Posted on 09/23/2009 9:51:00 AM PDT by La Lydia
The busiest border crossing in the country was open again Wednesday morning after closing for hours during a shootout between federal agents and vans suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants into California from Mexico. Four were injured and traffic was stopped for four hours Tuesday near San Diego after the border patrol agents fired shots at the vehicles across nine lanes of highway. The 74 people crowded into the three vans were taken into federal custody.
San Diego police spokesman Lt. Kevin Rooney said Tuesday the drivers tried to storm past inspectors at the San Ysidro port of entry — which connects San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico — and make their way into the U.S. without stopping.
Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and a Customs and Border Patrol agent fired their guns to try to prevent them from crossing, he said. There was no return fire.
"It was human smuggling, definitely," ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.
The shootout occurred over nine of the 24 northbound traffic lanes, said Monica Munoz, a San Diego police spokeswoman. Three people were shot and injured in the vans, authorities said, and one vehicle smashed into another as it tried to bypass border inspectors, injuring a fourth person...
Rooney said the three vans pulled into the same lane, and the first driver gave his license to a border agent.
When the agent stepped back into the booth to run the license, all three vans drove quickly into the U.S. side.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Didn’t someone say that they are not allowed to shoot at drive-throughs? Was it you?
ping
I’ve always wondered when one of these big Mexican drug cartels is going to hit one of our border checkpoints in force and attempt to kill all the agents on duty to demonstrate how powerful they are. I wonder if this could have been a trial run to feel out the tactics and procedures of the border patrol?
The other unhappy part of this ending is that we will pay the medical bills for the injured illegals, and they’ll probably get to stay.
Why reopen the border at all? It is just too dangerous. Nothing good ever came from South of that Border.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
I have no clue why you are always so civil and pleasant.
Thanks for the “closed” and this “open” ping. Very interesting. I’ve been down there before.
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