39 congressmen ask accounting in BP agent's death
July 10th, 2008 @ 2:44pm
by Associated Press

Thirty-nine congressmen wrote President Bush and Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Thursday asking if the government had asked Mexico to extradite a now-freed suspect in a U.S. Border Patrol agent's death.

Justice Department officials have refused to say what steps they may have taken to have Jesus Navarro Montes returned to this country.

A Mexican government spokesman said Navarro was released last month after the U.S. government failed to issue an arrest warrant, provide evidence or contact Mexican authorities to seek extradition.

U.S. authorities allege Navarro's Hummer struck and killed Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar on Jan. 19 as the agent tried to stop suspected drug smugglers by setting spike strips on a road.

He was later arrested in Mexico, but a judge released him June 18 after he was cleared of an unrelated migrant smuggling charge.

The letter from California Rep. Brian Bilbray noted the congressmen's concerns over Navarro's release and Mexican Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday's statement. The lawmakers want an accounting of communications between U.S. and Mexican officials.

Bilbray is a Republican who heads the Immigration Reform Caucus, a group of lawmakers who support tougher immigration laws.

The letter noted that the spokesman ``stated publicly that the U.S. government has not issued an arrest warrant, provided evidence or contacted Mexican authorities regarding extradition either formally or informally. Mexican officials publicly claim that the mistake was made on the U.S. side of the border.''

Bilbray said he and the executive director of the caucus have ``received absolutely no information from the Department of Justice or the White House'' in response to numerous requests made since June 27.

The U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego, which has been in charge of investigating Aguilar's death, has refused any comment, and calls Thursday to that office's spokeswoman were not returned immediately.

Nor was a call to the White House office of media affairs.

Bilbray requested ``a full report of all activities and correspondence the U.S. government has had with the Mexican government'' in the case.

The letter also asked:

``Has the U.S. government issued an arrest warrant?

``Has the U.S. government contacted Mexican authorities regarding extradition either formally or informally?

``If the U.S. Department of Justice failed to contact Mexican authorities, who was responsible for that failure''?

Alday said last month that Mexican federal officials were surprised to learn of Navarro's release and that authorities were looking for him.

Calls on Thursday to Alday seeking to find out whether Mexican police had been able to locate Navarro were not immediately returned.


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