Border Patrol union says agents shot at during confrontation at Otay Mesa (San Diego, CA)
U.S. Officials close case saying agents lack proof about gunshots
By Joe Cantlupe
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
November 3, 2000

WASHINGTON – As in most incidents in which Border Patrol agents and Mexican soldiers cross paths at the border, confusion has blurred the circumstances surrounding a confrontation near Otay Mesa that one top U.S. official termed nearly "catastrophic."

The union representing the Border Patrol agents in San Diego said two agents were shot at on Oct. 24 by a group of 10 armed Mexican soldiers, some of whom had surrounded them after crossing into the United States.

Despite the union's demands for an investigation, Border Patrol and Mexican officials have closed the books on the case. Officials say there was no evidence that shots were fired.

"This is a classic "he said, he said" situation," said Virginia Kice, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service western region. "We may never know exactly what happened. What's important is that we work closely with Mexico to safeguard against any incidents in the future."

In a year highlighted by several tense confrontations between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies, the latest incident occurred near one of the most desolate areas near the border.

The incident unfolded the morning of Oct. 24 when two members of the Border Patrol's mobile air unit crossed paths with a group of 10 uniformed Mexicans who walked north of the border near Copper Canyon, haphazardly marked with some barbed wire fences, officials said.

At one point, the U.S. agents heard gunshots, possibly in Mexican territory, and radioed for help. Eventually, the group of Mexicans talked with the U.S. officials and then the men with rifles went back to Mexico after the Border Patrol agents identified themselves, Border Patrol officials said.

The Mexican soldiers were part of an anti-drug mission and did not cross into U.S. territory, according to Mexican authorities.

But internal memos written by Border patrol agents involved in the incident portray a tense encounter that straddled both sides of the border.

One agent wrote that eight shots were fired by the Mexicans in the "direction" of the U.S. agents. The U.S. agents also wrote that the Mexicans repeatedly had taken aggressive positions, aiming their weapons at them, and ignoring the agents' orders, the memos said.

"These persons had crossed the international boundary fence and had positioned themselves on high ground with one of their rifles pointed directly at us," wrote one U.S. agent, noting several of the Mexicans apparently had taken a "sniper deployment" position.

"The (INS) is making an attempt to minimize the incident and the danger for some unknown reason," said Keith Weeks, vice president of the union. The agents "did feel their lives were in danger," Weeks said.

No agent was injured.

William T. Veal, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector denied that officials downplayed the incident.

"I'm concerned about the incident," Veal said. "It certainly had the potential to be catastrophic. I'm proud of the high degree of restraint exercised by the Border Patrol agents."

Veal said he questioned Border Patrol supervisors who interviewed the agents. He did not question them personally.

"The officers heard what they thought were shots but they did not see these people actually discharge their weapons," Veal said. "We don't have direct evidence that shots were fired at our officers."

The Mexican Army has strayed into U.S. territory more than 60 times between 1995 and 1999, according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon.

In March, the most controversial incursion occurred near El Paso when a group of Mexican soldiers on an anti-drug mission in Humvees stormed through a border fence and chased and fired on several Border Patrol agents.

That case also was rife with inconsistent statements, reports show.

In San Diego, Veal said Mexican and American officials have established a protocol in an effort to avoid any mistaken incursions across the border. Under the program, officials share maps and establish radio contract with certain agencies, Veal said.

Apparently, the Mexican unit involved in the Otay Mesa incident was not part of the agreement, he said.

Copyright 2000 Copley News Service

---

Border agent survives being shot in back
Attack reportedly came from area in Mexico
By Gregory Alan Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 17, 2000

CALEXICO, CA -- A Border Patrol agent was shot in the back early yesterday morning while working along the U.S.-Mexico border near the New River, but he escaped serious injury when his bulletproof vest stopped the bullet.

The shot is believed to have come from the Mexican side of the border, from a neighborhood notorious for attacks on agents, said Manuel Figueroa, a Border Patrol spokesman in El Centro.

The FBI is investigating the incident, Figueroa said.

At the Border Patrol's request, municipal police in neighboring Mexicali, just across the border from Calexico, swept Colonia Baja California, the area where the shot was thought to have been fired. But no trace of a gunman was found.

"We've had agents walking around, going to houses to look for cartridges and climbing on roofs, and asking neighbors if they saw anything," said Jesús Enrique Badilla Jiménez, U.S.-Mexico liaison officer with the Mexicali police.

The unidentified agent, 27, was checking generators that power the Border Patrol's portable lights along the border fence when he was hit, Figueroa said.

"He felt something hit him in the back. His back was facing toward the (border) fence. He thought he'd been hit with something like a ball bearing or a marble."

After leaving the area, the agent checked his vest and found a small hole in the upper left side. "He also found a fragment in there of what looks like a small-caliber round," Figueroa said.

The agent, who has less than three years with the Border Patrol, suffered a bruise on his left shoulder, but was otherwise unhurt, the spokesman said. He did not see who fired the shot, Figueroa said.

Neither the Border Patrol nor Mexicali police were surprised that the attack came from Colonia Baja California. "Agents have been having rocks thrown at them forever from out of there," Figueroa said.

Colonia Baja California stretches along the border about a mile west of the New River, after the river crosses the border and begins to make its way north.

It's the point at which illegal immigrants enter the highly contaminated river to float northward into U.S. territory. It's also a rough-and-tumble neighborhood where people build their own homes and improvisation is a way of life.

When the Border Patrol began replacing the chain-link fencing along a two-mile stretch of the border in March 1997, area residents brought out their own cutting torches and power tools to cut down the old fence and haul it off to reuse for themselves, within a matter of days.

"We're trying to have a sense of humor about this," one Border Patrol supervisor said at the time.

But there's nothing funny about the traffickers of both narcotics and immigrants who operate in Colonia Baja California, in large numbers and at virtually all hours.

"It's a low-income place," Mexicali police officer Badilla said. "It's a place where you have polleros (migrant smugglers) and people selling drugs . . . and they want to discourage the Border Patrol from working in their area."

Attacks on Border Patrol agents from Colonia Baja California have escalated in recent months, authorities on both sides of the border said.

"In addition to the rockings that we've always had, we've started having agents hit by ball bearings fired from slingshots," Figueroa said. "Armed encounters, confrontations with agents -- it's a pretty bad area.

"About half the shots we've had fired at us in the last year came out of there."

Mexicali's Badilla recalled yet another type of attack on a Border Patrol agent from the neighborhood.

"There was an incident three or four months ago in which someone threw a bottle with gasoline at an agent, but he was OK, and I think Mexicali police caught the guy," Badilla said.

As a result of this and other recent attacks, the Border Patrol is strongly urging its agents to wear their bulletproof vests while on duty, Figueroa said. Although the patrol provides vests for all its agents, it does not require agents to wear them.

"Luckily, this guy was wearing his," he said of the agent who was shot. "He always wears his. But they can choose to wear it or not wear it. It's a personal call."

Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Time Magazine
Time bomb on the Mexico border
August 2000

DOUGLAS, AZ - A few years back, when Mexicans would stagger out of the desert onto Helen Hoffman's cattle ranch, her family would set up a card table for the parched visitors and give them gallons of water, grub and maybe a few days' work. But not anymore. Every morning now, when her husband Robert checks the cattle on their 500-acre spread near the border at Douglas, Ariz., he sees "heads poppin' up all over in the mesquite bushes," says Helen. Several times, bands of illegal immigrants tried to steal their pick-up and break into the Hoffmans' house under the tall cottonwoods.

A few nights ago, Robert, 84, had settled in front of the TV when he had the prickly sensation that somebody was watching him. He looked up and saw four pairs of eyes staring through the window. It took a while for Robert, who is still recovering from a triple coronary bypass, to fetch the shotgun now kept by the door, and by that time, the prowlers had vanished. Since then, Helen seldom ventures into the yard, even in daylight, without her 9-mm pistol. "I'm no racist. Why, I have a Mexican daughter-in-law," says Helen, 78, a stocky woman with the tenacity of a snapping turtle. "But we have a major invasion happening in this country, and nobody seems to give a damn."

This anger against the growing flood of 1 million illegal immigrants a year is rising fast among independent-spirited, gun-toting residents in the borderlands of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. Over the past three years, the number of illegals streaming across the border has remained constant. They come from Mexico, where a third of the people live on $2 a day or less, and from other countries where poverty, national disasters and political upheaval unleash an exodus of refugees. Since the early 1990s, the border patrol has partly sealed the California frontier with its operations "Hold the Line" and "Gatekeeper." But they did not deter the illegal immigrants and their "coyote" smugglers for long. Instead, the crackdown has driven them into the Southwestern deserts, where much of the land adjacent to the unfenced U.S.-Mexican border is privately owned by ranchers and rural residents. It is these people, like the Hoffmans, who are on the front line of the Clinton Administration's losing battle to secure America's southern frontier.

For many Americans who believe citizens have the right to defend their property and privacy with firearms, these ranchers are true patriots, doing a job the government is too weak-kneed to carry out. Ranchers such as Roger Barnett from Douglas, who boasts of capturing illegals on his property--his record is 170 in a day--have become the heroes of anti-immigration activists around the country. Such groups as the American Patrol and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform often liken the ranchers in their literature to the Minutemen of the American Revolution.

But that propaganda can also carry a nasty edge. Flyers circulated in Douglas by an "R.U.A. Freeman" offer volunteers a chance to join in "ole western individualism" and help ranchers nab aliens. Envoys from the Ku Klux Klan put in an appearance last month at a town meeting in Sierra Vista, Ariz., hoping to offer solidarity but were chased off by locals who don't want their cause, which they see as a pragmatic one, tainted by zealots and adventurers who seem to want to hunt down poor Mexican families for sport. "I get three or four calls a week from volunteers--damned if a lot of 'em aren't women--from all over the country," says Barnett, 57, a rugged, athletic man in blue jeans. "But I tell 'em they'd do better by writing to their Congressmen."

Not surprisingly, the ranchers' militancy is provoking a Mexican backlash. Two weeks ago, Carlos Ibarra Perez, a retired oil worker in Reynosa, across the line from Texas, announced a $10,000 reward for the first person who kills a U.S. border-patrol agent. In the ensuing uproar, Ibarra withdrew his bounty, but it shows the depth of hostility growing between the U.S. and its neighbor.

This "red alert" issue, as the Mexicans see it, was raised in Washington talks last Friday between Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon and President Clinton. Both men agreed to tighten their side of the common border.  Says Mexico's Foreign Secretary Rosario Green: "This is racist behavior that violates all international rules."

The conflict is becoming deadly. So far this year, three immigrants have been killed and seven others have been wounded in showdowns on the U.S. side of the border. Violence has come as the days get warmer. On May 14, Mexican Eusebio de Haro, 22, was shot in the groin and left bleeding to death after he and a companion approached a rancher near Bracketville, Texas, pleading for a drink of water. Near the Arizona border town of Sasabe, Miguel Angel Palafox, 20, had eluded the border patrol on May 21 and was heading north through hills covered with saguaro cactus--his dream was to reach Phoenix--when he was spotted by two horsemen dressed in black. One of them pulled out a rifle and shot Palafox in the neck. The youth wrapped his shirt around the wound and crawled back to Mexico in 115 degree F heat. "I thought I was going to die in the desert. There wasn't a single tree for shade," says Palafox. Once across the Mexican border, Palafox dragged himself another mile before reaching a farmhouse, where he got help. The two riders have yet to be found.

Along the 80-mile stretch of border in Arizona's Cochise County, there have been 25 incidents since April 1999 in which armed private citizens rounded up dozens of suspected illegals. Most of these actions involved rancher Barnett and his brother Donald, 54, who patrol a 22,000-acre spread about four miles from the Mexican border. It's mesquite country, with sparse grass and sandy creeks that are perfect trails for the coyotes and their clients, who pay $800 apiece to reach Phoenix, $1,500 to Chicago. Along the way, says Roger Barnett, they cut fences and let out cattle, deliberately break water pumps and litter the pasture with garbage that chokes the cattle. Sometimes the coyotes and drug smugglers crossing through are armed. "Out here," says Cochise County sheriff Larry Dever, "any rancher would be a fool who isn't prepared to defend himself." But the sheriff insists that so far, no "vigilante action" against the illegals has taken place in Cochise.

With his binoculars, an M-16 automatic rifle and his sheepdog Mikey, Barnett sometimes tracks a group of illegals for miles, following their footprints in the sand and bits of clothing snagged on the mesquite thorns. In the summer it's harder for his dog to track them; the incandescent heat sears away their scent. "They move across the desert like a centipede, 40 or 50 people at a time," says Barnett. Once he catches them, Barnett radios the border patrol to cart them off his land. "You always get one or two that are defiant," says Barnett, who chuckles, remembering an incident a few weeks back. "One fellow tried to get up and walk away, saying we're not Immigration. So I slammed him back down and took his photo. 'Why'd you do that?' the illegal says, all surprised. 'Because we want you to go home with a before picture and an after picture--that is, after we beat the s___ outta you.' You can bet he started behavin' then."

