San Diego Incident account *here*
National Border Patrol Council website *here*
Posted on 05/22/2002 8:13:03 AM PDT by archy
Border Patrol agent fired on
Says Mexican soldier was the shooter; ID disputed by officials
By Tim Steller
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Investigators are trying to confirm whether it was a Mexican soldier who shot at a U.S. Border Patrol agent Friday night on the Tohono O'odham Nation.
An agent reported coming across three heavily armed Mexican soldiers riding in a Humvee near Papago Farms, about 90 miles southwest of Tucson.
The agent said he drove away, but a shot ripped through the windows of his Border Patrol vehicle as he fled.
Mexican officials said Tuesday they think the shooter was not a soldier. The local garrisons along the Sonora-Arizona border reported they had nobody in the area, said Roberto Rodriguez Hernandez, the director of protection and consular affairs for the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations.
The incident came at a delicate time in U.S.-Mexican relations. Mexican President Vicente Fox warned the Bush administration May 9 that he could not maintain the close relationship he has had with the United States unless there is progress on resolving immigration issues. On Saturday, members of Congress told Mexican lawmakers during a binational meeting not to expect any progress on immigration before the fall elections.
On May 3, following a visit to Arizona, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., called on Fox to explain why Mexican law-enforcement and military officials made 23 incursions into U.S. territory in 2001.
Friday's incident may not have been an official incursion, but rather a case of criminals using military uniforms, said Rodriguez Hernandez, the former Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz. Lawbreakers have used military and police uniforms in recent years along this stretch of border, he said.
But the agent who reported receiving gunfire was certain he saw soldiers, said Edward "Bud" Tuffly, the president of the agents' union in Southern Arizona.
"The agent was able to identify their attire down to a T, and it matched exactly what they (Mexican soldiers) wear," Tuffly said.
Officials of the U.S., Mexican and Tohono O'odham governments released few details of Friday's incident, but it appears the alleged incursion began Friday afternoon. About 4 p.m., a Tohono O'odham police ranger reported being chased by men in a Humvee in the Papago Farms area, Tuffly said. The ranger asked the Border Patrol for assistance, but the encounter ended without incident.
Alexandra Terry, the executive assistant for the Tohono O'odham Nation, would only confirm "there was an incident on the border" involving Tohono O'odham police and Border Patrol agents at about 4 p.m. Friday.
The agent who reported the gunfire knew of this earlier incident when he started work Friday, Tuffly said. It was dark when the agent, stationed on a hill north of the border, saw headlights about four miles away, Tuffly said.
A report on the incident obtained by the Arizona Daily Star describes it this way:
The agent drove closer to the border until he saw headlights coming toward him. The approaching vehicle was within 100 yards of the agent when he recognized it as a military Humvee with three soldiers standing in the back carrying assault rifles.
Seeing the soldiers, the agent made a U-turn and fled the area, only to hear glass shatter and realize a soldier had shot at him. Then he sped off in a panic and became disoriented before arriving on Federal Route 21, north of Papago Farms and meeting up with other agents. It was after 8:30 p.m.
The report says the agent was on the U.S. side of the border, but it does not say where the Mexican Humvee was.
Tuffly said the agent has less than a year's experience and was shaken by the incident. A bullet entered the vehicle through a right rear window, hit the metal prisoner partition in the vehicle, and went out through a driver's-side window, Tuffly said.
Tuffly questioned why the U.S. government was slow to acknowledge the incident publicly and he said in an online message to union members that he expects "the politicians will run like hell to avoid 'offending' anyone."
It took until Tuesday afternoon for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to issue a statement confirming the incident, including the Mexican military's possible involvement.
"Protecting our agents has always been our primary concern," the statement said.
Ron Sanders said incursions by Mexican soldiers and police were common when he was chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, from 1995 to 1999. But he could not recall a Mexican soldier firing shots in Southern Arizona. The last time he could recall soldiers firing shots at agents was in March 2000, when Border Patrol agents in New Mexico received gunfire from soldiers who had crossed the border.
