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Time to lean on Mexico about Extradition

Ross Kaminsky - 4/22/2008

Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean, suspected of murdering a pregnant Marine, 20-year old Corporal Maria Lauterbach, then burning her body and burying it, was arrested in Mexico by police officers who thought he looked suspicious.

In May, 2005, Raul Gomez-Garcia, shot and killed off duty Denver police officer Donny Young, apparently after Young asked Gomez-Garcia to leave a party where Young was working as a private security guard while off-duty. A month later, Gomez-Garcia was arrested in Mexico.

In both cases, the Mexican government refused extradition unless the District Attorneys (of North Carolina, in Laurean's case, and of Colorado, in Gomez-Garcia's case) promised not to seek the death penalty.

As if that were not outrageous enough, in the Gomez-Garcia case, the Mexican Consul General in Denver said that "a possible punishment of life in prison without parole would also preclude extradition from Mexico."

Many Americans are justifiably outraged by crimes committed here by illegal aliens (which Laurean probably wasn't, and Gomez-Garcia was), by which I mean crimes other than their illegal presence.

But I wonder how many people know, and how angry they would be if they knew, that Mexico not only exports crime to us but then prevents the U.S. from enforcing its own laws by blackmailing our justice system prior to returning a murderer for his just punishment.

I am not in the "Tom Tancredo school" of immigration. Immigration had some real part in making America great...and not just immigration from England from the 16th to the 18th centuries. I support increased legal immigration.

I also like Mexico. The average Mexican I've met there has been friendly, helpful, and in no obvious way anti-American. They have great food and art. (I can't say I'm a fan of Mexican music, though.) It's a place I gladly visit frequently.

But just as the American people can be great even when we have a terrible government (such as the people who found Cory Voorhis not guilty were great when our government prosecuted him to help a politician), the same can be true of any country and is particularly true of Mexico.

Mexico's government has long been absolutely corrupt. Modest reforms over the years have probably not changed that fact. The fact that there are a lot of Mexican-Americans (and I hate to use hyphenated-Americans, but it's more precise in this case) does not mean we should cave in to the political correctness that requires us to see every aspect of Mexico as worthy of respect.

Until Mexico stops obstructing justice in America, our government should take a very hard stand against them, including cutting back on foreign aid to Mexico, something a country which exports large amounts of oil shouldn't need in any case.