Most media ignore released deputy in ‘illegals’ case

Other than some Texas print and broadcast coverage and a live interview on Glenn Beck’s CNN show Tuesday, few national media have reported the prison release of Edwards County (Texas) deputy sheriff Gilmer Hernandez, finds Grumpy Editor.

With national debate over illegal immigration, the same media gave Hernandez’s case broad coverage before and when he was sentenced to jail in a case that involved shooting at a fleeing carload of illegal aliens, which slightly wounded a female passenger.

Hernandez, charged with violating the woman’s civil rights, was convicted in federal court and sentenced to a year in jail, despite claims of acting in self-defense, saying the stopped vehicle abruptly pulled away and tried to run over him.

Recounting the incident, Hernandez said, “It happened in a split second.  I was in fear of my life.  I did what I was trained to do.”

On Beck’s CNN program, Hernandez said the FBI never interviewed him in connection with the case.

With time off for good behavior, he was released after 10 months and returned home to his family in Rocksprings, Texas, on Monday.

Rocksprings happens to be on a main smuggling route from Mexico.

San Antonio Express-News writer John MacCormack said Hernandez’s return in “downtown Rocksprings became a welcome-home carnival as more than 350 people --- some flashing colorful signs and posters --- crowded around the front of the school, blocking traffic, waiting to pay their respects to a local guy who had once taught as a substitute there.”

That’s a large turnout in a town with a population of 1,150.

Envision several hundred excited people, some with signs and posters, blocking traffic.  Those are the elements that spark live TV coverage.  National assignment desks --- figuring it wasn't an animated protest as happens in Los Angeles --- turned the other way on Hernandez’s return.

Meanwhile, the person active in his case, U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton, three days earlier spoke to 120 people at the Petroleum Club in Midland, Texas, and declared the 2,000-mile southern border is better secured now than at any time in history, according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

Writer Bob Campbell added that Sutton said “the 5,000 mile Canadian border remains worrisome despite the Canadians’ vigilance.”

Campbell’s lead on the story offers additional insight on Sutton, noting the U.S. attorney “described ‘the pipeline’ through which illegal immigrants from the Middle East are getting into the U.S. and said most are trying to improve their living conditions like those from other countries.”

That pipeline, Sutton added, “starts in Moscow, Russia, and runs through Cuba and Guatemala City, Guatemala, where they get on buses to the border.”

Apparently Sutton isn’t concerned with the word illegals along the southern border which he just hailed is better secured now than at any time in history.