Posted on 05/22/2002 7:50:11 AM PDT by Tancredo Fan
Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 22 May 2002
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.
No. See:
Report: Mexican navy officials helped major drug cartel with shipments
Perhaps the Border Patrol ought to invest in unarmed Predator UAVs for border surveillance, and have groups of four agents to get to those areas. No use staying with 1950s techniques int he 21st century...
A few dead Mexican soldiers should get the message across.
Tuor
All the peons are driving Humvees these days.
Can't blame the agent for clearing out. We need to get tactics updated for the Border Patrol. At least two agents together, preferably groups of four.
That would require a president that had a pair. This one doesn't. He instead is madly in love with Mexico and their illegal aliens. Getting this president to uphold his sworn constitutional duties to protect our border and people has about as much chance of happening as Osama Bin Laden folding up his terror network and renouncing radical Islam.
Tancredo Outraged at Another Mexican Border Incursion
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Details Mexican Military Incursion Outside Ajo, Arizona
WASHINGTON, D.C. (5/22/02) -- U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) today announced that he has learned of another incursion along the U.S. Mexico border near Ajo, Arizona. According to a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, the Tohono O'odham Police Department encountered a Mexican military incursion on Friday, May 17, 2002 at approximately 8:30PM along the Santa Cruz trail inside the Papago Farms border patrol area, just south of Forest Road 21.
"I cannot in good conscience stand by and watch another incursion along our border take place," said Tancredo. "Unless we open our eyes and recognize that what's happening along the U.S. Mexico border is real, one of our guys is going to get killed.
"Everyone keeps claiming that these "incursions" don't take place, that people are just getting lost, and the whole idea of incursions is erroneous. Unless the U.S. and Mexican government admits these incursions exist and take action to stop them, then an international incident, in my opinion, is foreseeable," concluded Tancredo.
The U.S. Border Patrol Agent, who wishes to remain anonymous, informed Rep. Tancredo during a phone conversation that approximately five miles north of the U.S./Mexico border, one the "GS-11" agents out of the Ajo border patrol station noticed a military helicopter flying overhead, heading south towards Mexico. Shortly thereafter, he came upon a humvee, which not only began to approach him, but to fire upon his vehicle. According to the agent's testimony, the vehicles rear window and back driver's side windows were destroyed. Fortunately, the agent was able to flee the incursion unharmed and concluded the conversation by stating, "As far as I am concerned, that [incursion] should be an act of war."
On May 3, 2002, Rep. Tancredo issued a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox to reveal the "incursions" made by members of the Mexican Army and law enforcement agencies onto American soil. Rep. Tancredo never received a response from President Fox.
###
Mines should be laid along the vast unguarded border and military police placed along the border around 35-45,000.
How do you handle 8-12 million illegal aliens overrunning the country? Canifornia isn't handling it too well. The state is teetering on the edge of collapse. Message to Mexico: Stay safe. Don't sneak in here or it might be your final trip to anywhere.
How do you handle 8-12 million illegal aliens overrunning the country?
In other words, you DON'T handle the media frenzy, the mines get removed, and we have the massive illegal immigration problem all over again.
Don't hold you breath for that one. No one wants to 'offend' the mexican voters. Either side of the isle.
And by the way, the administration that does that will get their butts kicked the following November. Then there is the lawsuit.
Better to buy Predator UAVs to help with border surveillance, and use the agents in groups of four to do the roundups after you double the size of the Border Patrol.
The problem is that those individuals are "valued and esteemed citizens" because of their bribes campaign contributions.
Agreed. Thanks for the flag.
But try selling THAT to some folks here, and they say you favor "open borders".
Nothing to add here...My nephew is a border patrol in AZ...I would hope he remembers the gun training his dad and I gave him as a youth...
FMCDH
And for that, I position, I've taken a ton of crap.
Why do we need guest workers? How about the anchor baby nightmare that makes many 'guest workers' permanent?
We'll need to figure something out on that front, consistent with the Constitution. I don't have any ideas to solve that problem, to be honest. Sorry, I don't have all the answers.
That's exactly right TF. Before we even contemplate a guest worker program (which I am against anyway) the 14th Amendment loophole allowing immigrants to circumvent our immigration laws by bearing babies on our soil has to be permanently fixed. Moreover, the millions of illegal aliens living here have to be deported. Anything short of this is AGAIN putting the cart before the horse. When our government evidences competence and a commitment to uphold its own immigration laws at least this issue could be debated "honestly". Of course this will never happen--at least with this president and this congress.
Definitely. These guest-worker sending countries know full well how to work that game.
You're going to get a ton more crap for that position and justifiably so.
We don't owe everyone in the world that enters our country, illegally, a better future. If anyone owes it to them, it's the country of their birth.
We don't need a guest worker program.
We need to pay Americans a living wage to do these jobs.
You just sound like any other 'cheap labor' Republican and you don't have any right to complain, because you receive a ton of crap for it.
PUT THE MARINES WITH TANKS AND M16S ON THE BORDER NOW!!!!!!!!
This is got to stop ... before MORE Americans are killed! Myself and other individuals are willing to protect OUR LAND if the US government WILL NOT!!!!
Those are the three options.
In this instance, I think the agent responded correctly by making a tactical withdrawal. This is the second time this type of incident has accrued and I don't see anything changing.
Saddly, one or more of our agents is going to get killed on the altar of open borders. Our agents are prepared to do nightly battle with alien and drug smugglers, but they are not prepared to go toe to toe with combat troops. I see this ending in tragedy. But what are a few federal employees' lives worth compared to the promise of unlimited cheep labor and the next generation of voters? It seems both governments have already done the math.
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.