Such antics have made Barnett a lot of enemies on both sides of the border. He is demonized as a vigilante bogeyman by the Mexican press, threatened with criminal charges by Hispanic human-rights groups in Tucson, Ariz. And the U.S. Attorney's office in Tucson is keeping a file open on Barnett for possible prosecution, according to police sources. Barnett has to watch his step in other ways too. Across the border in Agua Prieta, a dusty boomtown of cheap hotels, cantinas and shops specializing in plastic water jugs and can openers for the illegals' desert odyssey, Barnett is considered bad for business. More than 1.2 million illegals--Mexicans, Central Americans, Chinese and a smattering of Europeans--poured through here last year. Yet during May and June, the number of aliens wanting to cross has fallen considerably, and some coyotes think this may be Barnett's fault; his notoriety has spread throughout Mexico. As a result, many illegals are heading west, to Nogales, Ariz. In the Azueta plaza where the coyotes meet their pollos (chickens), the smugglers say a bounty has been put on Barnett's head. Barnett was warned of these threats by the Cochise sheriff but says, "I'll just watch my back and keep doin' what I think is right."

In Tucson, border patrol officials predict that the number of apprehensions this year will beat last year's record high of 470,000. Still, for every illegal who is caught, at least two others slip through to jobs in the U.S. that nobody else wants, as meatpackers, fruit pickers, gardeners and motel chambermaids. Even feisty ranchers like Barnett admit that one way of keeping trespassers off his land is to legalize entry to more immigrants. "If we decide we need them for jobs, it should be through a legal port of entry--not across my land," he says.

The other option, one favored by 89% of Arizona residents, according to a recent poll, is to enlist the military's help in patrolling the border. But Douglas Mayor Ray Borane thinks this would raise tensions between the U.S. and Mexico and lead to more deaths. "Do we really need troops down here to fight ladies coming through with infants in their arms?" he asks. The U.S. military is barred by a post-Civil War law from taking on civilian law-enforcement duties except in a national emergency. Unless Washington lawmakers decide either to get tougher with illegal immigration or to fill the labor force by opening the frontier gates a little wider, the U.S. ranchers will keep up their rough sport with their unwanted trespassers.

TIM MCGIRK - DOUGLAS, AZ

Copyright © 2000 Time Inc.

This article has good overall content. I have the following problems with it however: The invasion numbers quoted are grossly incorrect and are actually far higher and increasing. The accusation of the illegal alien being robbed in the U.S. by 'two horsemen dressed in black' is most likely false because the vast majority of illegal aliens are robbed in Mexico by Mexicans. And I find it difficult to believe that rancher Roger Barnett (a former deputy sheriff) used either the language quoted or the threat quoted, 'Because we want you to go home with a before picture and an after picture--that is, after we beat the s___ outta you.' And the ranchers I know are NOT against LEGAL immigration, but ARE against nightly trespassing, smuggling, theft, littering, vandalism, and harassment of their lands, buildings, livestock, vehicles, and families. - Website author.

---

NAFTA's bittersweet boom
More jobs at lower pay; or why the triple border fence must be built*
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 31, 2000

LA JOYA, Jalisco, Mexico -- For more than a half-century, Jalisco's rural youth had little choice but to head north and sneak across the border into the United States for work. Jalisco's rural youth have, and always have had, a choice to stay home in Mexico and not break U.S. immigration or smuggling laws.

But then came the North American Free Trade Agreement and the promise of jobs at home.

"With NAFTA we will export goods, not people," Carlos Salinas de Gortari said when he was Mexico's president. In 1994 Carlos Salinas de Gortari fled Mexico with millions of dollars (some say billions) for exile to the U.S., and later to Ireland. Salinas' brother Raul is now serving 27 years in jail for masterminding a 1994 political assassination and is also facing charges of embezzling millions of dollars.

In Jalisco, the state that has sent more undocumented workers to the United States than any other, only half of NAFTA's promise has come true.

Exports have increased 500 percent, and the state now ranks second in generating jobs. But young people still leave to work in the United States.

They leave partly because of money. Wages in the United States remain about eight times higher than in Mexico. This article later says 12 times higher - See below.

They also are driven by tradition. Migration has become so ingrained in the region's rural culture that, for young men, the trek north represents a rite of passage.

The exodus of Jalisco's youth, coupled with the state's job boom, has created what some people thought they never would see here: a labor shortage.

"If they have good eyesight, hands and legs, we'll hire them," said Hung Chee Loh, manager of NatSteel, which makes a variety of high-tech products in Guadalajara.

Searching for workers

An hour's drive east in Zapotlanejo, the clothing center of western Mexico, job candidates are in such short supply that Héctor Alvarez, owner of Industrias Espuela de Oro, put auxiliary sewing plants in two villages. He also farms out home work to fill U.S., Asian and European demand for his western-style shirts and slacks.

Even farm workers are at a premium. So few local men are available to harvest crops that women and children are moving into the fields, along with migrants from Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.

"NAFTA showed it's very easy to oversell the speed at which development can happen," said Philip Martin, chairman of Migration Dialogue, an organization of international migration experts.

President-elect Vicente Fox has vowed to stop the labor outflow by creating better-paying jobs at home. That is a daunting task.

If anything, NAFTA has proven that changing the decades-old pattern of cross-border movement will be more difficult than it once seemed.

"In coming years, the scenario will be radically different. Anything could happen," said Augustín Escobar, a migration researcher at Guadalajara's CIESAS institute.

Model of prosperity

NAFTA's successes and failures are especially vivid in Jalisco, a west-central Mexican state of 6 million best known for its tequila, mariachi music and the flashy horsemanship of its charros.

The state's economy was in shambles even before the 1994 peso devaluation and the recession that followed. But in 1995, a newly elected state government -- led by the party of president-elect Fox -- used NAFTA's favorable trade and investment provisions to spur growth.

"We selected the right areas of business and the right way to do it, and our timing was right," said Sergio García de Alba, the state's economic development secretary.

As a result, Jalisco has been transformed into the model of a prosperous, modern, new Mexico.

In the last five years, more than 324,000 jobs were added, and companies keep generating more. The state now creates one of every 10 new positions in Mexico.

U.S. and Asian technology manufacturers, using NAFTA to import machinery and materials duty-free, have turned Guadalajara, a city of 1.6 million people, into Mexico's Silicon Valley.

Huge, flat factories are decked with permanent banners advertising for workers to assemble Motorola cellular phones, Dell computers, Hewlett-Packard printers and other technology gear shipped daily to consumers across North America.

Guadalajara's labor market is so tight that Jabil Circuits of St. Petersburg, Fla., recently decided against expanding there. It will open its next plant in Chihuahua.

Garment manufacturers in Zapotlanejo, a city of 70,000, compete furiously for cutters and sewers for their factories and for sales clerks at the scores of apparel shops that line the city's main streets.
 

Jalisco, post-NAFTA  13,600 new foreign and Mexican companies opened businesses.  A total of $4.7 billion was invested in business ventures.  Sales of Jalisco-made goods abroad reached $12.3 billion last year, five times more than before NAFTA.  Tequila producers increased exports 30 percent, selling mainly to U.S. and European urbanites who have made the agave liquor their aperitif of choice.  The state became Mexico's top telecommunications and electronics manufacturer, with those goods accounting for 73.3 percent of exports. Nearly three-quarters of Jalisco's exports go to the United States. Sources: State of Jalisco; Mexico's National Institute of Statistics

'A better life'

Salvador Placéncia, 18, is among the many young people turning their backs on this explosion of employment opportunities.

"There's lots of jobs around now, but they don't pay much," Placéncia said as he milked cows near the rural village of La Joya.

Placéncia sewed Wal-Mart garments in Zapotlanejo before quitting to help his father operate the family dairy. The youngest of Candelária Placéncia's 11 children, Salvador Placéncia now is waiting for two of five brothers working in the United States to come home for a visit and take him back with them.

The pair, employed at a dairy near Santa Barbara, have delayed the trip because they have heard that the United States soon might grant amnesty to undocumented workers and they do not want to miss a chance -- however remote -- to become legal U.S. residents.

Until the brothers visit home, Placéncia continues milking 11 cows twice a day.

"I need him here, but I understand it's a better life up there," said his 70-year-old father. "Here, what you earn in one week doesn't even buy a pair of shoes."

With a long tradition of migration to the United States, La Joya is typical of rural villages in western Mexico.

Despite the economic boom in nearby cities, the region remains so poor that when someone this year stole the three televisions that provide long-distance teaching at the secondary school, classes continued meeting without instruction until a private foundation donated replacements.

In June, 12 students graduated from Telesecundaria Benito Juárez García. Without money to go on to preparatoria -- the equivalent of U.S. high school -- they planned to seek full-time work.

Where would the 15-and 16-year-olds look for jobs?

Nearly all the young men and several of the young women said they would go to the United States, rather than work in the factories or the region's many dairy farms.

They had relatives in California, Texas, Florida, Nebraska and the Carolinas, they said, and would join them to toil in fields, factories and meat packing plants.

"More than half will go," said teaching assistant Moisés Jiménez. "If the price of milk drops, they'll all go."

Promises to keep

As president, Fox's greatest challenge could be to fulfill his pledge to reduce U.S. migration by raising Mexican salaries.

A free-market enthusiast, Fox is a former manager of Coca-Cola operations in Mexico and Central America, and head of family ranching, leather and shoe-making businesses. As governor of Guanajuato, he led an economic transformation much like Jalisco has experienced since NAFTA.

These experiences make Fox well-aware of NAFTA's half-filled promises. He speaks of taking the pact a step further by turning North America into a full-fledged common market with more opportunities to let Mexicans work legally in the United States.

He says the arrangement should bring Mexican living standards up to those of Mexico's NAFTA partners, Canada and the United States.

"So long as a worker in Mexico earns $5 per day and a worker in the United States earns $60, immigration problems will continue," Fox said soon after being elected president. This is 12 times as much, not 8 times as much as stated earlier in this article.

However, low wages are the lure attracting foreign companies to Jalisco and other locations in Mexico.

Guadalajara tech manufacturers pay their assembly workers about $1.60 an hour -- including federally mandated benefits. The minimum wage in April 2001 is $0.41 cents per hour except in northern Mexico states that border the U.S. where it is $0.47 cents per hour.

Zapotlanejo garment workers are paid less, from $1 to $1.25 an hour.

Minus benefits, take-home pay in Mexico averages $5 per day. That is about the same amount earned per hour under the U.S. federal minimum wage of $5.15. California's minimum wage is $5.75 per hour.

In other words a Mexican can illegally sneak into the U.S. and earn the equivalent per year in buying power in Mexico of about 8 to 15 times the Mexican minimum wage - Or what it might take him 15 years working in Mexico to earn!

Keeping wages low

Guadalajara's high-tech managers are so determined to keep salaries from inching up, said NatSteel's Loh, that they meet monthly to make certain everyone is maintaining the going rate.

However, it is uncertain whether wages can remain low if the pool of workers keeps shrinking.

U.S. migration taps a large part of the supply. But the number of job-seekers also is declining due to a major demographic shift. During the last two decades, the number of children per family has dropped to 2.5 from 6.1.

The birth rate is plummeting fastest in areas of highest migration, researcher Escobar said. Therefore the birth rate has not really dropped in Mexico, it has moved to the U.S. along with the illegal aliens moving here to have their children in the U.S.

"For 15 years, ... we needed emigration to help our people find work," he said. "But at some point in the next five to six years at the latest, we should have a major change in job absorption and labor migration."

The result could trigger the most significant change in Mexico-U.S. migration since shortly after World War I, when the U.S. government let farmers recruit Mexican workers. Migration continued under the bracero program between 1942 and 1964 and was sustained over the following years by Mexico's rapid population growth, government policies that produced rural poverty and a tolerance on both sides of the border for unauthorized migration.

Still, no one predicts that one of the greatest global migrations of modern times will end soon.

Some argue the demographic and economic changes will have minimal effect. They say cross-border flows will increase for two to five decades more.

Others predict the situation today in Jalisco is the precursor of changes that will slow migration by as early as 2005.

"The demographics have changed, there's job creation in Mexico, and the number of low-wage jobs in the United States is static or shrinking," said Migration Dialogue's Martin. "That should make it easier for NAFTA to work its wonders."

*Bold type italics are comments I added to article. This is a good article explaining why illegal immigration must be stopped with a new international border fence to properly define and defend the U.S. border.

Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Illegal border crossers feared lost
Search on for as many as 60 who may be in desert
By Gregory Alan Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 28, 2000

El Centro, CA - Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border launched an air and ground search yesterday for perhaps as many as 60 would-be illegal border crossers from Mexico who might be lost in desert terrain east of San Diego amid temperatures as high as 122 degrees (50 C.).

One woman was found dead east of Tecate, Mexico, by Mexican border agents. Four others, badly dehydrated, were rescued by other agents and the Mexican army.

Some of the immigrants may have made it into U.S. territory, Mexican officials said yesterday. U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Centro confirmed that they had been alerted and were looking for them.

"We've got agents out searching, and we have an aircraft up," said Harold Beasley, acting chief of the Border Patrol's El Centro sector. "We're going to stay with this until we get some kind of resolution. We want these people found."

