Grimm calls for travel boycott against Mexico

Says Mexican government ‘unjustly’ detaining US Marine

May 27, 2014 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Screen Shot 2014-05-27 at 12.09.16 PM.png

Share this:

U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm is calling for a tourism boycott of Mexico in the wake of the case of a U.S. Marine currently being detained in that country.

Grimm (R-C-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Staten Island) is urging tourists not to travel south of the border until Mexico releases Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who the congressman said is being “unjustly imprisoned.”

Tahmooressi was arrested by Mexican officials on March 31 after he made an unintentional wrong turn across the U.S.-Mexican border, according to Grimm, who said the serviceman stands accused of illegal weapons trafficking, despite having properly stowed weapons in his car.

“Simply put, until Sgt. Tahmooressi is afforded the honor and respect he deserves as a US Marine and is released from this ridiculous detention, no American should be living it up in Mexico and rewarding the Mexican government with their dollars while one of our own is in trouble,” said Grimm, a US Marine veteran.

“Sgt. Tahmooressi put his life on the line in defense of our country after two tours of active duty in Afghanistan and he deserves better than to be locked up like a common criminal just for making an honest wrong turn.” Grimm added.

The marine’s situation is “especially intolerable,” Grimm said when two-thirds of Mexico’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry comes from the U.S. and that the U.S. spends billions of dollars to assist Mexico’s war on drug cartels.

Fox News reported that U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter wrote a letter asking Secretary of State John Kerry to work to get Tahmooressi’s release. State Department officials told Fox News that they were aware of an arrest of a U.S. citizen in Mexico, but that they don’t comment on arrests of private individuals without the person’s permission.