Thread: Border Battle: Mom of Colorado man killed in Mexico says U.S

Border Battle: Mom of Colorado man killed in Mexico says U.S. to blame

9:57 PM, Nov 4, 2011

Written by
Will Ripley

WASHINGTON - High-ranking members of the Obama administration are facing tough questions about a botched sting operation that was supposed to prosecute cartels but ended-up costing lives.

Even the president himself says he didn't know about a program called "Operation Fast and Furious," where federal agents allowed thousands of automatic weapons to go straight to Mexican drug lords.

9Wants to Know spoke with relatives of a Colorado man killed in Mexico who say the government could have played a role in his death.

When suspected cartel members shot and killed Jake Reyes Neal in March, they used AK-47s that were likely smuggled from the United States. His family in Aurora wonders if the U.S. government put those weapons in the hands of the killers.

Tania Nava, 21, remembers being woken up by the sound of gunmen breaking down the door to their home in the Mexican border city of Juarez.

"We'll never forget what we saw that night," Nava said. "That's the last time I saw him."

Neal told his wife and their son, Anthony, to hide in a bathroom as he confronted the intruders.

"That's the last thing I heard. And then the shots," Nava said.

Suspected cartel members shot Neal up to 80 times and they also killed Nava's uncle.

"Then I just walked to the sidewalk and they were both laying there on the ground. It's was horrible," Nava said.

Nava tried to hide the eyes of their son but it was too late.

"He saw everything. He has flashbacks," Nava said.

Anthony turned 4 the day after his father's funeral. Maria Neal, Jake's mother, fights back tears when talking about her grandson.

"He cries because he misses his dad," Maria Neal said. "To lose your son in such a tragic way, you know? He just turned 21."

Jake Neal and Nava married when they were 17. He was a U.S. citizen, she was not.

"My son wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to get her papers. Do everything the right way," Maria Neal said.

Nava's green card application was denied because her parents brought her to Colorado illegally at age 7.

Jake Neal had a choice: Live apart or move 700 miles to the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

"He went to Mexico because he loved his family. They were inseparable," Maria Neal said.

Denver immigration attorney Shawn Meade took Nava's case after Jake Neal's murder.

"It's a tragedy. The tragedy that resulted from trying to follow the immigration laws," Meade said.

Meade says after Nava didn't qualify for citizenship and her application was denied, she had to move to Mexico within 30 days and finish the process there.

Meade says because Nava filed the application here in the U.S., she exceeded 180 days of unlawful presence and had to apply for a waiver so she could legally return

"They had to prove that Jake would suffer an extreme hardship if she was in Mexico. And look what happened because of her being denied," Meade said.

If an illegal immigrant has been in the U.S. longer than 180 days and if they want to apply for residency, they need to move back to their country of origin and apply for a waiver there.

"The system is an incentive for people to stay illegally," Meade said. "Do they go back and risk the things that happened to Tania and Jake? And risk being denied? Or do they just stay here illegally?"

After months of legal fighting, Meade helped Nava get her green card, which gives her legal permanent residency until she is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship.

The family also received help from the office of Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colorado).

"The case of Tania, Jake and Anthony is an incredibly heart-wrenching story. It also highlights the fact that our broken immigration system hurts citizens and non-citizens alike, as Jake was a U.S. citizen; his son is a U.S. citizen, and his family in Colorado is comprised of U.S. citizens. I couldn't help but get involved to correct this injustice," Polis said.

Polis calls the immigration system "broken" and is pushing for legislation to change the 3 and 10 year bars that forced Jake Neal to move his family to Juarez - a city often described as one of the most violent in the world.

"Families in situations like Tania's have two choices: They can either be separated for prolonged periods of time while navigating our unworkable and slow immigration system or they can move to a foreign country," Polis said.

Nava is now living with family in Colorado - a widow at 21.

"It's so, it's so very hard to deal with," Maria Neal said.

She found 20 bullets in her son's body when he was cremated. Mexican news reports say Jake Neal was shot with AK-47 rifles, the same kind of weapon the U.S. government allowed to be smuggled into Mexico during the disastrous sting operation by the bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.

During "Operation Fast and Furious," ATF agents in Arizona encouraged gun shops to sell more than 2,000 weapons to suspected smugglers - knowing they would go to the drug cartels. The plan was to trace the weapons and gather intelligence.

During congressional testimony, ATF Special Agent John Dodson said the goal of the operation was to "bring an entire cartel to prosecution."

When pressed by lawmakers as to how exactly the ATF intended to prosecute an entire cartel based in Mexico, where the U.S. government has no jurisdiction, Dodson couldn't answer.

"I have no idea how they planned to do that," Dodson said.

During the course of the operation, ATF agents lost track of some 1,400 guns.

"Consequently there were thousands of weapons that ended up in Mexico, killing people," Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was subpoenaed in a congressional investigation into Fast and Furious. Just this week, Holder released more than 600 pages of documents about the botched operation and he's set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee next month. Holder is facing growing calls for his resignation from Republicans who say he, and others, knew about the operation for much longer than they had admitted.

The Justice Department and ATF allowed "Fast and Furious" to continue until last December when two guns linked to the operation were tied to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.

Guns the U.S. government allowed into Mexico have been connected to hundreds of crimes in the same border region where Jake Neal died.

"They're the ones that have blood on their hands because they allowed these weapons to cross into Mexico and allowed people to get murdered and killed," Maria Neal said.

She is working to find out if Fast and Furious guns were used in her son's murder as she watches her grandson grow up without a father.

"I always tell him when you miss your daddy, all you have to do is touch your heart and he's there," Maria Neal said.

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She is working to find out if Fast and Furious guns were used in her son's murder as she watches her grandson grow up without a father.

This article doesn't tell us if the gunmen were caught or that the Mexican police have the weapons that were used.

During "Operation Fast and Furious," ATF agents in Arizona encouraged gun shops to sell more than 2,000 weapons to suspected smugglers - knowing they would go to the drug cartels. The plan was to trace the weapons and gather intelligence.

That the plan was to trace the guns is, I believe, a false statement used by the liberal media to soften the actions of the ATF to the public. There was no attempt to intradict the guns after they were were purchased and according to Congressional tesitmony agents were told to stand down and watch the guns walk.

"It's a tragedy. The tragedy that resulted from trying to follow the immigration laws," Meade said.

Or the result of Nava and her family refusing to obey immigration law when initially entering this country. I guess it's a matter of perception....