Mexican police said being denied asylum

LA JUNTA, Mexico, June 15 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration officials don't consider police officers fleeing drug cartels to be political refugees, a retired immigration judge says.

Bruce J. Einhorn or Los Angeles was commenting on cases such as Julio Ledezma's. He was police chief in the northern Mexico town of La Junta until threatened by drug traffickers. Ledezma and other former police officers are entering the United States on visitor visas and unsuccessfully seeking political asylum, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

George Grayson, an expert on U.S.-Mexico relations and a professor of government at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., said if the federal government were to grant asylum "we would have literally thousands of police officers coming to the United States, and some mayors, too."

The police officers are those who turn down bribes from cartels and therefore face threats from the drug lords, Ledezma and other former officers said.