Beta Group, the Mexican border-crime task force, initially reported a group of 30 migrants lost north of La Rumerosa, a rugged mountain pass that drops to the desert floor in the Mexicali Valley, on the Mexican side of the border from Imperial County.

The group may have made it into an area south of Davis Valley on the American side, Beta officials said.

Later in the day, however, Beta agents in Tecate reported that perhaps double that number might be missing.

Beta agents found two migrants near La Rumerosa yesterday afternoon; a Mexican army patrol found two others.

Beta Group agents also found the body of Guadalupe Martínez Montano, 36, from the Mexican state of Michoacan. There was no immediate word yesterday on the cause of death.

One group of 25 migrants tried to cross the border Monday via the dry lake known as Laguna Salada, on the desert floor near Mexicali, Beta agents in Tecate said. Another group of 20 tried to cross Wednesday near La Rumerosa, and 20 others passed through the same general area Wednesday night.

Beta said the areas the groups tried to cross through have no water and little shade, with deep rocky ravines where footing is treacherous and searches difficult. Typical summer temperatures there range from 113 to 122 degrees, the group said.

Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Authorities find second body from Mexican immigrants abandoned in desert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 30, 2000

MEXICO CITY -- Authorities found the body of a 55-year-old man, the second victim from a group of at least 30 Mexicans who were abandoned by a smuggler while trying to cross into the United States through Baja California's desert.

The body of Juan Manuel Vargas Dimas, from the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, was found Saturday under a tree after he died of dehydration, the Mexican border crime task force said.

His body was identified by his 17-year-old son, one of four people from the group found alive. Authorities on both sides of the border were searching for other possible victims.

On Thursday, officials located the body of Guadalupe Martinez, 36, also of Michoacan.

The immigrants were abandoned in the desert by a smuggler who promised to sneak them into the United States for U.S. dollars $1,600 each.

Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Sony says it may cut maquiladoras (NAFTA factories) due to crime
REUTERS
May 8, 2000

MEXICO CITY -- Sony Corp. could reduce the scale of its operations in Mexico due to a "critical" level of crime, the company's Mexico representative said Monday.

"The situation with respect to public security has become so critical that it is beginning to be reason enough for the company to decide to reduce its investment or move plants to a more secure country," Shin Takagi said during an event held by the Mexican Council of Export Maquiladoras.

Maquiladora plants, which import raw materials or components duty-free and subsequently export abroad, provide hundreds of thousands of jobs in Mexico, mainly along the border with the United States.

Sony, the Japanese manufacturer of televisions and other consumer electronics, has four plants in the border cities of Tijuana, Mexicali and Nuevo Laredo. Tijuana is considered the world capital of television set production.

In a study released last week, Mexico's Center for Investigation and Economic Research (CIDE) said kidnappings, bank robberies and white collar crimes such as money laundering are the main activities of organized crime in Mexico.

With an average of eight murders a day, Mexico City is among the most dangerous cities in the world, the study concluded.

Takagi said security in Mexico is of "maximum interest" to foreign investors.

"This problem increases our operating costs," he said, adding that the cost of security systems for company executives in Mexico doubled from 1998 to 1999.

From 1996 to 1999 Japanese companies invested $6.3 billion in the northern state of Baja California, he said.

The number of maquiladoras has grown exponentially since the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Mexico, the United States and Canada took effect in 1994.

Copyright (c) 2000 - Reuters

---

Smugglers dig 50-60 tunnels under El Paso, Texas
REUTERS
Oct 21, 1999

EL PASO, Texas - Smugglers dug a network of 50 to 60 tunnels under this southwest Texas border city to ferret drugs and undocumented immigrants into the United States and weapons into Mexico, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Authorities have long known that smugglers at times used legitimate city sewage and drainage tunnels to try and evade border controls.

But information from recent arrests by the U.S. Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) led to the discovery that the city tunnel network has been extended by criminal excavation of new tunnels and entrances, an FBI spokesman said.

"We're concerned about the terrorists aspect of it," said Al Cruz, spokesman for the FBI regional office in El Paso.

Cruz said information from the arrests also suggested for the first time that arms were being smuggled into Mexico, which has strict gun control laws.

"They're trading weapons for drugs," said an inspector with the INS, who declined to be named.

INS and Border Patrol agents said the tunnels range from 18 inches across to eight-feet high and meander under the city, including one tunnel that exits next door to City Hall and another that opens up under the Fort Bliss army post.

The 50 to 60 tunnels have multiple entrances and exits and new ones are constantly being dug, hampering police efforts to keep people out of the underground network.

Cruz said sealing up some of the tunnels was not an option because they include the city's drainage and sewer systems. Doug Mosier, spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso, said several agents were working on the problem. "We're studying the situation and we are working on some plans," he said, "but we wouldn't be able to get into any specifics publicly right now."

Copyright (c) 2000 - Reuters

---

4 hurt in shootout between Mexico police and Mexico customs
REUTERS
April 7, 2000

MONTERREY, Mexico -- At least four agents were wounded in a shootout between Mexican federal agents and (Mexican federal) customs officials near the U.S. border over a shipment of smuggled goods, local newspapers reported Friday.

The shootout reportedly took place Thursday morning in General Bravo, about 50 miles from McAllen, Texas, after agents from the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) escorting three trucks were stopped by federal customs agents, the newspapers said.

The trucks were apparently loaded with *smuggled chickens and electrical appliances, and the PGR agents allegedly asked the customs officials to waive them through an internal customs checkpoint, Diario de Monterrey reported.

The shootout erupted when the customs officials insisted on searching the trucks, the newspapers said.

A PGR spokesman in Mexico City declined to comment Friday on the incident.

Copyright (c) 2000 - Reuters

*illegal aliens are called "pollos' (chickens) in Mexico.

---

Border agents trade gunfire with burglars
29-Mar-2000 Wednesday

TECATE, CA -- U.S. Border Patrol agents traded fire across the U.S.-Mexico border with a group of would-be burglars who opened fire at the agents after trying to break into a home in Mexican territory, the patrol reported yesterday.

No one was hit and no injuries were reported.

According to information from Beta Group, the Mexican border-crimes task force, an undetermined number of burglars tried to break into the home in Tecate, Mexico, near the border about 3 a.m. yesterday, but failed.

The burglars then shot the homeowner's dog and, looking up over the border fence, saw two Border Patrol agents nearby, said Border Patrol spokesman Roy Villareal.

"For some reason, they shot at the agents. The agents returned fire. I don't know how many shots were fired," Villareal said.

Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Mexican Army enters U.S., shoots at U.S. Border Patrol
Border incursion and shooting - 10:30 pm, March 14, 2000
Fox video interview transcript - THE O'REILLY FACTOR, March 27, 2000

O'REILLY: In the "Impact" segment tonight, we continue our investigation into a bizarre incident near El Paso, Texas. On March 14th, two Mexican army vehicles illegally crossed into the United States. When confronted by Border Patrol agents, one of the vehicles fled back to Mexico firing at least two shots at the Americans. Agents captured the other vehicle and took nine Mexican soldiers into custody, but agent-in-charge Luis Barker ordered them released before the FBI had a chance to interview them. So what's going on here? Joining us now from El Paso is Luis Barker and, from Washington, Congressman Silvestre Reyes who represents the district.

(Note: Congressman Silvestre Reyes represents the 16th district of Texas, not Sunland Park, New Mexico, where the border shooting incident occurred. An account in the San Diego Union-Tribune March 30th reported three Mexican Army Humvees (not two) entered the U.S. and chased U.S. Border officers. "A group of Mexican soldiers riding in three Humvees and armed with high-powered assault rifles and submachine guns crashed through a barbed-wire fence that marks the border near Santa Teresa. They turned on a Border Patrol agent who approached them and then pursued the agent. They repeatedly failed to heed the Border Patrol agent's entreaties in Spanish to stop, even after he identified himself as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, according to U.S. government sources." - Joe Cantlupe, COPLEY NEWS SERVICE, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 30, 2000).

O'REILLY: Chief, I want to talk to you first. First of all, thanks for coming on. We appreciate that. You didn't have to do it. But the FBI is wondering why you didn't call them in on this case.

LUIS BARKER, EL PASO SECTOR CHIEF PATROL AGENT, U.S. BORDER PATROL: I am not aware that the FBI is wondering whether...

O'REILLY: Well, we called them today, and they issued us a statement. Do you want me to read it to you?

BARKER: Yes. Go ahead.

O'REILLY: All right. "In the event of assaults on federal officers, the FBI is at the very least brought in to assist the investigation, and we were not called at all in this case." So why didn't you call them?

BARKER: This is more than a simple issue of assault. This is an international incident, and there is no protocol that I am aware of that deals with that issue.

O'REILLY: That's not -- that's not what the FBI's saying. They're saying that they're always called in on things like that. It's not under a law, but they are usually, in their words, always called in on things like that. Did you get a call from anybody in Washington telling you what to do on this case, Chief?

BARKER: No. The decision was mine. Again, I have to take into consideration all the issues here. The -- the dynamics on the border is one that is known by many people. Any decision that I make here, I have to look at the long-term security of these agents and the community at large.

O'REILLY: OK. Well, why didn't you call in the FBI? What would have been wrong with that?

BARKER: Because the facts that we had that night led me to believe and the reports that we got from the agents and the colonel that I spoke to proved that this was an unfortunate mistake, not -- keeping in mind that we have a border that's not well defined, the facts that I got led me to believe that this was a mistake, even though shots were fired...

O'REILLY: Well, how...

BARKER: ... and I acted accordingly.

O'REILLY: Well, how can that be a mistake when you have army -- army troops shooting at border guards? Come on.

BARKER: There were shots fired. There is no denying that. We did not get those people -- those military personnel that fired the shots. We got an accompanying vehicle. Once they realized that they were in the United States after the insistence of the agents who acted in with -- with the...

O'REILLY: All right, but do you understand how controversial this is? The head of the Border Patrol union is calling for you to resign, Chief.

BARKER: Well, again, I have -- I am put here to make decisions on issues that affect these agents and affect this community at large.

O'REILLY: All right.

BARKER: Now if they disagree with what I did, they have every right to -- to do what they are doing.

O'REILLY: All right. And they are. They're screaming for your head, and I don't know if that's fair or not. I wasn't there.

But, Congressman, I still don't understand why this -- why the FBI couldn't have been called in and a more thorough investigation -- now you're a former border guard, Congressman. What do you -- what do you think about this?

REP. SILVESTRE REYES (D-TX), FORMER BORDER PATROL CHIEF PATROL AGENT: Well, more than that, Bill, I was in charge of the sector there. I had Luis Barker's position several years ago, and I can tell you that these kinds of incidents are not isolated. They -- they, unfortunately, happen because the border is not very well defined, particularly in the area that we're talking about here.

But let -- let me correct you about one thing. The head of the national Border Patrol union is not asking for Chief Barker's resignation. In fact, it's an individual that is out of San Diego sector because, as -- as far as I know, even Mr. Stack who you interviewed last week is not asking for the -- for the chief's resignation. (Note: See "Local 1613 Calls for the Resignation of ... Chief Patrol Agent Luis Barker" in article below in which Mr. Stack's El Paso, Texas, U.S. Border Patrol Union Local 1929 jointly with Local 1613 and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge calls for Chief Barker's resignation on March 17, 2000).

O'REILLY: Well, The Associated Press reported on 3-18 -- March 18th that the Border Patrol union asked for the resignation of Chief Patrol Agent Barker. This is The Associated Press.

REYES: Well...

O'REILLY: Now, look, you've got...

REYES: But, Bill...

O'REILLY: If that's not accurate, it's not accurate, but you know by seeing our interview...

REYES: It's not accurate.

O'REILLY: ... with Stack, he's teed off. (Note: The El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol Agent's Union Local 1929 mysteriously reversed their earlier joint call for Chief Barker's resignation, but continue to demand a full investigation of this incident. "We will pursue all avenues to bring out the truth," said Martin L. Wilson, president of the Border Patrol union's Local 1929, which includes the Santa Teresa district. "We will not let this incident go away without looking for answers and changes for the betterment of the members of our local." Martin said the agents involved had "promised to give us a first-hand account of the incident," and he emphasized that "this local has not called for the ouster of the (Border Patrol) chief (Gus de la Vina), regardless of what has been put out by outside groups." - source: "Border accident or bounty hunting?," World Net Daily, March 28, 2000, by Jon E. Dougherty).

REYES: Well...

O'REILLY: He thinks that Agent Barker -- Chief Barker should have kept the soldiers in custody until the FBI got down there to find out, No. 1, what these people were doing here. And I understand mistakes can be made, but I don't understand how Mexican troops can fire at U.S. troops, and the whole thing is -- say, "Oh, well, it was a mistake. We'll see you later." I don't get that, Congressman.

REYES: Well -- well -- well, Bill -- Bill, that is not exactly what is happening and what has happened. This is not the first time that we've had shots fired across our border, nor is it going to be the last, but I can tell you that every single incident like this is fully and completely investigated. In fact...

O'REILLY: But the FBI weren't called in, and they -- they told us this afternoon that, in all of these cases, they -- when shots are fired at federal agents, they come in.

