Posted on 12/13/2012 2:09:24 PM PST by nickcarraway
Congressional letters, petitions putting attention on South Florida man's imprisonment
Family members of a South Florida military veteran jailed in Mexico are stepping up pressure to free their son so he won't spend Christmas behind foreign bars.
Jon Hammar, 27, hasn't been seen since August, when he and a friend set out in a Winnebago on a road trip headed for Costa Rica with plans on surfing.
Days after he drove off, his parents learned the former Marine landed in a Mexican jail, charged with carrying an illegal weapon.
"I ask you to continue to pray for him, we got a call from his last night, he's just in a really tough situation because it's public in Mexico at this point so we're praying you'll pray for his protection and his quick release," his mother, Olivia Hammar, said a news conference Thursday.
More Local News
The Hammar family was joined by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and other politicians who are calling on federal agencies to intervene and help free Hammar, who once worked security details for Afghanistan's president.
"Bring Jon Hammar home for Christmas is our motto," Ros-Lehtinen said.
Olivia Hammar said the weapon found was a rifle he uses to shoot birds. "In addition to being somewhat helpless, he is enraged," she said.
"He goes to register it and he gets arrested for his trouble," Ros-Lehtinen said. "They have made this into such a huge issue."
Ros-Lehtinen said she has written a letter to Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano and others asking them to intervene on Hammar's behalf. Already 25 members of Congress have signed the letter, she said.
In addition to the letter, some 10,000 have signed a petition on the We The People website, and another 2,200 on a Change.org petition.
I hope these folks get their kid back for Christmas.
Surely Eric Holder must have some sway with the Mexican authorities. /s
Let`s swap 12 million illegal mexicans for one Marine- It`s a fair swap.
Sam Houston probably would have gone to get him out. And in later years colonel Charles Askins probably would have, too...
Send “Dog” Chapman after him. It’s been done before.
Imagine if this was an illegal alien in one of our jails after killing an American mother and her two American children while he was driving drunk. The “immigrant advocates” would be raising holy hell that the mean old Americans have their boy locked up and are not treating him like a king.
The local news reported that he claims to have checked with officials on both sides of the border and was told it was okay to take his shotgun into Mexico. That doesn’t make sense to me because there are warning signs posted at the border about what is not allowed. There is no way the US officials said it was okay. The posted story says he was arrested while trying to register his gun in Mexico. That makes more sense. His mistake was in not getting the permit before crossing with the gun. I’ve hunted whitewing in Mexico and it takes a lot of time and effort to get permits to cross with shotguns. It’s not something that can be done at the last moment.
It seems to be an innocent mistake on his part. I hope he gets out of that hell hole soon.
The parents were on Hannity and claimed that he registered it on the US side and they gave him the paperwork he needed to show them on the Mexican side.
They also claimed that Mexican officials and military personnel have written to the judges and prosecution that this weapon wasn’t on the ban list.
I don’t recall having to do anything on the US side to take a shotgun into Mexico. It was all done on the Mexico side. Even if permits were done on the US side, it still has to be done on the Mexico side BEFORE crossing the shotgun into Mexico. It is illegal to even take a shotgun shell into Mexico without a permit.
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