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
What would your response be then?
1) Why Honey, you and the kids had no business being in an area where armed vigilantes are questioning people.
2) Gee Honey, you and the kids should have simply shown the men in civilian clothing and no badges your papers and they would have let you go about your business.
3) Hey Hun, if the government was doing it's job you and the kids wouldn't have been scared to death; get over it.
Now me, I'm just going to be very, very angry. And those people who did that to my wife and children are going to wish deeply that their mothers had believe in choice and elected it over giving them birth.
I hate to tell you this: illegally crossing the border, in and of itself, is not a felony.
I doubt thatb is necessary. Someone posted here that he has often effected perfectly lawful citizen's arrests upon dozens of illegal immigrants, and has never had to unholster his pistol. The idea is to not commit a felony while trying to apprehend someone who has committed a misdemeanor.
You're right about it not being a felony but you have to admit aliens crossing our international boundaries are a serious threat to our people. Have you ever seen Canadian drivers down in the states? I saw shoot them all!
You're right about it not being a felony but you have to admit aliens crossing our international boundaries are a serious threat to our people. Have you ever seen Canadian drivers down in the states? I SAY shoot them all!
No, you are wrong. Crossing a border illegally is a misdemeanor offense for the vast majority of immigrants. A person has to be caught numerous times for it to rise to a felony.
Vigilantes with guns? I know how I would react.
I was reacting to the poster who said the misdemeanor offense should be a capital offense.
A person can effect a valid citizen's arrest for a misdemeanor if they actually witness the crime. Even then, one has to follow the laws in effecting a valid arrest. Just because someone commits a misdemeanor does not give someone else a license to commit a felony.
That someone commits a misdemeanor does not give others a license to commit cold-blooded murder. Maybe you should be elsewhere than among conservatives who are big on justice.
If they refuse to show their papers to civilians with no legal authority to demand them (something to do with Constitutional rights or some other bothersome thing), can those civilians restrain and threaten them?
Have you ever read the threads here by Jackalope Breeder, who has shown the destruction of land and personal property by these illegals? Even here in the Seattle area we are being innundated. We have schools that are majority hispanic. And no, we are NOT allowed to ask if they are legal before they get all the benefits. The situation is extreme because it has been ignored by elected officials. I do not attack my fellow Americans or blame them for trying to turn it around.
Long and short, that's EXACTLY what they did.
They did not witness the border crossing, which is a misdemeanor, and not subject to citizen's arrest unless it is directly witnessed.
Ah, yes.
"We must understand their rage." -- Maxine Waters, defending her co-tribalists' behavior in 1992.
And the people they held were illegal, weren't they?
THIS time, yes.
But, suppose I decide that you don't look like you're here legally (based on whatever criteria I choose to employ).
Do I have the right to (a) demand your identification papers, and (b) detain you at gunpoint and handcuff you when you refuse to provide said papers?
Just answer that question with a "yes" or a "no."
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