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
You asked whether Wythe was pro-slavery. He said he was not. I was not asked or accused but, as previously posted, jumped in to pick a fight with you over your impertinent prosecutorial inquiries to him. You are not interested in a two-way conversation.
You are interested in preaching. I am not at all interested in being preached at, whether first or second hand.
You further align yourself with these border booboisie self-appointed Barney Fifes in RVs waving guns at and threatening and detaining without probable cause or warrant (which are required of real law enforcers) people they do not know because they look, gulp, Mexican or Mexican-American or maybe Italian-Americans out for a stroll or whatever flips Barney's switch after a few six-packs while he is yahooing across the full-moonlit desert with other great pretenders.
The Barneys need a stiff vacation in the federal hoosegow and to be stripped of their ill-used property and then to learn to mind their own business and not make believe they are the government.
As to the first part of your post, that just shows how desperately those mothers want to have a better life for their kids, like Cuban Elian Gonzalez's mother who died to get him here only to have Castro get him back. If you think the Mexicans are coming to be permanent drags on the welfare rolls, there are two answers: First, even the Arkansas Antichrist signed off on sharp lifetime AFDC limits. Second, they have a lot higher ambition than welfare. What you are saying is what people said about Tommy Temper Tantrum Tancredo's Italian ancestors when they got off the boat 100 years ago. Tommy is now a real blueblood, I guess, and imagines he is descended from the Italian province that was located in Colorado or something.
Finally, the courts, wrongheadedly no doubt, have consistently ruled that you cannot deny public benefits to people on the basis of national origin even if they are not legally here. I don't like those rulings but they are what they are. Shall we abolish benefits or pay for them to be provided to the illegals, too? Those are the choices that the courts allow.
If the sore spot is jobs, let's get rid of NAFTA, GATT and WTO and there will be plenty of them for everyone. Remember that the AFL-CIO USED to be the bulwark against illegal immigration AND free trade because they did not like competition. I grew up on that in a union household. Now the AFL-CIO is largely gummint workers who fear no competition from illegals.
Sure, lets put their 20 or so kids in public school. Plus they can easily get welfare and food stamps. Their family in NY are probably already sucking every dime they can out of our welfare system. A great deal for them seeing how they've never paid even a nickel in taxes.
The stupid, bleeding heart, guilt ridden liberals can't see how this hurts every single legal citizen in America.
I am not going to Mexico because at least some of my ancestors (Germans) were here 150+ years ago in Southern Indiana and a collateral ancestor was a Jesuit priest who was among the founders of Maryland. None of those had to submit papers to bureaucrats to enter. This was still a free country not the country of Mama, may I? If I did go to Mexico, I would at least find a lot better type of person than our border paranoids. The compromise os to improve things by bringiong some Mexicans here.
I take it that since you are so worked up about criminals, you won't mind jailing the armed border buffoons (well, Colorado!, actually) who take it uopon themselves to draw down on mothers and children with whom they are not all acquainted and ordering them to lie flat on the ground without warrant or probable cause (this amounts to a wrongful detention, if not kidnapping, and also assault and probably a bunch of other crimes and 14th Amendment violations and organized racketeering under RICO). Yeah, let's enforce the law and then there are the civil remedy statutes that should keep Barney Fife and friends bankrupt for life, even after prison.
You guys may not like this but the law also applies to you if it aplies to them. As to testimony by LAWBREAKERS, it happens all the time. Watch NYPD Blue. Three desperadoes are arrested in a multiple murder scenario (not mere border-jumping) and the cops fan out in three rooms assuring leniency to whomever breaks first and goes state's evidence. Sometimes he prosecutors get involved too.
LaRaza needs to look up the word "Tolerance" in the dictionary. Tolerance=limits. And I for one am tired of being tolerant of illegals coming it our country at will. We have reached our limits. The left has hi-jacked another word.
Rightfully so.
Too bad, really. It would get the word out "on the street".
You and those like you are sick. Warped, filled with hatred, and sick. And cowards, might I add, afraid of a little competition...
Why not? You seem to believe Mexico is a wonderful conservative Catholic country. You believe every Mexican is hard-working and Republican ----- it should be a wonderful country. You really need to see the country first hand and then think about why you want to bring it all over here.
It is a very wealthy country. It's got the second largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere, many natural resources, and competes in number of billionaires with Great Britain and Germany. They have democracy but they have a very corrupt system and culture ---and most of the people are socialists when you come down to it. The majority of Mexico's conservatives left at the time of the Mexican Revolution, what's coming over now isn't conservative.
And that's why we're bringing in so much of the welfare-criminal class of Mexico and other countries. 43% of their children are born to unwed mothers ---- and that's only going to become higher, and our prisons are filled with grown children of this kind of family. We are destroying our country with these policies.
When we had open borders with Mexico, we did not have the current level of immigration from Mexico. Maybe you're unto something.
It's called a paradox, like the Atkins' Diet. Eating fat actually helps people lose weight, while the low-fat diets are turning Americans into obese people.
If you have a well-thought-out proposition about open borders with Mexico, I am willing to discuss it.
If you're just being sarcastic, don't bother.
Yes, of course. Silly me. And BTW, I've arranged for my family of four to come stay with you and yours, if any, for an indefinite period of time, free of charge. You have no say in the matter. While cohabitating, we will use your supplies, eat your food and demand the best of all services by law.
Surely you wouldn't disagree with this arrangement.
Oh, we don't have any money, but we can paint to help you out. See you on Thursday. You'll get used to it, eventually.
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