[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7117]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       MEXICAN GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO STAY OUT OF AMERICA'S BUSINESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the Mexican Government needs to stay out of 
America's business. Let me explain.
  Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez of the town of Rocksprings, Texas, 
Edwards County, the size of Delaware, one of three deputy sheriffs on 
patrol at any given time in this massive area of west Texas, is on 
patrol in the middle of the night, and he sees a van with the lights 
off running a red light. He does what he is supposed to. He attempts to 
pull the van over. He notices as he approaches the van that numerous 
people are laying down on the floorboards.
  As he gets closer, the driver speeds off, turns around and tries to 
run over Deputy Gilmer Hernandez. Deputy Hernandez pulls out his 
pistol, blows out two of those tires, and the vehicle finally stops. 
One passenger in the van was slightly injured, but the people in the 
van jump out and take off running because they are all illegally in the 
United States, seven or eight of them.

                              {time}  1945

  Deputy Hernandez immediately calls the sheriff of the county to show 
up. The sheriff shows up; he calls the Texas Rangers to make an 
independent investigation of this shooting. The Texas Rangers--there is 
probably no finer law enforcement group in the United States, or in the 
world for that matter--make an independent investigation and determine 
that Deputy Hernandez acted lawfully and within the law when he fired 
his weapon. But then the Mexican government gets involved, and in their 
arrogance, demand in writing from their consulate general to our 
Federal Government that Deputy Hernandez be prosecuted. And our Federal 
Government, like the cavalry, shows up later and reinvestigates the 
case; basically uses the same facts, talks to all of the illegals, and 
prosecutes Deputy Hernandez for shooting his weapon in self-defense.
  It is ironic that the consulate general wouldn't even allow our 
government to talk to the illegals until the consulate general got them 
all together in a room and apparently got their story straight. And 
once that happened, they talked to Federal prosecutors, and the Federal 
prosecutors prosecuted Deputy Hernandez, where they were saying he 
should have stopped firing his weapon after the van went on by. How 
ridiculous a statement that is.
  Deputy Hernandez was convicted, and this week he was sentenced to 1 
year and 1 month in the Federal penitentiary. The Federal judge 
apparently did everything he could to get the lowest possible sentence 
under the Federal guidelines, even though Deputy Hernandez should not 
have been prosecuted. The illegals in the van should have been 
prosecuted. The human smuggler driving the van, he should have been 
prosecuted. But no, they got a deal; they got green cards to stay in 
the United States. It seems like our government is prosecuting the 
wrong people.
  It is interesting that Deputy Hernandez was also ordered to pay 
$5,000 to the illegal who was slightly injured. That is nonsense. It is 
like someone who breaks into your home, you try to stop that person, 
they are injured in the scuffle, and the next thing you know you have 
to pay for their injuries when they illegally broke into your home. 
That is the same thing that Deputy Hernandez is supposed to do under 
this court order.
  It sounds to me like the Mexican government ought to be paying 
restitution. They ought to pay restitution to the American taxpayers 
for the cost of the illegals that come into the United States and get 
all the social programs that the rest of us pay for. The Mexican 
government ought to pay restitution for their drug smugglers that come 
into the United States, bringing that cancer that has spread across our 
land.
  Our Federal Government obviously needs to get on the right side of 
the border war, and that is the American side of the border war. It is 
interesting how our Federal Government is so relentless in prosecuting 
border protectors who are protecting the dignity of this country, doing 
everything they can to keep people from illegally coming into this 
country, while our Federal Government gives lip service to border 
control. Of course that is the news that the drug smugglers and the 
illegals like, that our Federal Government prosecutes the border 
protectors rather than prosecute them.
  And why does our Federal Government jump when the Mexican government 
arrogantly demands that our border protectors be prosecuted? Hopefully 
we are going to find out the answer to that. Who is driving the 
process, the Mexican government or our own government? And anyway, who 
cares what the Mexican government thinks, they are irrelevant to border 
security and what our border protectors do.
  Mr. Speaker, the border war continues, and the Federal Government 
needs to get on the right side of the border war because right now they 
are missing in action.
  And that's just the way it is.

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