Time to lock and load!
Posted on 01/24/2006 6:24:51 AM PST by jackbenimble
Armed standoff along U.S. border By Sara A. Carter and Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writers
Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers had an armed standoff with nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officials on the Rio Grande in Texas on Monday afternoon, according to Texas police and the FBI. Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States, said Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department.
Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border -- near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso -- when Border Patrol agents called for backup. Hudspeth County deputies and Texas Highway patrol officers arrived shortly afterward, Doyal said.
"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."
An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the incident happened at 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time.
"Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border," said Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman with the FBI's El Paso office. "People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican Army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across."
Simmons said the FBI was not involved and referred inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE did not return calls seeking comment.
Doyal said deputies captured one vehicle in the incident, a Cadillac Escalade reportedly stolen from El Paso, and found 1,477 pounds of marijuana inside. The Mexican soldiers set fire to one of the Humvees stuck in the river, he said.
Doyal's deputies faced a similar incident on Nov. 17, when agents from the Fort Hancock border patrol station in Texas called the sheriff's department for backup after confronting more than six fully armed men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The men -- who were carrying machine guns and driving military vehicles -- were trying to bring more than three tons of marijuana across the Rio Grande, Doyal said.
Doyal said such incidents are common at Neely's Crossing, which is near Fort Hancock, Texas, and across from the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
"It happens quite often here," he said.
Deputies and border patrol agents are not equipped for combat, he added.
"Our government has to do something," he said. "It's not the immigrants coming over for jobs we're worried about. It's the smugglers, Mexican military and the national threat to our borders that we're worried about."
Citing a Jan. 15 story in the Daily Bulletin, Reps. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, last week asked the House Judiciary Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the House Homeland Security Committee and the House International Relations Committee to investigate the incursions. The story focused on a Department of Homeland Security document reporting 216 incursions by Mexican soldiers during the past 10 years and a map with the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, both of which were given to the newspaper.
Requests by Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee, and Hunter were made in jointly signed letters.
On Wednesday, Chertoff played down the reports of border incursions by the Mexican military. He suggested many of the incursions could have been mistakes, blaming bad navigation by military personnel or attributing the incursions to criminals dressed in military garb.
Mexican officials last week denied any incursions made by their military.
But border agents interviewed over the past year have discussed confrontations those they believe to be Mexican military personnel.
"We're sitting ducks," said a border agent speaking on condition of anonymity. "The government has our hands tied."
Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.
Kenneth Todd Ruiz can be reached by e-mail at todd.ruiz@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8555.
Either Chertoff is an incompetent moron or he is a liar. Any speculation?
BTTT
My guess is he's a liar. He's putting forth the party line that Bush wants out there. If the country got wind of some of what was really happening, we'd be screaming even more loudly for some form of border security.
Chertoff is a liar.
The liberals and libertarians would have been outraged if any on the marijuana smugglers had suffered any harm.
It is getting really frustrating that the Presdient ignores this issue.
I lived in Alpine for several years and worked on a drug task force and it gets harry along remote stretches of the river. We would just sit there and watch at times from hilltops and wait until the load moved away from the river and stop it.
I felt bad for my comrades in the BP since they were down there all the time and for the most part in 1 or 2 man units only tied to back-up via radio that in those cayon isn't exactyl reliable.
"It is getting really frustrating that the Presdient ignores this issue."
All due respect Mr President, you ignore this at your party's peril. 2008 aint that far away.
Chertoff is just George W. Bush's willing stooge.
To try and place the blame anywhere else is willful denial.
"blaming bad navigation"
Bad navigation my ass! There is damn river there and the rest of the border has a fence except where the illegals have cut it down.
November 2006 is really close
The Border Patrol should be equipped with satellite phones. It is shameful that they are not.
They should be one phone call and 15 minutes away from support by an Apache gunship equipped with hellfire missiles. If we turned a few of these Mexican Humvees into burning slag piles surrounded by dead Mexican soldiers this practice would rapidly stop.
Neither. He's doing exactly what his boss tells him to do. Which is nothing.
Time to lock and load!
The problem is the President does not ignore this...He orders the Sheriffs and Border Patrol to ignore it and he cites civilian Americans who are trying to stop the flow of drugs and illegals as Vigilantes...
Like George says, if yer not against them, you are for 'em...
Who would they call???
And why do Mexicans drive American HumVees???
Well those words DID come out of his mouth. He undoubtedly spoke them in his official capacity as an employee of the President. But nevertheless, they mark him as either incompetent or dishonest. Perhaps he is totally unaware of these incursions or does not understand their significance. If that is the case then he is incompetent. About the only other possibility is that his words were deliberately designed to deceive the public in which case he is a liar and I don't care if he lied on his own behalf or on the behalf of the President.
I suspect the latter. I think he is a lying sack of sh$t!
bump
50 miles from Ft. Bliss, Texas? Time to deploy the 3dACR?
Good grief! Isn't it time yet to deploy an Armored Cavalry Regiment?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.