REYES: Well, that -- that's assuming that the assault happened in the United States and...

O'REILLY: It did. It happened in the United States.

REYES: Let me -- let me just finish. And that the perpetrators were -- were in custody. In this particular case, this is, as the chief has said, an international incident. It is being handled as such, both the consul general from Mexico in El Paso and the consul general for the United States in Juarez are -- are both involved, as are both ambassadors. We are going to get a full and complete detailed investigation of...

O'REILLY: All right. And I -- and I trust you, Congressman, that you'll see to it that that happens. For your own political future, it will be wise that you do this, but you can understand -- and I'm sure you can, too, Chief -- that Americans are very concerned about this, why you would let these guys go so quickly when U.S. border guards are fired upon in light of the fact that the cartels in Mexico put a $200,000 bounty on Border Patrol agents' heads. I mean, you -- you know that exists. You know it's a tinderbox down there. So why -- I mean, to let them go so fast -- I'm going to give you the word -- the last word, Chief. I'm going to give you the last word on this, but to -- to let them go so fast, I don't know if that was so wise. Go ahead.

BARKER: Well, again, we have to consider the dynamics on this border. We have a relationship with Mexico. I'll give you an -- I'll give you an account of an issue that occurred last year. We had an agent that was seized, and because of the relationship that we had, we managed to to get this agent -- this agent released in a reasonably short period of time, considering that on other occasions under these same kind of circumstances, people are held. We have to maintain a relationship. This is in the -- in the diplomatic arena, and that's where it's supposed to...

O'REILLY: All right. I got it. All right. Chief, Congressman, keep -- please keep us posted on this. We'll continue to follow the story, and we appreciate you guys coming on. You're stand-up guys. Thanks.

REYES: You bet.

BARKER: Thank you.

O'REILLY: Plenty more ahead as THE FACTOR moves along this evening.

(Removed author's name) has written a scalding new book about... (next show topic)...

Right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

-- END --

Note: This video interview originally was available for viewing on the Fox News website at: http://www.foxnews.com/channel/oreilly/guests.sml... but has since been removed. Video has also been removed from the Fox video website search engine on the same page, and the video cannot be found anywhere on the Fox News website as of 6:42 pm PST March 30, 2000. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

My comments: 1) What was in the Mexican Army Humvee that fled? Why did the 2nd Humvee flee if the Mexican Army thought they were in Mexico? 2) Is it common practice for the Chief of the USBP sector to travel alone to Mexico on his own volition and meet with the Mexican Army after a major border incursion and shooting? See, "Barker met with the soldiers' Mexican commander at the Paso Del Norte station before ordering their release." - in the article below. 3) Why no FBI notification? Or DEA notification? Or anyone notification? 4) Why no extradition demand to Mexico for the fugitives? Write your congressman and demand an investigation of this incident. (Posted 6:55 pm PST, March 30, 2000) - Website author.

Content and programming Copyright 2000 Fox News Network, Inc.
Transcript: 032702cb.256

---

Border Patrol team investigates Mexican-soldier confrontation
U.S. Border Patrol captures Mexican Army patrol and holds them as illegal aliens, then returns them, their automatic pistols, machine guns, assault rifles, and their Humvee to Mexico. "Just doin' my job."- El Paso Border Patrol Chief says.
By Diana Washington Valdez
Friday, March 24, 2000
El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas

El Paso, Texas - A U.S. Border Patrol Shooting Review Team is investigating allegations that Mexican Army soldiers who entered the country illegally last week near Sunland Park, *(New Mexico), fired weapons at *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents.

"We are convinced shots were fired at the agents," said Jerry Armstrong, Deputy Chief of the Border Patrol-El Paso sector. "We don't know how long the investigation will take, but we are taking this incident seriously."

*(None) of the Border Patrol agents *(were) injured. They were patrolling the area on horseback, *(and in an U.S. Border Patrol vehicle marked with large "U.S. Border Patrol" markings on front, rear, sides, and top with a law enforcement light-bar, which was also turned-on at the beginning of this incident.

At 10:30 pm March 14th, the weather was clear, and the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department provided the following information for El Paso County, Texas [longitude W106.4, latitude N31.8] in Mountain Standard Time: "The Moon was in its first quarter waxing gibbous with 67% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated - Moonrise was at 11:45 a.m. on March 13th - Moonset was at 2:07 a.m. on March 14th." Therefore, there was bright Moonlight resulting in good to excellent unaided night vision).

U.S. State Department officials said Mexican Army soldiers have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally 47 times in since 1995. This was the first time they reportedly fired at U.S. federal agents. *(According to U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-CA, the Mexican Army has crossed into U.S. territory 63 times between 1995 and 1999. Some U.S. Border Patrol agents say it's many more times, and they also suspect the Mexican Army is running drugs and protecting drug shipments and alien smugglers).

*(Many U.S. Border Patrol Agents now believe members of the Mexican Army are trying to collect a $1,862,000 Mexican pesos bounty ($200,000 U.S. dollars) for killing any U.S. law enforcement officer, that is now offered by a Mexican drug cartel).

Armstrong wouldn't say whether investigators found bullet casings where the shots were fired, "because it's part of the ongoing investigation." *(At least one shell casing was found at the incident site and is now being analyzed, according to sources).

He said the shots reportedly were fired within U.S. territory, roughly half a mile from the border near Sunland Park.

"The standoffs... were extremely tense. Two shots were fired and weapons were pointed on both sides," said Paul Berg, Border Patrol Chief at Del Rio, Texas, who along with Armstrong and others provided details about the incident. This is their account:

Remote crossing

Two *(Mexican Army) Humvees *(Medium-size 4-wheel drive military vehicle) with *(approximately 16) Mexican soldiers aboard, knocked down, *(then drove over) the barbed- wire-*(topped- International Border)- fence at the border and entered the United States illegally after spotting a *(well-marked U.S.) Border Patrol vehicle nearby, Berg said.

The remote desert area where the *(Mexican) soldiers entered at 10:30 p.m. March 14 is dotted with brush-covered mounds. Dirt roads and trails and utility lines criss-cross the mesa. Rabbits and coyotes have the run of the land, which is heavily patrolled because it's a popular crossing point for undocumented illegal aliens and drug smugglers.

On the Mexican side, a road runs parallel to the fence, and on the U.S. side, a parallel dirt road is used by Border Patrol agents. From the barbed-wire-*(topped) border fence, Mount Cristo Rey is visible to the east. *(A well-known border landmark).

The standoff

That night, Berg said, "the two *(Mexican Army) Humvees split up. One followed the *(marked U.S. Border Patrol vehicle, which had its U.S. Border Patrol law enforcement light-bar lights turned on), while the second chased *(U.S. Border Patrol) agents... on horseback."

The *(U.S.) Border Patrol agent in the *(U.S. Border Patrol) vehicle drove off on a dirt trail in a northwesterly direction, which is U.S. Bureau of Land Management property. The *(Mexican Army) Humvee followed *(and chased) him for nearly a mile, all the way to the *(U.S.) Border Patrol horse barn adjacent to the Camino Real landfill.

The second *(Mexican Army) Humvee gave chase to *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents on horseback.

Armstrong said "a standoff occurred" during three separate encounters between the *(Mexican) soldiers and *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents.

"The Mexican soldiers thought they were in Mexico," Armstrong said. "There was a standoff. Weapons were drawn."

"They yelled to our agents, 'You're in Mexico, drop your weapons.' Our agents yelled back, 'You're in the United States, drop your weapons," he said.

Call for backup

*(U.S.) Border Patrol agents at the *(U.S. Border Patrol horse) barn area called Sunland Park (New Mexico), city police for backup.

"We sent three uniformed police officers in three police vehicles," said Sunland Park, *(New Mexico), Police Chief Ricardo Perez. "Our vehicle lights *(light bars on top) were flashing. We were very obvious."

Near the barn area, *(U.S.) police and *(U.S.) agents convinced the Mexican captain that he and his men were in U.S. territory. The captain then ordered his men to surrender and turn over their weapons. The *(Mexican Army) officer *(who was older than age 17) told Border Patrol officials he thought they were chasing a drug smuggler.

Meanwhile, "the second *(Mexican Army Humvee) drove near one of the *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents on horseback," Berg said. "The *(U.S.) agent identified himself... and ordered the *(Mexican Army Humvee) to stop. This *(Mexican Army Humvee) then began to pursue the mounted *(U.S.) agent screaming for him to stop, and *(the first) shot was fired."

"The *(U.S.) Border Patrol agent eluded the *(Mexican Army Humvee) and safely concealed himself in nearby draw," Berg said. "Another mounted *(U.S.) Border Patrol agent saw what was happening. He was sighted by the *(Mexican) soldiers who immediately began to pursue him... screaming at him to stop."

Another chase

Berg said the mounted *(U.S.) agent identified himself but was forced to retreat. The *(Mexican Army) Humvee chased him until it got stuck in a sand dune, halfway between the barn and the *(Mexican border) fence line. Two other *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents arrived and confronted the *(Mexican) soldiers.

The *(U.S.) agents and *(Mexican) soldiers yelled back and forth about which country they were in. Two of the Mexican soldiers started to head back toward Mexico, and one of the *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents on horseback challenged them to stop.

The *(U.S.) agent "lit them up with his flashlight and one of the *(Mexican) soldiers fired *(another) shot," Berg said.

The *(U.S.) agent allowed them to continue toward the stuck *(Mexican Army) Humvee. The soldiers got the *(Mexican Army) Humvee free, and the *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents backed off while the *(Mexican Army) Humvee fled to Mexico.

Armstrong said *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents were armed with .40 caliber pistols but did not return fire. Perez said "the Mexican soldiers had "NATO-type automatic weapons." *(Sources say they were HK-33 .308 NATO caliber full-automatic assault rifles - manufactured by Heckler & Koch in Germany).

Agents praised

Paul Wells, watch commander at the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station, said, "Our agents showed remarkable restraint in these situations... they used their brains instead of their guns."

The Border Patrol sent a letter of commendation to the Sunland Park police for their assistance.

"They said our officers helped diffuse an armed confrontation, which could have easily escalated into a serious shootout," Perez said.

*(Mexican) officials said the Mexican soldiers recently came to the border from the interior of Mexico. They formed part of a special federal anti-narcotics operation in the Juárez border region.

Armstrong said most of the soldiers captured at the barn area, "were very young. One of them was 17 years old." *(The Mexican Commanding Officer was NOT 17 years old. Many U.S. citizens were only 18 or younger when they entered the U.S. military during the Vietnam and Gulf wars. Audie Murphy was only 17 years old when he enlisted, and only 19 when he received the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery near Holtzwihr, France, 26 January 1945, in WW2. He changed his birth certificate by one year, actually being born June 20, 1925, so he could enlist at age 17).

They were taken to the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station, where they were processed as undocumented illegal aliens before they, their *(Mexican Army) Humvee and drug-detection dog were returned to Mexico. *(Seven HK-33 .308 NATO caliber, full-automatic assault rifles, one full-automatic .45 caliber submachine gun, two .45 caliber semi-automatic pistols, and other military gear were returned to Mexico, as well).

Mexico investigating

While Mexican officials have not conceded that their *(Mexican Army) soldiers fired any shots at *(U.S.) Border Patrol agents, a spokesman said the Mexican government was investigating. They called the incursion *(invasion) "a regrettable error."

"We have several *(Mexican) federal authorities looking into this," said Marco A. Fraire, spokesman for the Mexican consulate general in El Paso. Sunland Park resident Cris Stewart said, "There should be a well-marked boundary so this doesn't happen again. We could have gotten into a war with Mexico over something like this." *(Maybe we should install another 15' steel mesh and concrete post triple-border-fence like San Diego, CA, now has?... and then prepare for the complaints from the illegal alien activist groups and the Mexican government).

In a prepared statement, U.S. consulate general Edward Marquez said U.S. and Mexican officials discussed the incident at the March 17 meeting of the Border Liaison Mechanism in Juárez.

"The Mexican military commander in the area explained that Mexican personnel involved in the incident were new to the region and unfamiliar with the lightly marked border," Marquez said. "Their discussion underscores... the need to avoid such incursions in the future."

Chief takes the heat

El Paso sector Border Patrol Chief Luis Barker caught fire from some Border Patrol agents for releasing the nine Mexican soldiers hours after their capture.

An association of Border Patrol agents in California *(The largest group of U.S. Border Patrol agents in the U.S. with over 2,000 members) called for his resignation.

Jim Stack, president of Local 1929, the union that represents El Paso sector Border Patrol agents, said that while the union has not called for Barker's resignation, "We have asked for a thorough investigation by higher authorities." *(Note: This is a reversal of an Official Local 1613 / Local 1929 Joint Press Release of Friday, 17 March, 2000, which called for U.S. Border Patrol Chief Luis Barker's resignation).

"Some of the agents feel we let the Mexicans off too easily," he *(Jim Stack) said.

In Barker's defense, Berg said, "The shooters escaped into Mexico. Had they not escaped, (Barker) would have vigorously pursued prosecution." *(Note: All the Mexican soldiers were accomplices to assault, battery, attempted murder, violation of assault weapons and other weapons laws, border invasion, destruction of federal property, and many other felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions under U.S. law. Don't we have an extradition treaty with Mexico? I believe we do).