Friday's incident occurred near a smuggling hot spot. In April, U.S. Customs Service agents seized 22,000 pounds of marijuana from an organization using that corridor for smuggling, said Kyle Barnette, the associate special agent in charge of customs' Tucson office. Customs agents also shot a smuggling suspect in that area.
Mexican soldiers have been caught many times corruptly helping drug smugglers. But they have also served as Mexico's top troops in the drug war, scoring important gains such as the arrest in March of the most-wanted kingpin, Benjamin Arrellano Felix.
Mexican officials said the army and other government bodies are conducting an in-depth investigation of the incident.
"It is too premature to say what really happened," said Carlos Gonzalez Magallon, the Mexican consul in Nogales, Ariz.
Sanders and Tuffly said they hope responsible Mexican officials are held to as high a standard as Border Patrol agents. Sanders said he fired three agents for crossing into Mexico during his tenure.
"In my career, I never knew of anyone that Mexican officials punished for coming into the United States," Sanders said.
Said Tuffly: "When we do something, the Mexican government demands total accountability. That's fine, but we should have the same thing."
* Contact reporter Tim Steller at 434-4086 or steller@azstarnet.com.
Do FRIENDS do things like this?? *sigh*
I do not blame the Patrolman for running, he was outnumbered and outgunned. But had the gunmen fired on a US Military vehicle, they would have returned fire and called in support to take out the threat. There would be no denying the identity of the bodies, and a swift end to border incursions by the Mexican military.
Thanks again for the link archy. Fox's idea of progress is Open Borders, merging with America, one nation under two leaders. This is "Blackmail" and President Bush knows this, we know this.
"President Bush warned the Fox Administration May 22 that he could not maintain the close relationship that he has had with Mexico unless Mexican troops stop invading our territory and shooting at Border Patrol agents."
We can hope. :)
We shouldn't be so obsessed with Mexican soldiers, dope, illegals or terrorists coming north, we should focus on the important things like the migration of Mexican fruit bats.
What's he gonna do, hold his breath ?
I think Bush had better start worrying about what the ELECTORATE of his country think about this bending over and taking it that he's been doing with Fox.
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http://www.newnation.com/Archives/NNN-letter-to-editor-07.html
Border Patrol Agent's letter to the head of the INS "The Border Patrol is now conducting hiring boards in Spanish and hiring agents who CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH"
This is a rare look at the opinion of the Border Patrol's "Rank & File".
TO: James Ziglar
Immigration & Naturalization Service 425 I Street
Washington, D.C. 20536
SUBJECT: CORE VALUES (EXCERPTS from letter)
Commissioner Ziglar:
I work for the INS, as a Border Patrol Agent, and along with most of my colleagues, I discern a large chasm between what the INS practices and what they preach. There are many examples of this phenomenon, which seems to permeate the entire organization. In the U.S., the individual is supposed to be "king," and we are supposed to succeed, as individuals, based solely on merit, that is, performance. At the Border Patrol, this is clearly not the case. The Border Patrol is now conducting hiring boards in Spanish and hiring agents who CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH, either because the INS is desperate for "diversity" or desperate for new agents, to replace the thousands who quit (or are trying to leave) for other jobs with other agencies.
What core value is represented by this phenomenon? Disdain for current employees? Indifference? If you don't even attempt to retain current employees, what message does this send to the newcomers? We've got trainees at our station who are still on probation and are already looking to leave! Most of all, this constant turnover is DANGEROUS: for the current agents, for the trainees, and anyone else who gets between us and the smugglers. If the INS doesn't care about our physical safety, what else matters?
One of the most damaging aspects of INS "culture" is the agenda-driven management, which revolves around political correctness, appeasing lobbyists and Hispanic rights groups, even straight-up appeasement of the Mexican government, who get more public support from INS management than Patrol Agents.
