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
"They said let's go Mexican hunting," she said.
Thanks for posting this article GoRepGo. It filled in some details. I was wondering why these guys were walking around with handcuffs.
These two sentences contradict each other. Once again, if I see someone breaking the seatbelt laws. I do not have the right to detain them at gunpoint and with handcuffs.
You are perfectly entitled to your opinion. Mine is that Government needs to stop paying out unemployment, SS, Medicare, and the other freebies. Open the border wide and if Latinos still want to come to America and work, I welcome them.
The politician on both sides of the isle better get some new batteries for thier hearing aids real quick before this gets ugly(ier).
You have vastly overestimated the strength of this issue. Anger over illegal immigration is strongest in CA, and it should be because CA gives out the most goodies to illegals and legal residents. The people of CA passed 187 yet eturned Davis to the Governor's office when Davis said screw 187. Now the people of CA are about to replace Davis with a pro-immigration RINO or a Latino Lt Gov. There is a lot of anger in CA, but you cannot show me that it is directed at illegal and/or legal immigration.
In other state like mine immigration is a complete none issue except by the ugliest of the far right and the protectionist union liberals.
I’m sorry. I’m still no clearer on your logic for what are 2 contradictory sentences. When you say “They are not trying to enforce laws on other people. Just one law on the people that broke it,” You are saying Dumas and Hoffman are not enforcing laws they are just enforcing laws. The only way these 2 statement are not contradictory is if you are nitpicking and saying Dumas and Hoffman are not enforcing “laws” they are enforcing “one law” or if you don’t consider the mothers and their children to be people. I’m willing to forget about ever understanding what you wrote if you want to drop it.
This issue has been ranked as number one in regards to the difference of opinion between citizens and their elected representatives. I live near Chicago, there are plenty of people here who are fed up with the status quo.
Really? On March 3rd 2002 HR 1885 the so-called “Illegal Immigration Residency Extension” came up for a vote. This bill, allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. without legal residency, did not receive one “no” vote from the 7 congressional districts representing Chicago. Even Henry Hyde voted for this bill. The bill passed 275 to 137 so it is not like there was no opposition to it…just not in Chicago. As punishment the voters in Chicago returned every one of these congressmen to office in November except the congressman from the 5th district who ran for Governor. Do you know who the Congressman representing the 5th congressional district is? Rahm Emanuel! The voters of Chicago elected Clinton’s point man on NAFTA to the US congress.
Illegal immigration must be a huge issue in Chicago. <./sacasm>
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 someone is trying to gain entry to this country illegally they have become an enemy of this country and should be treated as such. While I have every sympathy for those trying to gain entry through the proper legal channels I have nothing but hatred and contempt for the enemies of my country.
Someone attacking my country (as illegal border crossers do) deserves only to die. I make no distinction between Iraqi republican guard or Taliban fighters or terrorists or illegal border crossers. They all deserve the same treatment. We are at war and protecting ourselves in wartime is not murder.
(Of course I don't have much use for foreignors anyway but at least most foreignors don't actively attack the USA)
We see that the Salon Bolsheviki are so sure of the righteousness of their cause that they themselves would never rush down into this "war" to do battle themselves against these "enemy invaders." No, that is left to others to do. The Armchair Revolutionaries, these Salon Bolsheviki, are contented enough sitting in the comfort and safety of their compounds calling for other people to do their murderous job for them.
Here it's a war you have proclaimed against unarmed women and children, and rather than bring your own shotgun, you decide to just lend your little shovel instead. Big brave man.
Free Republic has become a training ground for the basest pack mentality. Don't delude yourself that you are too far distant from those vile and evil corruptions that FR once mocked in Clinton and his crew -- you are very close, you are there!
How do you plan to kill them, John O? Set up 50 cals at the border and mow them down the instant they set foot on US soil? Round 'em up & put them in gas chambers? Electrify the border fence so if they touch it, they're immediately fried? How about the solution Iraq used on the Kurds--just gas 'em in their villages before they can get to US soil?
If these Final Solutions aren't strong enough for you, John O, perhaps you have a solution of your own.
Oh, is that the words you're using to describe us over at LP these days?
Since I didn't see them attacking the border I don't know for certain that they are illegals and cannot just blast away. Seeing them cross the border however is proof that they are enemy combatants and must be treated as threats
If they are attempting to cross the border then they are no longer woman and children but enemy combatants. Killing an enemy combatant is never murder. Whether they are armed or not is immaterial, weapons are easy to acquire and terrorism is far to easy to carry out.
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