Ranger's border killing prompts call for hearing
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - The fatal shooting of a park ranger helping to apprehend two men who had crossed the U.S.-Mexican border prompted Rep. Tom Tancredo to seek a congressional hearing into the homeland security role of public land officers.
National Park Service Ranger Kris Eggle, 28, was shot to death Aug. 9 in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument while helping to chase two men suspected by Mexican officials of killing four men over a drug debt.
One suspect was killed and the other was arrested.
Tancredo, R-Colo., said officers with the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service stationed along the border are being forced to patrol thousands of acres of the frontier without being given adequate resources.
"They're not really trained for that," Tancredo said. "We need to take a good look at exactly what their role should be."
Tancredo asked Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., chairman of the parks subcommittee, and Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., chairman of the forests subcommittee, to hold a hearing on the issue when Congress returns from its August recess.
Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, has called for a crackdown along the U.S.-Mexican border, including using military patrols.
He recently toured both the northern and southern borders and said Wednesday that morale is abysmal on both because Border Patrol agents and park rangers don't believe they are getting the support needed to do their jobs.