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U.S. agents under greater attack on Mexico border
08 Mar 2007
Source: Reuters
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By Robin Emmott
LAREDO, Texas, March 8 (Reuters) - Frustrated by tighter security on
the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal immigrants and drug traffickers are
taking it out on U.S. agents, increasingly attacking them with guns,
rocks and petrol bombs.
Assaults against Border Patrol officers rose 10 percent to 843
incidents in the year to September 2006 from the same period a year
before, officials say. It is also a near three-fold increase from two
years previously.
Mexican drug cartels, locked in a turf feud and under pressure from an
army crackdown, are lashing out at law enforcement officers in Texas.
"The attacks against us are becoming more brazen. Drug cartels have
instructed their people to go down fighting, to do whatever is
necessary to get the narcotics through," said Rick Flores, Webb County
sheriff in Laredo, Texas.
He said drug smugglers are increasingly taking pot shots at agents
with assault rifles from inside Mexico at night, although no one has
been killed.
They are also using riskier routes to bring drugs across the border,
leading to clashes with U.S. law enforcement.
Laredo lies across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo, one of the
Mexican cities worst hit by a fight between rival drug gangs that
killed around 2,000 people last year. The area is a key entry point
for cocaine.
In the Yuma sector, which covers a 125-mile (200-km) desert strip in
southwest Arizona, attacks on agents rose 60 percent between last Oct.
1 and Dec. 31, official data shows.
Large groups of illegal immigrants regularly pelt Border Patrol agents
with softball-size rocks, fireworks and Molotov ****tails, leaving
agents with burns, bruises and head wounds.
"Immigrants are frustrated and are lashing out. It has reached the
point that we are seeing attacks on an almost daily basis," said
Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling.
In one assault in 2005, a group of rock-throwing illegal immigrants
damaged the rotor of a Border Patrol helicopter and forced it to make
an emergency landing.
TIGHTER SECURITY
Life has become more difficult for illegal immigrants and professional
people smugglers.
President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to the
border last May in a move the Homeland Security Department says has cut
the flow of illegal immigrants crossing north by more than 40 percent.
The U.S. government is also boosting its border-monitoring technology,
including trucks with infrared cameras and underground sensors that
detect footsteps as well as surveillance drones flying overhead.
Border Patrol agents are wary of using their weapons after two agents
were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison in 2006 for shooting a drug
smuggler in the buttocks, officials say.
The killing of an illegal immigrant in January by a Border Patrol
agent infuriated Mexico, which demanded an inquiry.
"Smugglers are emboldened to attack as agents are hesitant about
returning fire," said Andy Ramirez of the Friends of the Border
Patrol, a pressure group for greater border security.
Mexicans are more sensitive about the border since the U.S. Congress
voted last year to build a 700-mile (1,100-km) border fence to prevent
illegal immigration.
Rights groups and academics say the rising border violence underscores
the need for a U.S. guest worker program and more coordinated
campaigns between Mexico City and Washington to cut drug consumption
and weaken cartels.
"The continued demand for immigrant workers and narcotics in the
United States means that stronger border security isn't the solution.
As a stand-alone policy, it will only increase the violence," said
Jose Maria Ramos, a security expert at the Tijuana-based research
institute Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix)
U.S. agents under greater attack on Mexico border
08 Mar 2007
Source: Reuters
Printable view
Email this article
By Robin Emmott
LAREDO, Texas, March 8 (Reuters) - Frustrated by tighter security on
the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal immigrants and drug traffickers are
taking it out on U.S. agents, increasingly attacking them with guns,
rocks and petrol bombs.
Assaults against Border Patrol officers rose 10 percent to 843
incidents in the year to September 2006 from the same period a year
before, officials say. It is also a near three-fold increase from two
years previously.
Mexican drug cartels, locked in a turf feud and under pressure from an
army crackdown, are lashing out at law enforcement officers in Texas.
"The attacks against us are becoming more brazen. Drug cartels have
instructed their people to go down fighting, to do whatever is
necessary to get the narcotics through," said Rick Flores, Webb County
sheriff in Laredo, Texas.
He said drug smugglers are increasingly taking pot shots at agents
with assault rifles from inside Mexico at night, although no one has
been killed.
They are also using riskier routes to bring drugs across the border,
leading to clashes with U.S. law enforcement.
Laredo lies across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo, one of the
Mexican cities worst hit by a fight between rival drug gangs that
killed around 2,000 people last year. The area is a key entry point
for cocaine.
In the Yuma sector, which covers a 125-mile (200-km) desert strip in
southwest Arizona, attacks on agents rose 60 percent between last Oct.
1 and Dec. 31, official data shows.
Large groups of illegal immigrants regularly pelt Border Patrol agents
with softball-size rocks, fireworks and Molotov ****tails, leaving
agents with burns, bruises and head wounds.
"Immigrants are frustrated and are lashing out. It has reached the
point that we are seeing attacks on an almost daily basis," said
Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling.
In one assault in 2005, a group of rock-throwing illegal immigrants
damaged the rotor of a Border Patrol helicopter and forced it to make
an emergency landing.
TIGHTER SECURITY
Life has become more difficult for illegal immigrants and professional
people smugglers.
President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to the
border last May in a move the Homeland Security Department says has cut
the flow of illegal immigrants crossing north by more than 40 percent.
The U.S. government is also boosting its border-monitoring technology,
including trucks with infrared cameras and underground sensors that
detect footsteps as well as surveillance drones flying overhead.
Border Patrol agents are wary of using their weapons after two agents
were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison in 2006 for shooting a drug
smuggler in the buttocks, officials say.
The killing of an illegal immigrant in January by a Border Patrol
agent infuriated Mexico, which demanded an inquiry.
"Smugglers are emboldened to attack as agents are hesitant about
returning fire," said Andy Ramirez of the Friends of the Border
Patrol, a pressure group for greater border security.
Mexicans are more sensitive about the border since the U.S. Congress
voted last year to build a 700-mile (1,100-km) border fence to prevent
illegal immigration.
Rights groups and academics say the rising border violence underscores
the need for a U.S. guest worker program and more coordinated
campaigns between Mexico City and Washington to cut drug consumption
and weaken cartels.
"The continued demand for immigrant workers and narcotics in the
United States means that stronger border security isn't the solution.
As a stand-alone policy, it will only increase the violence," said
Jose Maria Ramos, a security expert at the Tijuana-based research
institute Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix)
