Posted on 08/09/2003 12:13:28 PM PDT by GoRepGo
Illegals held at gunpoint discuss ordeal
By Louie Villalobos Aug 9, 2003
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — The two female illegal immigrants who authorities said were detained at gunpoint by three American citizens a week ago said they initially thought the men were U.S. Border Patrol agents.
But when two of the men pointed guns at them and the three boys traveling with them, Lorena Ocampo said she knew something was wrong.
"(The Border Patrol) doesn't do that to women and children," she said.
More than a week after the incident, Ocampo, 26, her friend Guadalupe Lopez Rodriguez, 31, and the three boys were sent back to Mexico under the agreement that they would return at a later date to testify against Matthew Hoffman, 23, and Alexander Dumas, 26.
The men are each facing six counts of aggravated assault and five counts of unlawful imprisonment and one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment, after the Yuma County Sheriff's Office said they handcuffed the group of illegal immigrants and held them at gunpoint until Border Patrol agents arrived.
Authorities said a third man, Martin Hoffman Jr., was with the two suspects but isn't facing charges because he was unarmed and didn't take part in the detention of the illegal immigrants.
Bond for Hoffman and Dumas was recently set at $68,000 and $88,000, respectively. The incident remains under investigation.
Both officials and the women said the incident began just after 1 a.m., a few minutes after the group entered illegally through the Colorado River at County 18th Street.
Rodriguez said they were traveling with a larger group that included the two women's husbands, but the smugglers decided to split everyone up to allow the children to cross at a shallow part of the river. The women said they wanted to go with their children.
"It wasn't that deep," Ocampo said of the river. "The kids crossed easily."
Minutes after crossing, the women said they heard a noise and were told to duck down behind some bushes by the 16-year-old smuggler who was guiding them. After waiting for a while, they decided it was safe to continue, Ocampo said.
"Then these men came out," she said. "I don't know where they came from."
The men started yelling directions in English and motioning the group to get on the ground, Ocampo said. At first, because one was wearing military-style clothes and they all hand handcuffs, the women thought they had been caught by agents and told their boys not to worry.
But when the guns were pointed at them, Ocampo knew the men weren't agents.
"We were all scared," she said. "We didn't know what they were yelling."
After Ocampo said the men handcuffed the women, the smuggler and two of the boys, a helicopter — which belonged to the Border Patrol — arrived at the scene and the men began to flag it down with a flashlight.
Soon after that, the women said agents arrived, uncuffed the group and put them in the back of their vehicles.
"(The agents) told us what those men did was against the law," Ocampo said.
After being taken to the Border Patrol's station house and being questioned about the incident, the women said they were kept in an area hotel and eventually given the option of staying in the United States until it was time for them to testify against the suspects.
Ocampo said they decided to return to Mexico because they are still scared that something will happen to them. She said the group will most likely not try another illegal entry into the United States because of the incident. Their husbands were caught and deported, Ocampo said.
She said they were headed to New York, where they planned to live with family members, get a job and put their children into public school.
Ocampo did promise to return when it came time to testify, though, saying she wants to make sure Hoffman and Dumas are punished.
"What they did was wrong," she said.
--- Louie Villalobos can be reached at lvillalobos@yumasun.com or 539-6858.
© Copyright, YumaSun.com
The three children who were held at gunpoint by Matthew Hoffman and Alexander Dumas sit in the back of a van waiting to be taken back to Mexico at the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., Friday. Photo by Alfred J. Hernandez
True statement, bears repeating.
I may agree with that sentiment, but I remember you as an incredible anti-hispanic racist from another thread. Illegal immigration sucks, but hispanics are one of the better groups we can be besieged by. They are hardworking, some assimilate rather fast, and they are grateful to be out of the hellholes they call their home countries.
You're a racist and an ignorant one at that.
I said I AGREED that the border patrol is ineffective. I then observed that I remembered you with great distaste because you are a rabid anti-hispanic racist.
Being in agreement with a small point (that the border patrol is ineffectve) makes it hard to have a valid argument against that point, doesn't it?
And you're still a racist scumbag, the sort that occasionally embarasses me to be even in the same country as me.
Out of courtesy to others I will refrain from posting my opinion of your ilk, but with folks like you polluting the country I suspect this will be a third world rathole like Bangladesh within 20 years. Way to go, Ace. Remember: borders, language, culture. Learn it. Live it.
La(RA)za-mataz has a Trinidad flag on his web site so I don't think he's even an American citizen. And if he is he must not have much pride in the country to be flying the flag of another.
