Thread: Group files complaint against U.S. Rep. Reyes over role in g

Group files complaint against U.S. Rep. Reyes over role in getting kidnapped relative released
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 07/15/2008 05:49:52 PM MDT


A complaint against U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, has been filed with the House Committee on Conduct of Official Standards by Friends of the Border Patrol after Reyes' office asked a federal law enforcement agency for help in the kidnapping of a relative in Juárez.
Vincent Perez, Reyes' spokesman in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday that Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and former Border Patrol chief of the El Paso sector, had not seen the complaint.

"Reyes, former chief Border Patrol agent, knows that this type of request is frowned upon by the U.S. Border Patrol," said Andy Ramirez, a retired Border Patrol official and national president of Friends of the Border Patrol, who filed the complaint dated Monday.

Friends of the Border Patrol, a nonprofit law enforcement advocacy organization, posted a copy of the complaint on its Web site at www.FOBP.us.

Sandalio "Sandy" Gonzalez, former top El Paso DEA official, signed a letter supporting the complaint as national president of the Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Reyes has not denied that his office asked the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for assistance in solving the kidnapping of his wife's relative, who is a Mexican citizen. Both he and ICE officials denied any wrongdoing.

The relative was released unharmed in Juárez after a $32,000 ransom was paid.

Bill O'Reilly, staff director for the House Committee on Conduct of Official Standards, said he could not comment "on

a matter that may or may not be before the committee."
Committee investigations are confidential, and become public only after they are completed. Sanctions can range from a letter of reproval by the committee to expulsion from the House upon a vote of the entire House of Representatives.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_9890364

[quote="FedUpinFarmersBranch"]

Bill O'Reilly, staff director for the House Committee on Conduct of Official Standards, said he could not comment "on a matter that may or may not be before the committee."/quote]


Bill OReilly??? i wonder what kinda hell he gets if hes accused of being the Fox News Anchor

Congressman hit by ethics complaint over Mexican case
Demands described as 'bizarre, questionable, inappropriate'

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Posted: July 15, 2008
10:24 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A nonprofit organization has filed an ethics complaint against U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, for allegedly convincing ICE agents to act outside the agency's jurisdiction by organizing a rescue operation of a foreign national on foreign soil.

Citing a memo to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary Julie Myers leaked to the Internet's Narco News website, a law enforcement advocacy organization called Friends of the Border Patrol has asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Reyes for urging ICE to liberate his wife's relative, a Mexican national, from kidnappers across the border in Mexico.

A FOBP press release states, "Reyes, a former Chief Border Patrol agent, knows that this type of request is frowned upon by the U.S. Border Patrol. Reyes' actions raise further questions regarding his request because of the lack of jurisdiction of ICE."

The FOBP's formal complaint also quotes four senior federal law enforcement officials, who collectively call the ICE request "bizarre, questionable, inappropriate and highly unusual."

The FOBP has been joined by two other organizations, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association, in asking Congress to investigate Reyes' involvement.

Last month, the New York Times reported Erika Posselt had been abducted from an auto glass store she owned in Juarez, Mexico, but that she was then released after the family paid $32,000 of a $500,000 ransom demanded by her kidnappers.

Posselt, a relative of Congressman Reyes' wife, was later brought into the U.S. for security reasons.

The leaked memo, however, revealed that an aide to Reyes had contacted the ICE Assistant Attaché for Ciudad Juarez, which resulted in a meeting between American and Mexican police officials.

American agents, according to the memo, then provided technical and logistical assistance in an over-the-border operation, led by Mexican authorities, to free Posselt.

Reyes issued a statement through spokesperson Vincent M. Perez, stating, "Any suggestion that Congressman Reyes somehow influenced the actions of law enforcement is false."

The FOBP, CREW and FHLEOA remain unconvinced. So does Kent Paterson, who runs a border blog operated by New Mexico State University and who told the Times that there are many unresolved cases of kidnapping, even of United States citizens, along the border. "What is striking is how rapidly it was solved," he said. "If you have money, clout and political connections, you can move things."


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php? ... geId=69696

Believe this warrants being moved from Other Topics to News.