United States enforces all law power to aid in crushing Mexican Junta

Nº 68

AHSRE L-E-921 F. 054 1 2 3

St. Louis Globe Democrat, St. Louis, Missouri

23 de noviembre de 1906

United States enforces all law power to aid in crushing Mexican Junta

Federal authorities admit they are proceeding under immigration, extradition and neutrality laws in lending aid to stamp out organization having its haven in St. Louis Americans responsible for early movement that suppressed paper laws by which men are to be deported Mexican officials demand extradition of Manzano Villarreal case under investigation.

Political offenses are not extraditable.

Special dispatch to the Globe Democrat.

WASHINGTON, November 22. The arrest of the Mexican at St. Louis and at El Paso Texas and the efforts of the local federal officials throughout the United States to break up the organized revolutionary junta at St. Louis and its association branches in other parts of the country has the sanction and approval of the government at Washington. This was made apparent to day through inquiries made at the different departments of the government which have had to do with the breaking up of the revolutionary group which found haven in St. Louis.

The same inquiries established the fact that the officials of the government are acting clearly within their legal functions, and in accordance with well established practices in the United States, and in strict compliance with statutes passed by the congress of the Unites States.

Law is closely followed.

While there is open sympathy with the government of Mexico in its efforts to break up the revolutionary junta, the officials of the government are proceeding solely under the immigration and extradition and the neutrality laws.

Inquiry at the department of justice and the state department indicate that Liberate Rivera is wanted in Mexico on a charge of manslaughter, a clearly extraditable offence. Neither the state department nor the Mexican embassy here has any knowledge of a demand for Aaron Sarabia, or Manzano, as his name is given in the press dispatches. They say at the Mexican embassy that if, as is stated in the press of St. Louis, the man is simply a compositor on the revolutionary paper, which was formerly printed at St. Louis, then there can be no charge against him. But at the Mexican embassy care is taken to also add that the consul of Mexico stationed at St. Louis may have knowledge of some of the operations of Manzano unknown to the Mexican representatives here which make him liable to extradition to Mexico.

Deportation of Manzano demanded.

At the immigration bureau it was learned that a demand had been made for the deportation of Manzano to Mexico because of the claim that he is in this country illegally. It was stated there that and investigation is in course to determine whether this is true and that so far no conclusion has been reached. It was also learned at the immigration bureau that an investigation is in course relative to Antonio Villarreal, who is being detained in El Paso Texas to determine the same thing. If it is found that these men are in the country contrary to the immigration laws there will be no recourse for this government other than to deport them.

Primarily there is no question but the present effort on the part of the Mexicans government to extradite the Mexicans on charges of crime committed in Mexico before they left that country are prompted by the revolutionary activity of the Mexicans concerned. It is also admitted with more or less frankness that the officials of the government here are lending their aid to the Mexicans government to as great an extent as they can compatible with the laws of this country.

Breaking up of Junta.

The Mexican government has asked that the efforts of the Washington government be bent in the direction of breaking up the revolutionary junta, and there has been a campaign in this direction extending over many months. First the revolutionary paper at St. Louis was suppressed through invoking the postal laws. Them, because of the threatened extradition proceedings, member of the revolutionary group scattered to different parts of this and foreign governments.

It appears that all of the members of the junta have been under more or less strict surveillance ever since the matter was first brought to the attention of this government many months ago. Mexico realizing that she can only break up the junta through our recognized laws and not through executive authority, such as is possible in absolutism, has deliberately planned to reach the men through our laws. Presenting cases in connection with each individual which do come under our laws, there is no other recourse for our officials than to proceed against them under the laws.

Fight on Junta really started by Americans.

The way in which this government found itself in sympathy with the efforts of the Mexican government directed against the St. Louis junta can now be told for the first time. Many months ago American residents in Mexico complained to the state department that their interests and their live were not properly protected from Indian raids and from disturbances such as were seen comparatively recently at the Greene copper mines. At once the Mexican government grave proper protection to our citizens. The Mexican government did not hesitate to say that it would do everything in its power to protest Americans, but in return it drew attention to the fact that in the heart of the United States, at St. Louis a revolutionary junta was fomenting constant trouble and was directly responsible for such disturbances as that at the Greene mines.

This was in part confirmed by Mr. Greene, the great copper king, in a personal visit which he paid to the state department.

The Mexican government also complained that both the Indians and revolutionary disturbers were carrying on traffic in arms across the Mexican border along the boundary of Arizona. It was mildly suggested that the moving spirits which were turned against the resident in the disturbances and the weapons Americans came from American soil.