The truth of the matter is that most Mexicans (legal and illegal) who have immigrated here to the USA are voting democratic for politicians like L. Sanchez who is fighting gor a living wage for janitors, nannies, etc. This is communism pure and simple. Why should I as a skilled craftsman who pays income tax to the state, then watch that money go to non-skilled laborers so they can pop-out more kids when in fact I'd like to kept that money so I could afford to have my wife pop-out another kid or two. We will never be able to defeat the left at the ballot box if this rate of high rate of immigration continues. I'm amazed that the open-border types don't see the danger in this.
Yeah, I know. Unless I learn to hate people who's skin color varies even slightly from mine, the country is doomed.
Perhaps you can help me to learn to hate a whole race of people. How do you do it? Suppose you accidently find out a member of the race you have chosen to hate, is actually a good guy? How do you reconcile that with the racism? Teach me, O Learned One. I await your precious knowledge.
I was a resident of New York and Illinois, but when I moved last time, on a whim I chose the flag of the most obscure place I could think of. It was a lark. Kinda like when Clarity did the same.
And if he is he must not have much pride in the country to be flying the flag of another.
Very proud. Don't like me no racists, though.
Because it would be foolish.
And I do expect a tip !!!!!!!
Actually, I read on a thread somewhere that Mexico is considered a rich nation by the United Nations.
What?!?! You won't help me learn how to be a racist??!? Why not??! I want to be just like you! I want to hate a whole race for no good reason, and to never consider the individual, but only consult my own prejudice and stand fast in my hatred!
O, have pity on me, for you are a man of great wealth in your mindless hate. I am a pauper, in comparison. Please, do not tell me to begone.....please, teach me your ways!
It doesn't appear to be, luckily.
Atlanta, GA.
And I'm spreading my message of tolerance every day.
Suffer, b*tch.
BY LOUIE VILLALOBOS
Aug 10, 2003
The two men accused of unlawfully detaining six illegal immigrants at gunpoint have either been married or are married to immigrants and each have a son who is half Mexican, family members said on Saturday.
In order to refute the perception that their son and husband are racists vigilantes, the wife of Alexander Dumas and the father of Matthew Hoffman spoke to The Sun about what their loved ones are accused of doing and why they may have done it.
"I want everyone to know that Alex isn't racist," said Dumas' Guatemalan wife, who asked she not be identified. "He's not that kind of person."
Authorities have said that both Dumas and Hoffman detained six illegal immigrants, including three children, on July 31 by pointing guns at them and handcuffing them until Border Patrol agents arrived.
Both men are currently facing six counts of aggravated assault and five counts of unlawful imprisonment and one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment following the incident.
Dumas' wife, who came to the U.S. on a visa as a child, said the two men are longtime friends who drove to Yuma on July 30 from Dumas' home in Big Bear Lake, Calif. She said the men decided to go out early on July 31.
Deputies said they went to the area of County 18th Street and the Colorado River, in Gadsden.
"They said let's go Mexican hunting," she said. "That was Matt's idea."
Though she believes they may have looked for illegal immigrants once before, Dumas' wife said her husband definitely regretted going out that day. After driving back home on Aug. 1, Dumas' wife said her husband spoke about the incident and said he helped detain women and children.
Adding to his regret, she said, was that Dumas has a 3-year-old son with a Mexican woman from a previous relationship and that his mother is a Japanese woman who first arrived to the United States with a visa.
"He told me 'I don't have the heart to do that,'" she said. "He said he wasn't going to do it again."
Martin Hoffman said though his son is against illegal immigrants, he did not go out that morning specifically to find some. He said the men were in the area and were startled when the group came out of the bushes.
"They were there off-roading and happen to stumble across them." he said.
He said his son was married to a Mexican national who is now living in San Diego with a visa and the two have a son together.
The night of the incident, Martin Hoffman said his son called his ex-wife and asked her to tell the illegal immigrants what was going on.
"She verified that they were illegal and informed them that they were under citizen's arrest," he said.
Martin Hoffman said his son told family members about the incident and didn't expect to be arrested. Then, on Monday, deputies arrived with a search warrant and handcuffed everyone in the house, he said.
A copy of the warrant provided to the family shows deputies were looking for a variety of things, including communications and optical devices and guns, he said. When they left, he said they took with them 22 items that included three computers, a BB gun, a blue notebook, handcuffs and one gun.
Family members for both men said they will not be able to raise the bond money needed to have them released while the matter goes through the court system or a lawyer. Dumas and Matthew Hoffman are being held on a bond of $88,000 and $68,000, respectively.
As they wait for the outcome of the what the wife called poor judgement and the father called an accident, family members said they are in agreement that whatever the men may have done wasn't done out of racism.
"As far as them trying to make it sound like a hate crime, that's totally ridiculous," Martin Hoffman said.
--- Louie Villalobos can be reached at lvillalobos@yumasun.com or 539-6858.
© Copyright, YumaSun.com
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