Barker met with the soldiers' Mexican commander at the Paso Del Norte station *(in Mexico) before ordering their release. *(The Mexican Army Commander was reportedly older than age 17).

Armstrong and Berg, who's also Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent's Association, which represents Border Patrol managers, said holding the nine Mexican soldiers to extract revenge would have made matters worse.

"We need to work with the Mexican officials," Armstrong said.

"INS Commissioner Doris Meissner stands behind the decision by Chief Barker 100 percent," said Tim Counts, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service Central Regional District in Dallas.

The military's role on the border has been controversial. The Juárez bar association that represents most of the city's lawyers have criticized the Mexican government for using soldiers to patrol civilians. On the U.S. side, Joint Task Force Six, the military anti-drug support agency at Biggs Army Airfield, suspended ground patrols after an *(Hispanic) Marine *(motorpool mechanic from Camp Pendleton, CA,) fatally shot a teen in Redford, Texas, in 1997, *(whose family was awarded $800,000 or more by the U.S. government in a settlement sealed by a Texas Federal Court).

Copyright (c) 2000 - The El Paso Times

*Parentheses enclosed statements added for clarification of the article. My opinion: This incident has been white washed by INS management in Washington, D.C. and El Paso, Texas (aka Mrs. Doris Meissner & CPA Barker). What about the International Border fence that the Mexican Army knocked down and then drove over? And the words "U.S. Border Patrol" on the U.S. Border Patrol vehicle with the flashing red-lights on its top? And what about Mount Cristo Rey (elevation 1425 meters - 4675 feet), a well known border landmark, which is now visible to the east and BEHIND the Mexicans? And why did the second Mexican Humvee flee south to Mexico, if they thought they were already in Mexico? Sorry but, "We thought we were in Mexico," does not hold up under scrutiny, no matter what the two Mexican officers say. You in the 'upper 50' still don't get it... some in the Mexican Army are smuggling drugs and protecting drug and alien smugglers.

---

Harsh charge hits Mexican soldiers
March 21, 2000

EL PASO, Texas -- U.S. Border Patrol agents charged yesterday that Mexican soldiers who crossed the border into New Mexico and fired two shots last week may have been trying to collect a drug trafficker's [$200,000] bounty* by killing U.S. law officers.

The agents' union called for an investigation into the incident despite the U.S. government's position that it was just an accident.

"That was no accident," said Joseph Dassaro, vice president of the union, the National Border Patrol Council. "The Mexican military was well into U.S. territory, for way over a mile, and chased and fired at agents. Agents from San Diego to South Texas are scared to death it's going to happen again."

Copyright (c) 2000 - Reuters

*A bounty of $1,862,000 Mexican pesos ($200,000 U.S. dollars) was recently offered by a Mexican Mafia drug & smuggling cartel for killing any U.S. law officer according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A memo warning of this reward was circulated to personnel. Note: Mr. Dassaro is not V.P. of the National Border Patrol Council (a USBP management organization). He is V.P. of USBP Union Local 1613 in San Diego, CA, the largest USBP organization in the U.S.A. with over 2,100 members.

---

The News - National México City, March 18, 2000

Mexican Army - U.S. Border Patrol Shooting Incident Disputed
The News Staff

The Foreign Relations secretary on Friday said a border incident in which Army troops apparently fired on U.S. Border Patrol agents inside the United States would not affect Mexico-U.S. relations. The events have been disputed by a Mexican consul who called the U.S. border agents "hysterical" and said if Army troops actually had fired at them, they should have fired back.

On Tuesday, two Humvees carrying Mexican soldiers on an anti-drug mission crossed the Mexico-U.S. border near Santa Teresa, N. M., and fired two shots at uniformed U.S. Border Patrol Agents, according to the Border Patrol. The soldiers who allegedly fired the shots fled back to Mexico, while nine others were detained shortly before being released.

Foreign Secretary Rosario Green said she regretted the incident and emphasized that it is still undetermined whether any shots were fired.

The Mexican consulate in El Paso, Armando Ortiz, claimed the agents only heard two "bangs" and exaggerated the situation.

Ortiz said that if troops actually did fire shots at the Border Patrol, the agents acted "irresponsibly" by not returning fire, he said, "because the territorial sovereignty of their nation was at risk."

A spokesman for the Border Patrol's office of public relations said the agents did not return fire in order to prevent a more serious incident. "The Border Patrol had already detected the presence of Mexican Army vehicles in the area and realized that the soldiers had crossed the border accidentally. For this reason, the agents used their judgment to prevent a more dangerous situation," the spokesman said.

The office said "they are sure" the shots were fired by Mexican soldiers and directed at Border Patrol agents.

Meanwhile, Ortiz said the U.S. Border Patrol reacted in a "hysterical" fashion. "They heard two bangs, that is all... the rest is hysterical elaboration. They never determined where these sounds came from."

Ortiz said that if the same incident had happened on Mexican territory, and Mexican soldiers had not returned fire, he would have considered them "traitors to the motherland."

"Are these Border Patrol agents heroes because they didn't return fire against foreign invaders? If the situation were reversed, in Mexico they would have been considered traitors."

A spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol said, "we view these incursions as an act of aggression."

In a related development, the day after the border incident, the U.S. Embassy announced U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Henry Shelton, will visit Mexico on March 21.

Copyright (c) 2000 - The News, México City

---

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLIC RELEASE
Friday, 17 March, 2000
Local 1613 Calls for the Resignation of El Paso (Texas) Chief Patrol Agent Luis Barker

San Diego, CA -- Local 1613, the largest local union representing U.S. Border Patrol Agents in the nation, in association with the El Paso [Texas] Border Patrol Agent's local union (Local 1929), and the Fraternal Order of Police (El Paso [Texas] Lodge), is calling for the immediate resignation of the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, Chief Patrol Agent Luis Barker.

This request comes days after elements of the Mexican Army knowingly and in violation of law crossed over the border of the United States, pursued Border Patrol Agents over one mile north into U.S. territory, and fired automatic weapons at the agents.

Outgunned and outnumbered, the federal agents were forced to flee for their lives until adequate back-up units could respond.

Following the capture of the rogue Mexican soldiers, Chief Patrol Agent Luis Barker not only voluntarily returned the Mexican soldiers to Mexico, he also returned the automatic weapons and vehicles, used in the attempted murder of Border Patrol Agents under his supervision.

Following the incident with the Mexican Army, Border Patrol Agents and citizens alike have voiced their concerns and doubts, at an unprecedented rate, about Barker's ability to insure the safety of the agents under his supervision.

Barker's decision to return the Mexican soldiers and automatic weapons to Mexico, without a proper investigation, has caused a great deal of alarm in U.S. Border Patrol Agents nationwide, not just El Paso.

Many agents have expressed their willingness to reduce their current personal level of enforcement activities to insure their own safety. Additionally, every agent has expressed their lack of confidence in the agency manager's ability to adequately protect and represent the interests of the United States as a sovereign nation.

Agents have expressed concern that Barker's actions will most likely lead to an even greater number of armed incursions and attempts on the lives of Border Patrol Agents, further adding to the current trend of Mexican Army attempts to assist known drug smugglers.

It should also be noted, that when Border Patrol Agents mistakenly cross into Mexico, often for humanitarian reasons, they are held and often beaten, prior to their release.

Local 1613, Local 1929, and the Fraternal Order of Police (El Paso [Texas] Lodge), urge the immediate resignation of Chief Barker.

We further urge that the Department of Justice and the Department of State open an immediate
investigation into this current matter, all prior incidents, and the actions of Chief Barker.

We request that the results of this investigation be made public.

We further demand that the Department of Justice assure every Border Patrol Agent in the United States that our safety is their concern and the concern of Border Patrol managers.

Absent these assurances and actions, there exists an extreme likelihood, that enforcement actions along the border will be adversely affected by agents who no longer trust their own department.

Joseph N. Dassaro, Vice President
Local 1613 - NBPC, San Diego, CA.
(619) 216-1737 E-mail: jndassaro@home.com
http://www.borderpatrol1613.org

---

Ranchers under siege:
Pioneer family a half-mile from Mexico lives in fear of illegal aliens, drug traffickers
By Tim Steller
Tue., July 13, 1999
The Arizona Daily Star

DOUGLAS, AZ - That old uneasy feeling struck Richard Puzzi Jr. as he and his father walked north from the Mexican border toward their ancestral home.

"Do you ever get that feeling you think someone's watching you, and all the hair stands up on the back of your neck?'' he asked. "You get it out here."

"You can't see them, but you know they're there,'' he said.

All too often at the Puzzis' home, a half-mile north of the border, you not only sense nearby strangers - you can see them, too. After nightfall, illegal entrants and drug smugglers crisscross the 400-acre property homesteaded in 1906 by Puzzi Jr.'s great-grandfather.

In the daylight, a few smugglers and illegals just lie quietly and watch.

The atmosphere across Cochise County puts people like Richard Puzzi Sr. and his wife, Renee, who live at the family ranch, on edge.

The fact that rural residents like the Puzzis can't fully enjoy the beautiful sunsets - or even raise livestock on some property - understandably upsets them, said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever.

"In a rural environment, privacy and property mean everything. If you don't have those, you have nothing,'' Dever said.

The Puzzis have set to work on trying to recover both. If they can't, they'll try one more time to sell the family ranch.

Family arrived in 1906

Cesare Puzzi came to this land about five miles west of Douglas in 1906 on the invitation of the mining pioneer for whom the town is named. James Douglas needed a stove built, so he hired Puzzi for that job, then took him on permanently at the copper smelter.

A boilermaker by trade, Puzzi homesteaded the property. Then he brought his wife, Leopolda, from Italy to live at the place, said Theresa Puzzi Murray, a daughter of Cesare and Leopolda who also lives on the homestead, in a separate house from Puzzi Sr. and his wife.

Leopolda Puzzi cried all night upon arriving at what was an isolated border ranch, Murray said. Then she fell in love with it and stayed until she died in 1982.

In the meantime, Murray's brothers helped care for the property, raising cattle there and adding onto the original house.

After Leopolda Puzzi died, the family sold the property three times but ended up having the key handed back, Puzzi Sr. said.

The sales "were finalized, but my uncle wouldn't keep anything that wasn't right,'' Puzzi said. "Each time it came back for the same reason. Nobody could live here. The torment was absolutely terrible.''

Although large-scale illegal immigration is a recent phenomenon for most rural Cochise County residents, border crossers have plagued the Puzzis for years.

Apparently through some underworld tradition, illegal aliens, thieves and druggies used the house as a staging ground during periods when it was unoccupied. They also continually burglarized Murray, who lives about a quarter-mile from the homestead house.

After more than 30 burglaries, Murray has surrounded her house with a chain-link fence topped with barbed and razor wire. The Border Patrol shows it to visiting dignitaries to illustrate the need for more border control.

Rural residents all along Cochise County's southern swath have come to share Murray's decades-old complaints. There are cut fences, littered properties and occasional break-ins. (30 is "occasional?")

And there are the ubiquitous footpaths. That's what drives the Puzzis' neighbor, Larry Vance, crazy.

"There's trail after trail after trail,'' Vance said, driving along a dirt road near his property. "How many people does it take to make all these trails?''

It all adds up to a sense of insecurity and violation that runs deepest among longtime residents. Frank Adams, who lives about four miles northwest of Douglas, used to leave the keys to his pickup truck in the ignition, but not anymore.

"I never even had a key to the house until a year ago,'' Adams said.

Rural residents have organized telephone networks to phone each other when they see illegal entrants nearby.

It isn't that they think the illegal aliens necessarily mean harm. But they can't necessarily tell harmless border crossers from those who intend to break in.

Ranch animals slain

Even those who don't break in cause problems for residents who want to raise animals.

After the last failed sale of the Puzzis' house, it was abandoned for a period. But Puzzi Jr., who has lived both in town and in the country, wanted to try ranching the property.

"I hated to see this old place derelict, and he wanted to be a cowboy. I wanted to preserve the heritage, so I thought it would be a good idea,'' said Puzzi Sr., 53.

In 1996, the family set to repairing Cesare and Leopolda Puzzi's old home for Puzzi Jr., 21, and his wife, Shannon. It wasn't easy - scavengers had ripped out everything valuable, from lights to pipes to copper wires. Vandals had broken windows, and illegal entrants had cut through fences.

"He was gung-ho to start with. He had horses and cows,'' the elder Puzzi said.

But then he started losing animals. Calves disappeared; dogs and a horse were killed. And Mexican cattle began appearing on the Puzzis' land, grazing until they could be returned.

After a couple of years, Shannon was pregnant again, and they decided it was not working out. They sold the remaining cattle and moved near Elfrida, bringing the horses with them.

Puzzi Sr. might have tried to sell the property again, but his wife, Renee, wanted to give it a try. She had always lived in town and loved the idea of living in the country while continuing to run the Red Barn restaurant in Douglas.

Although retired from the Douglas Fire Department and thus free to move, Puzzi Sr. was dubious about taking up the challenge himself.

