Free Republic

The U.S. military shot down a Customs and Homeland Security drone on Thursday evening, which led to the abrupt closure of airspace over Fort Hancock, Texas, lawmakers said. At 6:30 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration closed the airspace, citing “special security reasons.” The FAA’s official notice of the closure currently says the closure will remain in effect until June 24. As it turns out, the “special security reasons” involved a friendly fire incident in which the U.S. military shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a laser-based anti-drone system. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), the top Democrat...

EL PASO, Texas -- Hudspeth County, Texas Sheriff Arvin West confirmed a Hudspeth County road crew came under fire Thursday morning from gunmen in Mexico. Sheriff West told ABC-7 that around 10:30 a.m, Thursday a road crew was repairing a part of Indian Hot Springs road, just east of Neely's crossing in Hudspeth County along the US-Mexico border when they came under gunfire from the Mexican side. The crew was able to escape unharmed and managed to call for help. Units from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol and Hudspeth County sheriff's deputies responded within minutes. They were...

Marisol Valles Garcia, a 20-year-old college student studying criminology, beat 20 other contenders to become police chief of Praxedis, a rural community across the border from Fort Hancock, Texas, that has been rocked by drug-gang violence in recent months... "Of course I'm afraid, as anyone would be," Valles Garcia told AOL News. "But I really had the desire to do something for my community." Her approach has raised eyebrows and some hopes even outside her town, one of a string of farming and manufacturing centers in the Juarez Valley, about 35 miles southeast of Mexico's murder capital, Ciudad Juarez... Valles...

Drug cartels from Mexico invade Texas; sheriffs warn citizens to "arm themselves." Still no acknowledgement or assistance from Obama except to play golf and sue Arizona.