Posted on 09/08/2019 2:33:43 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
In cartel-dominated Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a gateway to the United States, it’s a lucrative racket: Snatch a migrant from Cuba, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela or elsewhere; commandeer their cellphones; then call U.S. relatives demanding thousands of dollars.
Extortion-minded mobs view vulnerable migrants as walking ATMs. Mob halcones — hawks, or lookouts — watch bus stations and other strategic spots, eyeing potential quarry.
Ortega said, she and her son were on a bus when a group of about 10 men flagged the vehicle on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo.
Ortega and her son were taken to a house where a dozen other migrants were being held, she said, and the kidnappers grabbed her phone. They found the number of her younger brother, who had arrived in Atlanta a few months earlier. The captors snapped photos of Ortega and her son and dispatched the images to her brother, demanding $8,000 for their release, she said.
On Aug. 18, when the money had been paid, Ortega said, she and her son were driven to a spot along the Rio Grande, where the cartel strictly controls illicit crossings, and taken across in an inflated tire tube.
Ortega and her son were detained in U.S. custody in Texas for two nights, she said, before being released with a court date of Dec. 10 in San Antonio.
“We told them (U.S. immigration authorities) we had been kidnapped, but they didn’t believe us,” Ortega said.
On Aug. 20, U.S. Border Patrol officers returned Ortega, her son and 18 other distraught migrants on foot to Nuevo Laredo across the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, in a sullen procession repeated here daily beneath the blazing sun. Many clutched transparent plastic bags emblazoned with the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and containing notices to appear in immigration court.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Cry me a river, then swim across it.
Bo Hoo!
Whatever they pay for the trip to the US, not even considering any kidnap and ransom, would be better spent back home. If there is a problem, move to the next town, not across two countries to the US.
Failing to see a problem here. All this can be avoided simply by staying in your native country or **legally** emigrating to another country.
Another Los Angeles Times sob story about how awful Trump’s immigration policies are and how unfair they are to illegal immigrants. Treat the stories as simply agitprop.
I don’t understand why the U.S. does not send them back to their home country instead of Mexico.
Sorry LA Times/MSN, I’m just not getting all tore up about this.
Illegals have cell phones before they get here?
Scratch my last comment. Now I understand why they are in Mexico to wait for a heating date.
My empathy just went out for coffee. He should be back, soon...
Works for me.
,No, read it again.
Kidnapped BEFORE being smuggled across by the cartel.
BP finds them on the U.S. side and they get a court date before before being sort of deported.
But will be allowed back for the hearing!
To me this is a missed opportunity, the invader has revealed that a relative snuck in previously, deport him too, and no “Hearing”!
Gee, what would have happened if they came through the front door of the United States?
They would be welcome and I suppose, free from the cartels and two bit punks, who seek to take advantage of them.
And we want that culture here? No frickin way! Too bad. So sad.
Rubik’s much?
Try explaining your (PERFECT) easy to comprehend scenario to your typical lib or lib sympathizer.
Sounds like a scheme dreamed up by the LIBs, probably tipping off the cartels to who the vulnerable are —then getting a cut of the spoils...New version of catch and release...
Notice the ‘latest’ from the libs about how they are concerned (’complaining’) about the lack of children after pushing abortions and the feminist movement of no kids for the past 30 years..
THEN they wonder???
This is why a system of passports and visas exists.
This is why a system of passports and visas exists.
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