Posted on 08/07/2003 8:27:02 PM PDT by AZ GRAMMY
Second arrest made in immigrant incident
BY LOUIE VILLALOBOS, Staff Writer Aug 7, 2003
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Yuma County sheriff's deputies have arrested a second man in connection with the alleged unlawful detention of six illegal immigrants on July 31 in Gadsden.
Alexander David Dumas, 26, was arrested Tuesday evening after driving to Yuma from his home in Big Bear Lake, Calif., for an interview, said sheriff's spokesman Lt. Eben Bratcher.
Dumas was charged with six counts of aggravated assault and five counts of unlawful imprisonment following the early morning July 31 incident where deputies said he and Matthew Paul Hoffman, arrested on the same charges on Monday, detained a group of six illegal immigrants that had just entered the United States through the Colorado River.
A third man, Martin Hoffman Jr., was with the two suspects but won't be charged because he was not armed and did not take part in the handcuffing of the illegal immigrants, Bratcher said.
Bratcher said the department will continue to investigate the case and warned citizens against taking the law into their own hands.
He said anyone who sees a group of suspected illegal immigrants should call the Border Patrol, and not take it upon themselves to apprehend the group by using guns and handcuffs. Asking a group to stay put while making a phone call is permitted and would constitute a citizen's arrest, he said.
"When you have someone holding someone against their will with the use or the threat of the use of force, you've crossed the line between a citizen's arrest and unlawful detention," he said. "There was no justification for the use of force."
Deputies said the two men handcuffed five members of the group, which included three children and two women, and held them at gunpoint until U.S. Border Patrol agents arrived.
Agents have said they were dispatched to the scene when a surveillance camera operator noticed the incident unfolding. The agents called the sheriff's department, who then identified and interviewed all three men before letting them go, officials said.
Bratcher said the men are not believed to be part of a larger group, such as the citizen patrol groups that operate on private property along the Tucson border and use various forms of technology to alert Border Patrol agents to the presence of illegal immigrants in the area.
Also being charged with five counts of endangerment is a 16-year-old Mexican national who Bratcher said was paid $600 to bring the illegal immigrants into the United States. Bratcher also said the illegal immigrants were planning to meet with a taxi cab in Gadsden and were to be taken to a unidentified Yuma hotel, according to interviews done of the illegal immigrants by detectives.
William Robbins, Border Patrol spokesman, said the six illegal immigrants were in the agency's custody as of Wednesday morning but couldn't be interviewed.
Hugo Oliva, Mexican consul in Yuma, said the group was in good condition following the incident and that his office is encouraged by the sheriff's department's efforts regarding this case.
"This is a very disturbing thing to happen here," Oliva said. "We can't have people with guns do the job of law enforcement agencies."
http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/a...tory_6619.shtml
Now would you care to address the issue I asked you about?
He did. You were wrong.
Quit sniping because you missed one. After all, what does a Reformer have to be bitter about? ;)
134 posted on 08/07/2003 10:09 PM PDT by PRND21
This is the issue on the table bud. I don't care if you agree with me or not, but at least keep up with the discussion.
To: Cultural Jihad
Are you saying it isn't illegal to be in the country without documentation? Inquiring minds would like to know who we're dealing with here. Are you a coyote, a
profiteer on this mess or a member of La Raza, Hermandad Nacional or some other advocacy group?
What side are you on in this holy war on culture? Thanks in advance.
108 posted on 08/07/2003 9:51 PM PDT by DoughtyOne ("He's baaaaack!" Now is he on our side or the side of the (political bigger is better) machines.)
The problem I see with this proposal is that it simply shifts some of the people, those who would have entered the United States illegally, into a legal guest worker program. But those people who want to come to the United States, and who aren't accepted into the guest worker program, will enter the United States illegally, just as they are doing now.
By all means, continue with your hard hitting investigation.
You went postal right after he corrected your mistake...go look.
I was responding to someone's question. Try reading the "reply to" number...you'll get less confused.
Like Kobe?
138 posted on 08/07/2003 10:14 PM PDT by Cultural Jihad [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
So if it isn't convenient for the infesting hordes to follow our rules they should be permitted to sneak in with impunity?
That is what they are CHARGED with. Does not mean they are guilty.
137 posted on 08/07/2003 10:12 PM PDT by KEVLAR
To: KEVLAR
Like Kobe?
140 posted on 08/07/2003 10:15 PM PDT by PRND21
And you think I'm confused?
Not at all, just that others should not be allowed to commit felonies with impunity upon those who commit misdemeanors.
I concur. It would also depend on the total number of people who are accepted into the guest worker program.
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