The Border Patrol's plans to open a station nearby convinced him. When Congress funds it, the station will be built about a half-mile down West Puzzi Ranch Road on property seized in a drug case.

Roads for Border Patrol's use

During Puzzi Jr.'s stay on the homestead, Puzzi Sr. had engaged a low-intensity conflict with the smugglers and migrants. The father and son cleared out the brush from the acreage surrounding the house, and they had begun clearing roads through the property for the Border Patrol to use.

After moving in on Christmas Day last year, the elder Puzzi escalated his take-back-the-land campaign, clearing more roads.

"We try to keep about an 80-acre area free and clear of brush and illegals,'' he said. "The rest of the 320 acres is a donation to the cause. It's no good to me. All I do is pay taxes on it.''

While the crossings increased earlier this year, as they did across the county, the harassment slowed a little. Fewer young gangbangers came around looking to take back their hangout.

"It was a hard cycle to break, because a lot of them didn't know we had moved back out here,'' Puzzi Sr. said. "Over the time, we've had the paint sniffers out here, and the stoned ones, and the ones with their tequila bottle, and every other thing in the world, going pretty crazy.

"You can't stop it all. But it went from a daily thing to every once in a while,'' he said.

Trouble with Border Patrol

What the Puzzis didn't count on was that the Border Patrol would become an aggravation, as well as part of the solution to their problems.

Among Puzzi Sr.'s tactics for taking back the land were patrolling the property at irregular times and taking shooting practice against the bank of a wash that runs through the center of the property.

The wash is conveniently located in an area crossed by migrant and smuggler trails. So he and friends took to shooting there in the afternoon and evenings, a practice that seemed to detour the traffic.

But twice, Border Patrol agents asked him to stop shooting there, even though he was doing nothing illegal, Puzzi Sr. said. The second time, he and his son were hauled out to the road in Border Patrol vehicles and presented to officers of the Cochise County Sheriff's Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety as possible criminals.

"I was so upset, I was going to lock up all my gates and make them walk in,'' Puzzi Sr. said.

But his whole plan - the roads and the brush clearing, even moving into the house in the first place - were predicated on encouraging the agents to patrol his land. So he quit shooting in the wash and left the gates open.

That left Puzzi Sr. open to another form of Border Patrol bother. It became clear one recent afternoon when he and his son drove all over the ranch, including the border road.

Heading back toward home, they saw saw a man lying behind a roadside bush and slammed on the brakes. Up popped a Border Patrol agent.

"How you fellas doing?'' the agent asked, dusting himself off.

"Just checking out my property,'' Puzzi Sr. said.

Pleasantries exchanged, Puzzi Sr. drove off. But minutes later, he spotted another agent, standing on the roof of a nearby abandoned house, looking at him with binoculars. He concluded it was the trip to the border road, probably seen on a Border Patrol camera, that aroused their suspicions.

Still, that is part of the family property, so the Puzzis feel they have a right to go down there.

"The Border Patrol actually don't want us coming down on our ranch at all. They'd rather we stay out of here,'' Puzzi Sr. said.

''Going to get hurt''

While the number of migrants has decreased since March, the tension has not, many rural residents say.

"Somebody's going to get hurt'' is their oft-heard refrain.

In May, a man walked onto the Puzzis' property leading two dogs, then came inside the gate of the yard. He spoke broken English and ignored several orders to stop. Renee Puzzi was heading in for a gun when he finally left.

Earlier, a group of young Mexican men hid behind the Puzzis' barn. Puzzi Sr. and his son drew their weapons, but one of the young men reached behind his back, as if for his own gun.

Puzzi Sr. won't explain how that situation was resolved, but it was bloodless, he said.

''We can't sell it''

If their experiment in rural living works out, the Puzzis would like to put animals back on the property.

But if it doesn't, they could move back to town and try to rent out the ranch, perhaps.

"We know we can't sell it,'' Puzzi Sr. said. "The only people that's ever offered us any money for it are drug dealers.

"If we're forced out, if we've fought our last fight and can't fight anymore, then we'll decide what we're going to do, but until that time we're going to fight,'' Puzzi Sr. said.

"My grandparents didn't give it up, and I'm sure they had hard times, too. They didn't have the (illegal alien) problem then, but I'm sure they had other problems.''

End of Article.

Read entire Arizona Star Border Invasion Series.

Copyright 1999 The Arizona Star

---

U.S. Border Patrol Agents unharmed after 3 shootings
By Gregory Alan Gross STAFF WRITER
July 21, 1999

CALEXICO, CA -- The U.S. Border Patrol reported business as usual here yesterday after three apparent sniper attacks -- possibly by the same gunman -- last weekend.

The shootings occurred in a 45-minute period Sunday night along the border west of Calexico, said Border Patrol spokesman Henry Rolon. No one was hurt and the sniper remains at large.

The first shooting occurred at about 10:45 p.m. Sunday, Rolon said, when a shot was fired at an agent who was watching a group of potential illegal border-crossers and a suspected smuggler on the Mexican side.

When the agent got out of his vehicle to investigate, a flashlight was shined at him and a bullet passed by, Rolon said.

The second incident happened at 11 p.m. near the All-American Canal, and the third a half-hour later near the Calexico airport, Rolon said. In the last attack, the agent reported hearing three shots from what sounded like a large-caliber handgun, Rolon said.

None of the agents involved were identified by the Border Patrol.

The shootings were reported to police in the neighboring city of Mexicali, and local officers there responded but no arrests were made, said assistant patrol chief Kerry Anderson.

"This looks like it could be one individual responsible for all three," Anderson said.

The incidents bring to eight the number of times agents in the El Centro sector have been shot at so far this fiscal year, up from five in fiscal 1998 and 1997, and four in 1996.

Rolon said the shootings may be a response to a new Border Patrol operation. A team of 10 agents has been assigned to thwart attempts by migrant smugglers to slip illegal aliens across the border via the All-American Canal.

The canal parallels much of the border in Imperial County and carries Colorado River water to farmers' fields in that parched desert region. But the current is deceptively swift and illegal aliens trying to cross it often drown.

So far this fiscal year, 14 suspected illegal aliens have drowned in the canal, the patrol reported.

The attempts to deny the canal crossings to migrant smugglers "seem to have raised the smugglers' levels of frustration," Rolon said.

Anderson is not so sure.

"We only started the canal operation last week, so it might be a little early to tell," he said. "These things go in spurts, and they usually happen on the west side of Calexico."

Anderson said his agents were not taking any extraordinary security measures following the shootings.

"It's business as usual for us," he said. "Still, when you have a spate of these incidents, your sense of safety does get heightened."

Meanwhile, there were reports that Beta Group, the Mexican government's border crime task force, had been placed on 24-hour alert along a 70-mile-long stretch of the border, from the mountain pass town of La Rumerosa west to the Colorado River, in response to the shootings.

Those reports could not be immediately confirmed with Mexican immigration officials, but the Border Patrol confirmed that Beta had been notified.

Violence is hardly a stranger to the border. In 1997, one Border Patrol agent was shot and several others were fired on from Tijuana until intensive patrols in that city, including heavily armed Mexican Army units, put a stop to it.

The sniper was never caught, however, and gunshots along the border in the direction of agents are fairly common, said Agent Rob Smith of San Diego.

Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Handgun's safety saves border agent
Arthur H. Rotstein ASSOCIATED PRESS
10-Jun-1999 Thursday

DOUGLAS, Ariz. -- The safety on a stolen 9mm handgun kept the weapon from firing when an illegal alien tried to shoot a Border Patrol agent point-blank in the desert about 10 miles from the Mexican border, authorities say.

Monday's incident near Double Adobe is one of the most serious confrontation this year involving illegal aliens and the most dangerous in the region since an agent was gunned down last June near Nogales while tracking an apparent drug trafficker.

"What we have seen on the border here recently is a definite, systematic escalation of violence," George Lopez, assistant chief Border Patrol agent in the Tucson sector, said yesterday.

The latest incident was the closest that a Border Patrol agent has come to being hurt this year, Lopez said.

The FBI is investigating.

Joel Salazar Padilla, 29, and Armando Garcia Munoz, 28, both of Hermosillo, Mexico, remained in the Cochise County Jail yesterday, charged with burglary and illegal possession of a firearm. Garcia Munoz also was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer.

Border Patrol spokeswoman Gloria Bailey said the agency received a call Monday about suspected illegal aliens about 10 miles north of the Mexican border.

The agent followed the suspects' trail from the caller's home to a neighbor's, then tracked their footprints to a stock tank 50 yards away.

There, two men rushed the agent from behind a large mesquite bush. The first man appeared startled, drew a Ruger 9mm automatic from the small of his back and pulled the trigger from about 2 feet away, the agent said.

"But the weapon did not fire due to the safety being on," Bailey said.

The agent wrestled the man to the ground and disarmed him, blocked his attempt to grab the agent's gun and then handcuffed him, she said.

The agent told authorities the second man also approached with his hand behind his back as if carrying a gun too, but then tried to hide behind the same bush before surrendering when ordered, Bailey said.

The men told the agent they had taken the weapon from the home of Scott Talbert, Cochise County sheriff's spokeswoman Vicki Catero said.

"All we've ever seen is people who look harmless," Talbert told the Arizona Daily Star. "In the past we've been prone to helping (illegal aliens), but that's got to stop."

The agent walked the men back to Talbert's home and called for help, then arrested three more illegal aliens nearby as they ate pizza with an elderly neighbor and a sixth illegal alien hiding nearby, Bailey said.

Lopez said the escalating violence might be attributed to increased numbers of illegal border-crossers, to illegal alien smugglers' frustrations over efforts to disrupt their operations, or to their getting more bold.

Tensions also have risen among Arizonans who live in areas crossed by illegal border-crossers.

A rancher at Palominas is under investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff's Office for a Memorial Day face-off after he allegedly fired two warning shots to detain five trespassing illegal aliens on his property. In April, a Hereford-area rancher fired several warning shots in the air to frighten away three illegal aliens near his home, authorities said.

Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

Raiding Arizona
Before an invasion from the south, Douglas, Arizona, was just another sleepy town. But today it's a tinderbox and test case of America's resolve to control its borders.
By Sean Paige

U.S.- MEXICO BORDER -- It's 98 degrees in the shade -- if you can find it -- and the green-clad agents of the U.S. Border Patrol, Douglas Station in Arizona, have mustered in preparation for another night of hide-and-seek along the hottest sector of a broiling U.S.-Mexico border. Assignments are made, intelligence is shared and the evening's strategy is laid out. But it always boils down to the same damn thing: "Go out and get 'em, people; just go out there and get 'em!"

These days they're packing agents and illegals shoulder to shoulder inside the neat adobe station on the edge of town. This is due to a nearly tenfold increase in agents assigned to Douglas (from 35 four years ago to nearly 350 today), and the armies of UDAs, or undocumented aliens, sometimes averaging 800 per night, that they track, apprehend, process and return to Mexico... so they all can do it again tomorrow.

In March the Border Patrol set a station record at Douglas with nearly 28,000 apprehensions in a single month, setting a blistering pace that has made this the busiest station in the busiest sector of the 2,100-mile border.

Many of those apprehended will have been caught before -- a problem recently dramatized by the case of Mexican drifter and suspected serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez. He reportedly was deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, three times and held and released by the Border Patrol on eight other occasions -- the last just two days before a woman was murdered in Texas -- prompting a probe of INS detention practices that almost certainly will bring reform.

Each nightfall here rings in another round in the endless game of cat and mouse. But the mice, in their sheer numbers and evolving tactics, are overrunning the cats, throwing this once sleepy border area into consternation. Hair-trigger tensions have risen as the trickle of UDAs that once crossed here has become a tide, diverted to the Arizona line by border crackdowns in California and Texas. Fed-up ranchers and property owners are drawing a line in the sand, threatening to take matters into their own hands. The Border Patrol and local law enforcers are hoping cooler heads will prevail. And something bad may happen, many locals worry, before the rest of the nation wakes up to their plight.

That "something" nearly occurred June 7, when Border Patrol Agent Victor Garcia, responding to a call in nearby McNeal, tracked a group of UDAs to a livestock watering tank. When confronted by Garcia, one of the men drew a 9mm pistol, aimed and pulled the trigger at point-blank range. Click! But a round hadn't been chambered and the gun didn't fire. Garcia disarmed and arrested the man, along with another at the scene who also was armed. Both guns had just been stolen from a nearby ranch.

"Just another beautiful day in Arizona," an agent winks as he heads out to the trucks for another night of patrolling. You'd never know it at Douglas, where the agents are numerous, young (70 percent have less than four years on the job) and gung ho, but the Border Patrol is suffering a shortage of manpower nationwide. The INS is expected to achieve only a net gain of 200 to 400 agents this fiscal year, bringing the total number to 8,000. Though plans call for hiring 1,000 to 1,200 agents this year, straining to fulfill a congressional mandate of 1,000 new agents a year, the INS expects to lose 800 veterans through attrition. Agency officials blame the shortfall on their inability to recruit and retain qualified personnel in a booming economy with a relatively low starting salary of $23,000.

