Mexico Butts Into U.S. Justice

Imagine a country that willingly harbors criminals -- rapists, robbers and murderers -- and demands that the nation where these crimes occurred change its criminal punishment laws as a precondition of returning the accused.

We’re talking about Mexico. In the last year, Mexico has become a fugitive paradise where people accused of heinous crimes in the United States can get what amounts to amnesty from American justice.

The problem began with a Mexican Supreme Court ruling handed down in 2001. The decision forbade Mexico to extradite any person, whether or not a Mexican citizen, if that person faced a sentence of either life imprisonment or death, saying it would violate the Mexican constitution and was “cruel and unusual punishment.” In California, where murderers can be sentenced to life in prison -- or death -- the Mexican court’s ruling makes extradition impossible.

In short, Mexico has decided the U.S. cannot prosecute even U.S. citizens if Mexico does not like the punishment that would be imposed.

Since Oct. 2, 2001, Mexico has repeatedly refused to return suspects to the U.S. for prosecution. There are reportedly more than 60 alleged killers from Los Angeles County alone that officials believe have fled to Mexico to escape punishment; as of last year, the Justice Department had about 800 open extradition cases for fugitives in Mexico. One of those murder suspects is Jorge “Armando” Arroyo Garcia, a Mexican national who was illegally in California when he allegedly shot to death Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David March during a traffic stop in 2002. Garcia has never been caught but is known to be in Mexico.

And, in a decision released last week by the World Court, the U.S. has been ordered to stay the executions of three Mexican citizens on death row. (Texas has said it would ignore the order.) Mexico filed suit against the U.S. in January, asking the court to stay the execution of all 51 Mexicans on death rows. But the World Court found that the U.S. must stay the sentences in only the three most urgent cases, while the court investigates whether the defendants were given their right to legal help from the Mexican government.

The U.S. government is correct in viewing the ruling as an unwarranted intrusion on the criminal justice system in the United States and an infringement on U.S. sovereignty. In the case of the death penalty, for instance, the people of California, through their elected representatives, decided it is a legitimate penalty. If these criminals want to commit their crimes in our jurisdiction, then they have to face the penalty we deem appropriate.

Along with other law enforcement organizations, such as the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and the National Assn. of Attorneys General, as well as Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, the Los Angeles Police Protective League has pleaded with the federal government and U.S. legislators to negotiate with Mexico to stop this outrageous flouting of our justice system. Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears in Washington.

By failing to aggressively intervene, the U.S. federal government is essentially blessing a system under which criminals can get away with murder if they can get across the Mexican border. Mexico takes the position that unless American states rewrite their laws to conform to Mexican standards, Mexico will continue to provide a haven for fleeing criminals.

Action must be taken now. Imagine the furor here if the alleged Washington snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, had fled to Mexico after being identified. Mexico could have refused to return them until Maryland, Virginia and Alabama changed their laws. Does anyone believe the attorney general or the secretary of State would have taken a pass on that problem?

It is even more unconscionable that when a crime is committed against an American peace officer, government policy allows the criminal to escape facing the bar of justice. One option is to seek out prosecution of these criminals in Mexico. The Mexican Federal Penal Code, under Article IV, allows for the domestic prosecution of Mexican nationals who commit crimes in a foreign country and then flee back to Mexico.

Unfortunately, even if the Mexican government cooperated with American authorities and agreed to prosecute such people as Armando Garcia, whatever punishment is administered there must stand -- whether it is a small fine or a short prison term. Article IV prosecutions preclude a person from later being tried for the same crime north of the border.

The U.S. government cannot sit by silently and continue to allow alleged murderers and others to flee our criminal justice system with impunity. Shut down this criminal black hole and force these coldblooded criminals to face the music.