This dangerous atmosphere stems directly from INS management's refusal to support their own mission. What core value does that represent? BETRAYAL? Illegal aliens, criminals, smugglers, and terrorists get the benefit of the doubt, misplaced sympathy from management, and are coddled by policies that are guaranteed to undermine the INA by increasing the flow of illegal aliens and criminals into this country. (e.g., releasing juveniles, family members, and pregnant females on their own recognizance prior to their immigration hearing-we all know they will NEVER show up at their hearing).
Patrol Agents, on the other hand, are undercut, undermined, underfunded, under equipped, underpaid, and overworked. More and more illegal aliens and criminals challenge our authority on the river, at night, in a group, in dangerous situations that often require physical force to maintain LIFE, and the INS' response is to promise that every alien who makes any allegations whatsoever about mistreatment will get investigators hounding PA's for months at a time.
The whole Border Safety Initiative is nothing but a sop to the Mexican government, so our government (sic) can reassure them that our law enforcement personnel are making the border safe for law-breakers. You help prop up the corrupt Mexican government by allowing them to dictate American policy. You should be telling Vicente Fox that there's an easy, safe, risk-free way to travel from Mexico to the United States: it's called a port-of-entry. This whole organization is in denial about illegal immigration. Are you for or against it? Are you for enforcement, or amnesty? Why doesn't management come straight out and say what their intentions are?
Vicente Fox, and all the many "American" fellow-travelers who advocate law-breaking while taking cynical advantage of American's generosity and freedom...and despite all the talk about "cooperation" and "harmony" with Mexico, I've got news for everyone who doesn't live and work down here on the border, like I do 24/7/365: this isn't a friendly place, Mexico is not our "friend," and the Border Patrolman's job is dangerous and difficult. Mexicans don't like gringos, and they don't like the U.S.; they just use us as a safety valve for their own totally screwed-up country. When are you going to publicly and consistently recognize that, to assist in making our jobs just a little bit safer? We're not trying to maintain non-existent harmony down here, we're trying to enforce the law. The INS needs a sea-change in values.
Don't send us any more feel-good flyers talking about "core values" until you start treating the sick patient that the INS has become. You can't fix anything unless you admit it's broken first. And let us do our job and deport ALL illegal aliens, including juveniles, families, Mexicans, and all the other people who take advantage of the total lack of willpower in Washington D.C., whether at the INS or in the halls of Congress. we're ready to our job. When are you guys going to get on board?
P.S. You told Congress that the INS couldn't account for 6 or 7 of the 9/11 terrorists, e.g., how they entered the U.S. and managed to stay here undetected. There's a good chance that they crossed the southwest border illegally along with the millions of others who do it every year.
We've been catching middle-easterners and Muslims down here with regularity since I got here. How many do you think escaped detection and made it in? To protect America you've got to tell the Mexicans that the party is over: no more open border for illegals from Mexico or anywhere else.
It's either security for U.S. citizens, or millions more illegal aliens, criminals, and terrorists crossing into the U.S. You can't have it both ways. The choice is stark, yet simple. It's time to either stand up for AMERICA, or surrender to forces that will eventually destroy this country. I value America and its citizens. What do you value?
Good Morning happygr1, this quote above has been aimed at me twice now, I did not post it, but I agree with you "Bush had better start worrying about what the ELECTORATE of his country think about this bending over and taking it that he's been doing with Fox."
In my opinion, the flood of illegal Mexicans is a precursor to the establishment of a Communist System (effectively) in the U.S.. They are reactionary, collective, poor, definitely of less than average U.S. intelligence, culturally anathema to the American norm, and, most importantly, numerous. Prime Worker Party material.
The one aspect of theirs, as a group, which is completely un-Communistic, is that they are largely, nominally, religious.
Read Death of the West . I hear Camp of Saints is another good book on the issue, but I have yet to read it.
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