At midsummer, about five hours of blue sky stand between the afternoon briefing and near bedlam, when the sun drops behind Twin Buttes and the wide, empty spaces around Douglas come to life. Only a mile away, on the parched side streets of Agua Prieta, Mexico, sardine-can hostels, hotels and guest houses begin disgorging elements of the human tide that will begin moving north when darkness comes. Hopeful but anxious border jumpers gather on street corners and in shady squares, pairing up with the "coyotes" they hope will guide them through darkness and drainage ditches, around mesquite thickets and white thorn, and safely past U.S. Border Patrol agents lying in wait.

As shadows lengthen, the groups fan out east and west along the line to where the "aesthetic" border fence installed last year gives way to an uglier version, constructed of surplus military runway mats, before ending altogether. From there the international demarcation becomes a litter-strewn pile of rubble, a rusted and broken wire, then nothing -- an imaginary line in the shifting sand. When the time is right and the darkness complete, the groups will strike northward, staying single file but close so as not to lose the coyote, who navigates the Sulfur Springs valley by memory or the stars or by electric lights on the horizon.

While many of the raiders travel in guided groups, especially families and pass-throughs from other countries, the young and the bold may simply hurdle the fence and make a run for it, losing themselves in the side streets of dusty Douglas, where nearly every resident has a loud dog. Some houses closest to the line sit empty, abandoned by their owners; others are rented as "stash" houses, where illegal migrants hole up until they can be shuttled north.

Though many locals are chaffed by the constant incursions, others in the heavily Hispanic town are sympathetic... and sometimes even complicity in the alien-trafficking boom. "This community, like other bicultural border towns, is pretty tolerant," Douglas Mayor Ray Borane says over breakfast, illustrating the point with a story. During a walk through his neighborhood that very morning, Borane saw a family, obviously UDAs, emerging from the home of a neighbor. "They were hungry and thirsty," the embarrassed neighbor shrugged. "What could I do?"

"But the rancher outside of town, he's getting a more direct impact because his property is being trespassed on," says Borane. And it's out there that tolerance and human empathy have worn thin as razor wire.

"I've watched the ranches out here turned into garbage dumps," says Larry Vance, who lives on 20 acres east of Douglas. "I've been burglarized, had a truck stolen and property vandalized. There's no privacy anymore, no peace and quiet. There's thousands of people running through this valley every night."

Other ranchers and property owners along the line tell similar tales: invasions at night, fences cut, gates left open, items stolen, watering troughs damaged or drained bone-dry by thirsty transients. Then there is the incredible volume of litter and debris left behind: water bottles, clothing, diapers, plastic bags, you name it. Tampering with water troughs may seem a trivial matter to city people, but "when you're in a serious drought, as we have been, it could be a catastrophe," one area rancher tells Insight. And besides being an eyesore and an extra chore, the debris fields left by the migrating armies also pose a hazard to livestock. A rancher Insight interviewed speaks of two or three of his steers dead from ingesting plastic bags.

"This has been going on for two years now and enough is enough," says cattle rancher George Morin, a lifelong Douglas resident who is getting out. Morin fled to Colorado searching for a new spread two weeks ago, when "it got so bad I wanted to kill somebody."

Using field glasses, Morin and a friend counted 600 UDAs crossing his property one recent evening -- in just a two-hour period. Yet he and others in the area say they're powerless to respond. "We talked to law enforcement around here and they told us we've got no right to stop them, to talk with them, nothing," Morin tells Insight.

"Hell, I feel sorry for them in a way. In similar circumstances I'd probably be doing the same thing," says Morin, echoing the conflicted sentiments of locals who can relate to the illegal alien's desire for a better future but resent seeing their own quality of life suffering as a result. "I've lived here all my life and I like it," the rancher sighs, "but I'm not going to sit here and let the government tell me I don't have any rights to protect my property."

Roger Barnett, a part-time cowpuncher (also former Cochise county deputy sheriff) whose 22,000-acre Cross Rail Ranch lies east out of Douglas, has made a name for himself in these parts by refusing to take the invasion lying down. "This last year-and-a-half my brother and I have turned in over 1,000 aliens to the Border Patrol that we've found on the property," says Barnett, "and that's only doing it on Sundays." Sometimes they've marched the groups out two miles to the road; at least once they've loaded them into a trailer and hauled them to the Border Patrol station in town. "We always carry a gun," Barnett says, when asked if he goes armed. "You should always have a gun out in an area like this."

But Barnett's actions have not endeared him to Border Patrol officials, who prefer that apprehensions be left to professionals or local law-enforcement agencies. They warn ranchers who detain aliens, especially at gunpoint, that they could face charges of kidnapping or brandishing. "They're looking at me real hard and heavy, and I think they'd like to charge me with something," Barnett says, but "I've got a right to make an arrest and I don't intend to stop."

"We try and discourage [Barnett] from going out there looking for aliens, and we try to avoid having people detaining illegal aliens," says Victor Colon, a public-information officer at the Douglas station. "They never know what they're up against, and they're putting themselves in harm's way."

"You don't have a right to detain anybody by use of force," says Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Cochise County sheriff's office, pointing to a worrisome episode a week earlier when "warning shots" were fired into the air by one rancher. The county cannot stop illegals because that is a federal responsibility, says Capas, but "we do have a responsibility to protect the safety of people passing through, whether they are citizens or not."

"I'm not aware of any charges having been filed against anyone," says Cathy Colbert, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona. "But if you threaten somebody or you shoot somebody, regardless of whether it's on your land, we're going to prosecute the case."

"I'm so afraid there's going to be a bloody altercation between locals and illegals" before national attention will be riveted on the problem, says Vance. "The only reason there hasn't been a major incident is because of who these aliens are," says Borane. "They're impoverished, they're respectful and they're vulnerable. But my worry is that you might get a group that's not."

Yet running afoul of a trigger-happy rancher probably is the least of many risks migrants face along this rugged, sometimes violent border. There were 254 illegal alien deaths reported along the line in fiscal 1998 (more than 300 by Mexican count), a growing percentage of which are environmentally caused. This, observers say, is a logical consequence of border crackdowns that have pushed crossing attempts away from urban areas, such as San Diego and El Paso, Texas, and into the inhospitable hinterlands where heat, cold, dehydration and unforgiving terrain are taking a rising toll.

Many migrants also fall victim to crime on both sides of the line. Horrific traffic accidents regularly occur when overloaded transport vehicles blow a tire or lose control. And many other UDAs are abandoned or abused by their guides when the going gets rough.

Mexico's Grupo Beta is a multi-agency police force whose primary mission is protecting migrants from being victimized or exploited along the border. Sometimes that means handing out pamphlets. Other times it means raiding overcrowded stash houses, rescuing abandoned groups or busting abusive coyotes. But on one recent afternoon, as Insight tagged along, it meant chasing through mesquite-choked washes west of town, guns drawn, in pursuit of bandits who had just robbed a group of migrants on the U.S. side of the line, then fled south into Mexico.

Later, in a cramped bungalow on a dusty Aqua Prieta side street, Beta's plainclothes officers lay out mug shots for five of the victims, asking if any look familiar. They eventually finger one individual, pictured holding the M-16 assault rifle he was carrying when previously detained by Beta. After further questions, in which one of the men is quizzed by a visiting U.S. Border Patrol agent about his rough, prison-style tattoos, the five are allowed to go.

Beta never asks from where migrants have come or where they are going -- its prime directive is offering protection. "The Mexican government created this group to help people in need," says local Beta leader Maria De La Paz Diaz. "But at the same time, we also are responsible for arresting most of the smugglers who are in prison."

Those convicted of violating Mexico's laws against trafficking in people, when such laws are enforced, can receive prison sentences of six to 12 years. And although non-Mexican illegal aliens can be deported, "Beta does not arrest or detain any illegal aliens because it would be a contradiction of our philosophy," she tells Insight. "How can you arrest somebody and say that you're protecting them at the same time? We don't tell people to cross, but we're not going to stop them, either."

Douglas station is working to establish better relations and cooperation with Beta and other Mexican law-enforcement agencies, with some success, but many Mexican police are cycled through the area quickly to reduce opportunities for corruption, making it hard to develop any lasting rapport. Corruption occurs nonetheless, resulting in muted if diplomatic frustration in the north.

One who recently experienced that frustration firsthand is Lt. Ruben C. Saavedra, commander of the Cochise County Border Alliance Group, a multi-agency antidrug task force that has seen its seizure numbers double in each of the last two years. More than 230 pounds of dope, stuffed beneath the floorboards of a Nissan Sentra, had been seized at the border station in Naco, Arizona, just the day before we spoke. Customs personnel, noticing something odd about the car, held it up for inspection, recounts Saavedra, at which point the driver leapt out and fled back toward Mexico. "He was detained by Mexican officials, but later our agents saw him walking away, free," Saavedra tells Insight. Such episodes are "frustrating," Saavedra says, but "just a fact of life" along a border where corruption festers.

In another recent incident, sources say drug smugglers attempting a "drive through" -- in which a vehicle tries to dash across a remote, unfenced area of the line, got stuck while still a few yards inside Mexico. As Border Patrol agents looked on, futilely radioing the Mexicans for help that never came, the smugglers had time leisurely to unload their cargo and saunter off with it into the night.

An agent's face is bathed in green light as the twilight desert cools and ghosts begin to take shape on the monitor inside his truck. The first big group of the night, probably 12 in all, has been detected west of town, hoofing it north through a mile of no-man's-land between the border and Arizona Route 80. Initially detected by an agent with binoculars who was perched on the roof of a ranch house confiscated from drug dealers, they're now being tracked by infrared cameras on a Border Patrol "scope truck." This otherwise ordinary sport-utility vehicle has a periscope that rises into the night sky, with a swiveling eye that follows the infrared signatures of the unsuspecting UDAs. It's one of several high-tech aids -- including buried pressure sensors, night-vision equipment and the occasional borrowed helicopter (the station hopes to get one of its own someday) -- that give the agents a fighting chance against the increasingly high-tech coyotes.

Zooming in, it looks from the truck like several in the group are hefting backpacks, possibly containing drugs. Using the radio, the scope operator begins to direct other vehicles, some running without lights, into position for an intercept. But suddenly the images vanish into the night: Possibly they've hunkered down along a railroad bed and are resting or are aware they're being pursued. As the wait for their reappearance drags on, concern begins to grow that they somehow slipped the trap and crossed Route 80. This is confirmed minutes later when supervisory agent Fred Esquivel, scanning the ground with a flashlight, detects fresh tracks crossing a stretch of dirt road he had been patrolling only minutes earlier. They must have coolly crossed over less than a minute after he cruised by.

Yet even as one group disappears northward into the night, hopefully to be collared at some other bottleneck in the people pipeline, others appear on the scope truck's monitor and the triangulations begin again, this time successfully. A cornered group "quails" as the agents close in on foot, but most are collared after a brief chase through the brush and loaded into trucks for the drive into town.

For those who get away, the prospects seem to brighten with every mile they put between themselves and Douglas station. The Border Patrol has set up temporary checkpoints on area roads, with good results, says Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels, "but what hasn't been so successful is getting congressional support for permanent checkpoints in this sector." Daniels says Arizona Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe has blocked funding for permanent checkpoints and Kolbe's spokesman, Keith Rosenblum, says his boss' objection is that they're impractical and inconvenient. "They'll just go around them," Rosenblum tells Insight. "And does the war on drugs mean locals have to take another hour out of their day waiting at checkpoints?"

Nor has the interdiction effort been helped much by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which has grown wary of stopping smugglers following a string of nasty crashes. "Probably the most dramatic change we've seen [since the deluge began] is in the accident picture," says Lt. Stephen Roethle, district coordinator for Arizona's Highway Patrol, District 9. "We've had numerous smuggling vehicles roll that have been overloaded and blown tires, including one last week involving at least 11 passengers," he tells Insight. "We also had one vehicle roll not long ago with 22 people in it."

Although the crashes are not always a result of hot pursuit, "We have a district policy that if we recognize it as a vehicle carrying UDAs we do not pursue it," Roethle tells Insight. "We will back off and try and deploy tire spikes down the road." But even that policy won't prevent tragedies, he points out, if the drivers are willing intentionally to crash vehicles and passengers are willing to dash across busy roadways attempting to get away.

Because state police aren't authorized to incarcerate any UDAs they detain, many shy away from stopping suspect vehicles rather than risk a long wait before the overworked Border Patrol can respond. "UDA apprehension is not a priority -- it's a side note to our regular enforcement," Roethle says. "The vast majority of UDAs we stop, probably 60 or 70 percent, we'll let go, unless Border Patrol is able to respond within 10 or 20 minutes." The decision is left up to the individual trooper: "A lot of officers try not to even stop them," Roethle says, "while other officers are adamant and will stop them and hold them."

The Border Patrol reportedly had a pilot program in 1996 in which local law officers, cross-deputized and paid on an overtime basis, were used to augment its manpower. "It worked real well and we had extra bodies to help," says a border source, but "it came and it went" and no one seems to know why.

