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.
Uh, call in close air support?
I hear they've decommissioned most of the old Cobra gunships... Maybe the mothballs could be knocked out of several dozen of them?
There's the understatement of the year!
They draw the line at telling the truth.
BTTT
Deploy A-10 thunderbolts
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
After watching the FEMA foulup... I'll go with moron for 300 Alex. *mutter*
Wuss.
Chertoff may be incompetent but he is certainly a liar.
We're paying the Mexicans $60 million a year in aid to combat drug smuggling. We supply them with military hardware and they turn around and use it to smuggle drugs into the U.S. What does it take to get the attention of the government? They know what's going on and obviously agree with it. The White House is actively aiding a foriegn power to repeatedly invade our country and then issuing press release saying everything is ok, go back to sleep.
"Face" isn't exactly the right word, is it?
Fire your weapon, cause an international crisis... get attention...
Don't whine to me....
Is it time for America to have another Tea Party?
The MSM spin on this is; "men dressed as Mexican Army" or "men in Mexican Army uniforms"
I can't believe this BS! The United States has been invaded by the army of a foreign nation, not the first time either, and the press is covering it up? Crikey, I thought these guys wanted to sell newspapers! Where is William Randolph Hearst when you need him.
Well ... I plan to vote against both of Wyoming's incumbant Senators at each and every future opportunity as punishment because they have both told me they will be voiting for a guestworker shamnesty. If more people would start throwing the bastards out of office we might get some decent government. But most people here will keep voting for the same old Republicans and then expect something different to happen. It is a mistake to put partisan power over good government.
The 'Pubbies need to deal with this, or authorize the border states to deal with this, or its President Hillary! in 2008.
Not that they seem to mind the idea.
Way PAST time. But that's just me talking.
Re: " Either Chertoff is an incompetent moron or he is a liar. Any speculation?"
Yup;
Both.
He's demonstrated the former with the recent hurricaine debacle, and the latter by his covering for the Mexican invaders.
For that I think he is pushing the envelope of treason, FWIW.
He's no better than that flatulance inflated gasbag / stuffed suit bloviating clueless bureaucrat and his crayola crayon panic alarm chart that he replaced, IMHO.
Can we expect any better from this administration?
Cheer up; it's better than the system we'd have under Hanoi Kerry, we might suppose.
Chertoff isn't a fool. He's actually a VERY sharp guy.
My guess is he's taking his walking orders and talking orders from somebody above him - like Alberto or Carl or even George, or maybe all of them.
Too bad Poncho Villa wasn't born a century later. He would have had a cakewalk invading the U.S. with this useless bunch in Washington overseeing things.
Boy could we use Blackjack Pershing now. Or, better, Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee.
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