Steps were taken at once to suppress the traffic in arms across the Arizona frontier.

American Officials give aid.

In this customs and immigration officials co operated, as did the department of justice with the facilities at its command. As to the suppression of the St. Louis junta, it was pointed out to the Mexicans that this government could only proceed against it under well established laws, and that the power of the government could only be invoked within lines laid down in our statutes.

In invoking the immigration laws to secure the deportation of the Mexicans the cure the deportation of the Mexicans the Mexican government is clearly within its right, as the immigration officials would have to proceed against the men and deport them if found to be in this country illegally, if the representations in that connection were made by an individual.

Mexican government is clearly within its right, as the immigration officials would have to proceed against the men and deport them if found to be in this country illegally, if the representations in that connection were made by an individual.

If the Mexicans can show that they are in this country legally they will not be disturbed if, as is claimed, any one or two of them has been convicted of a crime in Mexico, them he is not entitled to remain in this country, and must be deported to the place from which he came. This in true of any foreigner found within this country illegally within a period of three years after his entry.

The debarring of foreigners.

Section 2 of the immigration laws defines clearly the things that country or remaining here if discovered within three years after their entry. It reads:

Sec. 2. That the foreign classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States persons who have been convicted of a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; polygamists, anarchists or persons who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the government or of all forms of law or the assassination of public officials.

Relative to aliens found is this country who, it is claimed, is here illegally, section 21 of the laws says, in part:

That in case the secretary of commerce and labor shall be satisfied that an alien has been found in the United States in violation of this act he shall cause such alien, within the period of three years after landing or entry therein, to be taken into custody and returned to the country whence he came.

Good cases must be made against the aliens who are accused. They are permitted to have a hearing before the nearest immigration commissioner in the nearest large city. The proceeding is under the direction of the local immigration official. The accused alien may be represented by counsel if the chooses. If he can show a proper record at the port where he entered this alone is sufficient to release him. If on the hearing it is found that he is not in this country legally, he can be deported through a warrant issued by the secretary of the department of commerce and labor, which is served by the local immigration official. He must be sent to the country from which became, but this does not imply that he is to turned over to the officials of the country to which he is deported.

Extradition mandatory on the United States.

The extradition of the men accused of crime in Mexico is also mandatory upon the officials of this government. Under our extradition treaty no recourse is left them but to extradite if it found that the men are justly accused.

The suggestion or intimation that the men can be extradited for purely political offenses is not tenable. Neither is the suggestion that they can be extradited for some trumped up crime, and after the Mexican government gets possession of them they can be tried or punished for political crimes. Articie 3 of the extradition treaty sets forth the cases in which extradition shall not take place. The second section of that article reads: When the crime or offense charged shall be of a purely political character.

Article 7 of the treaty makes the possibility of the men being tried or punished for political crimes the more impossible, for it reads:

A person who has been surrendered on account of one of the crimes or offenses mentioned, shall in to case be prosecuted and punished in the country in which his or her extradition has been granted, on account of a political crime or offense committed by him or her previous to his or her extradition, or on account of an act connected with such a political crime or offense, unless he or she has been at liberty to leave the country for one month after having been tried, and in case of condemnation, for one month after having suffered his or her punishment, or having been pardoned. An attempt against the life of the head of the government shall not be considered a political offense.

No chance on political offense.

It will be seen by this article of the treaty with Mexico that even if that government, after trying the extradited Mexicans for the offense in connection with which they are extradited, wishes to then try them or punish them for political offenses, it is debarred from doing so without first giving the men thirty days in which to get out of the country and away from the jurisdiction of Mexico.

The claim that Mexico may ruthlessly disregard the crimes which are made extraditable by the treaty and try one men for political or other trumped up crimes is met by still another article of the treaty (article XII) which reads:

A person surrendered under this convention shall not be tried or punished in the country to which his or her extradition has been granted * * * for a crime or offense not provided for by this convention and committed previous to his or her extradition, unless the consent of the surrendering government be given for such trial.

Under the law and facts, it appears that it is impossible that the Mexicans now under arrest in St. Louis and El Paso shall get anything but justice according to the American Standard. There are but two presumptions to the contrary. One of these is that Mexico will ruthlessly disregard the letter and spirit of our treaty with her, and handle the men in her own way when she once gets them within her power. The other presumption is that the ignorance of their rights and of our laws on the part of the accused Mexicans now under arrest and their inability to take the advantage of their beneficent and protecting features will result in their being railroaded into the jurisdiction of Mexico.