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USA Today— A Republican congressman is accusing the Bush administration of failing to own up to "a huge blunder" that led to the release in Mexico of a man wanted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, who represents an area of San Diego near the border of Mexico, said this week that he will continue to press the Justice Department for answers it has refused to provide him about the apparent failure to seek timely extradition of Jesus Navarro Montes last month.
The Justice Department and White House last week wrote Bilbray that they were unable to offer an explanation, saying information sought by Congress would "inevitably compromise highly sensitive law enforcement investigative information."
"It looks like a huge blunder," Bilbray said in an interview. "There might be some logic to this … (but) don't sit there and just stonewall," he added, referring to the Justice Department.
Bilbray was joined by 38 other congressmen, all but one a Republican, in writing to President Bush and Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanding to know whether the government had asked Mexico to extradite Navarro in connection with the death of Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar, who was struck and killed by an SUV on Jan. 19.
Navarro was arrested in Mexico but was released from a Mexicali jail after a Mexican judge cleared him of an unrelated migrant smuggling charge.
In the letters, Bilbray and the other congressmen said Navarro "ran over Agent Aguilar in a Hummer as he was placing spike strips on the road." They said they learned from news accounts that the Mexican judge released the suspect "because there were no charges or extradition proceedings against him in the U.S."
Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, told the Associated Press that U.S. officials made "a provisional arrest request for extradition" more than a week after Navarro had been released on June 18, five months after his initial arrest.
Alday confirmed that account in an interview Monday but said he could not comment further because of the sensitive nature of the international case.
Fred Fielding, White House counsel, wrote Bilbray that the White House is leaving the case to the Justice Department to pursue but "we are watching this matter closely to ensure that justice is done."
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Keith Nelson said in a letter to Bilbray that Justice "personnel were in communication with Mexican officials about this matter very soon after the death of Agent Aguilar" but that the department was unable to offer more information.
Bilbray said he will ask the Justice Department to provide a classified briefing on the case to members of Congress and that he is talking with majority Democrats about holding an oversight hearing. He contends the administration could answer questions about the procedural steps without compromising the case.
"Who the hell waited that long to request" extradition, Bilbray asked. "It appears to be … a screw-up they are embarrassed to tell us about."
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said the department could not detail its extradition request: "With respect to the separate issue of extradition proceedings, the Justice Department does not comment publicly upon the underlying charges or the evidence supporting a possible extradition of a citizen from another nation."
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