throughout the Mexican government's reports on "vigilantes," it is noted that Mexican consulates in the U.S. contacted Border Patrol officials seeking U.S. cooperation in reporting instances of civilians monitoring the border. Among such requests:
The Mexican consul in Presidio, Texas, asked the Marfa Sector's Border Patrol chief to alert them if the U.S. detected any volunteer activity.
In Phoenix, consulate officials asked the Border Patrol to notify them if civilian groups apprehended any undocumented migrants so consulate representatives could interview them.
In San Diego, the document referred to a meeting with Border Patrol Chief Darryl Griffen stating that "Mr. Griffen reiterated to the undersecretary his promise to notify the General Consul right away when the vigilantes detain or participate in the detention of any undocumented migrant."
"It appears the border reports are the tip of the iceberg," said Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which began patrolling the border last April.
Such requests from Mexico, and U.S. officials acquiescing to them, are not new, say Border Patrol agents.
Scott James, a former Tucson agent, resigned after eight years of service in February, citing a lack of support for agents by the Department of Homeland Security.
He said that U.S. Border Patrol officials provided office space inside their headquarters to Mexican consulate officials, allowed the consulate to dictate the agents' activities, and gave the consulate information on ongoing investigations.
Such courtesies were not extended to consulate offices of other countries, James said.
Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carteror by phone at (909) 483-8552.
Typical you...
Can't answer the question as it stands, so make believe the question was asking something else.
A strawman is when you propose an exaggeration or distortion of an opponents position, then argue against it instead of the real position. Here's a ready made example of a classic strawman:
"What is truly amazing is that the very people who claim to despise Mexico are now quoting heavily from a Mexican web site and taking it as absolute fact." --Howlin, post 22, on this thread.
Now that you know what one is, perhaps you can avoid them in the future.
Hmm. It could be due to the fact that I, a former police officer (medically retired after taking a bullet in one of my two favorite lungs), actually read the original article and determined that it related to consular access to arrestees and detainees (said access being regulated by treaty), which includes access to information regarding the circumstances of the arrest/detention. In other words, I combined subject matter expertise with carefully examining the text of the report.
Compare and contrast with Michelle Malkin, whose vetting process is "whatever the Minutemen say is the actual fact, period, end of discussion."
She seems to be running with this on her new endeavor "vent" which is less than two weeks old. I'd think she'd be kind of cautious with her credibility at this point.
"Cautious" does not generate viewership, which is critical for determining ad revenue.
They've been socialist/communist since the 1920's. Why do you think so many Mexicans are coming to the US?
Trying to act like you and a few others don't do it is hogwash.
Malkin blew her credibility when she played church lady to Laura Bush after the Correspondents Dinner last year and in her historic revisionism as she defends the internment of Japanese-Americans behind barbed wire in WWII.
This is relevant, how? Seeing as you start your answer by citing the utterly superfluous, am I to believe it gets better?
Actually that's a fact.
It's not superfluous. I mentioned my former LEO credentials once in another discussion, and got immediately splashed with childish insinuations about why I am a FORMER police officer.
So, I have to put that out there to preempt the inevitable personal attacks.
Finish reading the post, please.
I answered it; I just didn't answer it the way you needed me to.
You obviously haven't read her report. She is corresponding with Sara Carter. And who the hell are you quoting?
"Cautious" does not generate viewership, which is critical for determining ad revenue.
It does when your stock and trade is "analysis." Haven't you heard what's happening to the dinosaur media by following your business plan?
Will she volunteer to be the first new detainee in Manzanar?
I mean, she's a Filipina, and we are fighting (among other folks) people from the Philippines. Therefore, by the argument she advanced, she ought be volunteering for the lockup.
Sorry, not familiar with the story, and dubious of the analysis. She doesn't seem to be suffering for it that I can tell.
Do you know if this is the Connie Hair we used to know around these parts? I can't recall her nick, it was Clinton-something......
Whose stock and trade is being an "analysis?"
The documents cited in Sara Carter's original report. They don't mean what she (or Michelle) think they mean. If proficiency in English were a necessary prerequisite for MAINTAINING citizenship, Carter and Malkin would be candidates for deportation.
It does when your stock and trade is "analysis."
Malkin's stock and trade is not analysis; it's punditry.
Depends on the definition of "is"!
Well, I suppose that's true.
Stormfront's adherents spend money that's as green as mine.
Thanks for noticing that and pinging me.
Clinton's a liar, and, yes, it would have to be.
One has to wonder if this is a paid position, and, if it is, how that came to be, given that the MM are a volunteer group.
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