[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 159 (Tuesday, December 11, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H6686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF U.S. MARINE JON HAMMAR

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise here to ask for the immediate 
release of U.S. Marine Jon Hammar, who has been unreasonably imprisoned 
by Mexican authorities since August, where, for a time, he was actually 
being shackled to his bed.
  Lance Corporal Hammar is an outstanding young American combat veteran 
who clearly took every reasonable step to ensure that he was safely and 
legally transporting the antique firearm that he inherited from his 
great-grandfather. He spoke with our own Customs and Border Patrol 
agents, who assured him that he would be fine as long as he registered 
it with Mexican authorities.
  Once in Mexico, Jon attempted to register his old-fashioned Sears and 
Roebuck shotgun and was immediately arrested as if he were a gunrunner.
  I am calling on our State Department to act swiftly to get Jon 
released, and I am calling on our Department of Homeland Security to 
explain how their agents could have given Jon this wrong instruction.
  Jon has suffered enough. Let's bring him home to his family, where he 
rightly belongs, in time for Christmas.

                          ____________________