Down here they call this exercise "sweeping the ditch." Several times a night, depending on the traffic, a half-dozen border agents, flashlights in hand, make a pass through a moat without water -- a usually dry drainage ditch that serves as the second-greatest physical barrier the border jumpers face in Douglas proper. But it's also a great hiding place and provides access to storm drains that run under the town, allowing aliens to pop up through manhole covers not welded down.

Like all the rest, UDAs found in the ditch are loaded into trucks for the trip back to the station, where they'll be questioned, fingerprinted and hauled back to Aqua Prieta -- hopefully not to be seen at the station again that evening.

By midnight the station will be filling; by dawn, captured UDAs will be spilling out the doors. Yet many of the uncounted uncaptured -- the lucky and wily who slip past the dragnet -- will be miles up the road by daybreak, on their way to Tucson and Phoenix and Los Angeles... and whatever next stop awaits on the underground railway they are riding to menial work in the promised land.

Copyright © 1999 Insight News

Note: This is one of the best articles I've read about the illegal alien problem today on the Southwest border. However, it neglects to cover in any depth the massive quantities of illegal drugs being smuggled into the US by illegal aliens coming from Mexico. And I've yet to meet any "trigger happy ranchers" in San Diego or Imperial counties of Southern California (CA's two Mexico border counties) in almost 20 years of mineral prospecting, backpacking, hiking, and horseback riding on their private lands, although I have been shot at a number of times near the Mexico border by suspected smugglers. - Website author.

---

Illegals robbed three times
JOHN GRABER / Sierra Vista Herald / June 18, 1999

DOUGLAS, AZ - A group of illegal aliens picked up by the U.S. Border Patrol Wednesday night reported being robbed by three different groups of border bandits before they could even cross the international line.

While all of the robbers demanded money or other valuables, none took everything the illegal aliens had, said Rob Daniels, a Border Patrol spokesman. The last group wished the illegal aliens well and directed them to the Whitewater Wash, which is a popular crossing point from Mexico into the United States, Daniels said.

Agents picked up the group of 11 illegal aliens shortly before 11 p.m. near the wash. They reported giving about $100 in cash and watches to the three different groups of bandits, who were armed with handguns and knives.

This is similar to what we've had in the past, Daniels said.

Agua Prieta police were notified, but it is not known if they captured any suspects, Daniels said. All of the illegal aliens were voluntarily returned to Mexico, Daniels said.

Copyright 1999 Sierra Vista Herald

---

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Shot Near Columbus, N.M.
Body Armor Likely Saved Life
Tuesday, April 20, 1999
By Rene Romo, Journal Southern Bureau

LAS CRUCES, NM -- A bulletproof vest probably saved the life of a Border Patrol agent who was hit three times by gunfire when he was on patrol alone by the Mexican border near Columbus last week.

The agent, whose name was not released, was badly bruised after he was struck twice in the chest and once in the center of his back as he retreated across a sandy border road about 10:30 p.m. Friday night, said Richard Moody, agent in charge of the Border Patrol's Deming station. The agent returned fire, shooting 18 rounds from his .40-caliber Beretta handgun, but apparently did not hit anyone, Moody said.

The confrontation occurred in a desolate area about six miles east of the Columbus port of entry. The assailants appeared to have fired from a mesquite-topped sand dune about 30 feet south of the border, Moody said. Evidence recovered by Mexican authorities at the site suggests there were several attackers. Footprints and tire tracks indicate two people headed south into Mexico while "some subjects" headed north onto U.S. soil, Moody said.

The FBI, which has jurisdiction over attacks on federal officers, is working on the case. No arrests had been made in the case Monday. But Moody said that based on information obtained by investigators, it appears the assailants are tied to an illegal alien and drug-smuggling ring that operates out of Palomas, the Mexican border town a few miles south of Columbus. Border Patrol apprehensions by the Deming station have soared in recent years as agents to the west and east, in Arizona and El Paso, have clamped down on illegal crossings.

Last month Border Patrol agents in Deming apprehended 3,131 illegal aliens, with apprehensions running about 20 percent ahead of the same period in 1998. With the Border Patrol bolstering enforcement along the 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico, alien smuggling has become a lucrative business, said Gilbert Guaderrama, assistant Border Patrol agent in charge of the Deming station.

Smugglers, or coyotes, charge as much as $500 a person for the 30-mile ride from Palomas to Deming and up to $1,500 a person from the border to Albuquerque, Guaderrama said. In February and March, about 20 percent of all illegal aliens apprehended were using a coyote's services.

"Since we're increasing our activity at the border, I believe we are putting pressure on these smugglers," Guaderrama said. "It's getting to the point now where they've raised the stakes. They are now willing to take an agent's life in order to do what they set out to do."

The Friday night attack was the second on a Deming station agent in four months. In December, a suspected smuggler stopped by a Border Patrol agent on N.M. 9 west of Columbus tried to fire .40-caliber handgun at the agent, but the gun jammed, Guaderrama said. The suspected smuggler, leaving behind a van with 10 illegal aliens en route to Los Angeles, fled south across the border, Moody said.

The agent attacked Friday was carrying a flashlight looking for tracks on a moonless night when he was shot, Moody said. The agent was about 100 yards from his car when he was hit. Three other Border Patrol agents arrived to provide aid within about five minutes, Moody said. The injured agent was taken to Mimbres Memorial Hospital, where he was treated and released early Saturday.

All Border Patrol agents are issued bulletproof vests, but wearing them is not mandatory, Moody said. Many agents do not because the close-fitting body armor is hot during the spring and summer. "If he did not have the vest on, he probably would have lost his life," said Moody.

Copyright 1999 - The Albuquerque Journal

---

Border bandits assault illegal alien groups; 2 women are raped
Tuesday, 20 April 1999
The Arizona Daily Star
By Tim Steller

TUCSON, AZ - Bandits attacked two groups of illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales Friday, raping two women. A group of 38 was walking near the border west of Nogales early that morning when about six men confronted them, according to a U.S. Border Patrol statement.

It was not clear on which side of the border the confrontation occurred. The men were dressed in black and carried weapons, including mini-Uzis and AK-47-style rifles, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said. They made the illegal aliens lie face down. During the robbery, three victims were kicked in the ribs and head, five were pistol-whipped, and three others were struck in the head with rifle butts, the statement said. (*Note: Mexico's Federal Judicial Police dress in black and carry these model weapons).

Three members of the group were knifed, and two women - one from Mexico, the other from El Salvador - were removed from the group and raped. "They were taken close by, within hearing distance, and while they screamed and pleaded, the attackers raped them,'' Estrada said. "The others couldn't do anything about it because (the bandits) were standing over them with automatic weapons.'' When the bandits left, the group continued north.

Many hours later, at 11 a.m., Border Patrol agents came across the group north of Ruby Road near Rio Rico. The two women were taken to Carondelet Holy Cross Hospital. "It might have gone unreported if (the Border Patrol) had not detained them,'' Estrada said. Sheriff's investigators believe the attack took place in Mexico, Estrada said. That's typical of such attacks, he said.

A second assault occurred later that day. Agents in Potrero Canyon, west of Nogales, apprehended three illegal aliens about 9:45 p.m., the statement said. The men said two armed men on horseback had accosted them before they entered the United States and took their food and money.

*Added by website author.

Copyright 1999 The Arizona Star

---

Border frustration fuse burns, Ranchers arm selves, demand U.S. act
Story by Pamela Hartman, Citizen staff writer
The Tucson Citizen, 12 April 1999

DOUGLAS, AZ - Part-time cattle rancher [owner of 22,000 acre ranch - a very big part-time job - and former deputy sheriff] Roger Barnett parks his pickup truck and heads down a tiny trail littered with empty water jugs and blankets on his ranch two miles north of the Mexico border. Along with his two brothers, who carry pistols in their holsters, Barnett says he probably has made dozens of citizen arrests along the stretch - including April 4, when he held 27 illegal aliens hiding on his property.

The native Arizonan, 56, has spotted dozens of trails in recent weeks - the footsteps and trash left by a record number of illegal aliens crossing the border through Douglas.

"It's a violation of my rights, illegal aliens coming across and encroaching on my property," he says. He is not alone in his sentiment, although some ranchers in the area said they disagree with Barnett's strategy of detaining illegal aliens - a job they say they leave for the Border Patrol.

Dave Stoddard, a retired Border Patrol agent living in Hereford, said he keeps a firearm in every room in his home and is ready if a confrontation ensues.

"I don't feel safe in my home, and I don't feel safe going out to the car at night," he said.

The ranchers want more patrol agents and the military to take control of the border. Twenty ranchers in Cochise County signed a petition last month complaining to local and federal authorities that they were being overrun by illegal aliens, whom they referred to as invaders. Larry Vance formed a group called Concerned Citizens of the U.S.A. and wrote the petition the ranchers signed. The ranchers have held three meetings, he said.

"It's so far out of hand, we've forgot what it's like to have a full night's sleep," said Vance, who lives a mile outside Douglas.

"We're in constant fear of home invasion and property damage."

Ranchers bristle at the notion that they could be considered vigilantes, but human rights activists in Tucson said they fear the ranchers are escalating the problem.

"When we get into a situation where we have armed people on their own deciding to patrol the border, you eventually have a tragedy that's going to occur," said Tucson lawyer Jesus Romo. "It's gross negligence on the part of the authorities not to stop it immediately at this point. You've got explosive ingredients here."

Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels said the agency is telling the ranchers not to get involved in detaining illegal aliens.

"We do not want anybody getting into a situation that is going to put themselves or the illegal alien in any harm or peril," he said.

Barnett and his brothers, in addition to pistols in their holsters, used binoculars and walkie-talkies to spot the 27 crossers April 4.

"We got them all out of the bush, marched them to the road and sat them down," Barnett recalled. Daniels said the illegal aliens did not feel threatened and did not ask to see Mexican consular officials. They were voluntarily returned to Mexico.

Other crossers previously have used the ranch to hide, said Barnett, pointing to a mesquite bosque [thicket] used by a group of illegal aliens who waited there for a ride on nearby Highway 80. Dozens of water jugs, some still unopened, a couple of discarded blankets, a dirty diaper and plastic bags littered the ground.

Barnett complains that the barbed wire fence on his ranch has been cut and bent by crossers, and his water tanks have run dry after illegal aliens trespassing on his property left the spigots open. Other ranchers say they are law-abiding citizens who are fed up with the noise and trash and who fear that illegal aliens will vandalize their property or break into their homes.

From the Douglas border to 30 miles away in the Chiricahua Mountains, the ranchers said they are experiencing the same problems: burglaries, cut fences, discarded trash and sleepless nights. They complained that the Border Patrol is overwhelmed and that the agency is concentrating on patrolling in border cities rather than in rural areas.

George Warren, a cattle rancher in Double Adobe, 20 miles northwest of Douglas, said he recently had a rifle stolen from his home.

"I've never locked my house until this year," he said. "We're just kind of prisoners in our own homes. One member of the family has to stay home at all times (so no one breaks in). It's just gotten plumb out of hand here. It needs to be stopped."

The ranchers said they keep dogs for protection, and every time trespassers come through, the dogs bark and wake them up. As the ranchers met one evening at Vance's home, his father, who lives down the road, called to say 60 illegal aliens were walking through their property.

"I'll be woken up four or five times tonight," Vance predicted.

His opinion is echoed in the ranchers' petition:

"It is our opinion and our solemn belief that as this situation worsens and friction increases between citizens and invaders, violence and bloodshed will result," the petition said. "This is our greatest fear."

With that statement, their efforts gained the attention of authorities, who warned that things could deteriorate if steps aren't taken quickly to better control illegal crossings in Cochise County.

"The frustration level has reached a new high and has escalated to residents becoming personally and physically involved," Douglas Mayor Ray Borane said in an April 7 letter to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

"Our biggest fear is that we will inevitably have a sad and embarrassing tragedy." U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe echoed a similar warning in a letter the next day to Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner.

"I must tell you in all candor I believe the situation is reaching a crisis point," he wrote. "Without immediate action by the INS, the situation could result in a tragic turn of events."

A record 60,000 illegal aliens were apprehended in the Tucson sector in March, with many caught and counted multiple times. Nearly 1,000 a day were caught in Douglas. In 1995, patrol agents apprehended just 4,400 illegal aliens in Douglas in the entire month of March.

"If the government refuses to provide this security, then the only recourse is to provide it for ourselves," the letter said.

"This is a sickening, dreadful thought that citizens of this nation should ever have to consider such a thing. That is why we make this common plea for immediate and decisive action."

Copyright 1999 The Tucson Citizen

---

Douglas considers legal action over flood of illegal aliens
Sierra Vista Herald / April 16, 1999 / AP NEWS

DOUGLAS, AZ - About 600 Mexicans rushed en mass across the border near Douglas, and Border Patrol agents rounded up nearly 200 of them while the rest rushed back south, a spokesman says.

When they started heading south, it looked like the beginning of a 10K run, said Rob Daniels of the Tucson Border Patrol office.

Meanwhile, the City Council is looking into the possibility of recovering damages from the federal government for property and economic losses resulting from a flood of illegal aliens.

Mayor Ray Borane said that actually getting money would be appropriate but that the major intent of filing such a lawsuit would be to get the governments attention to what he said this week is a situation of crisis proportion.

The city of Douglas, this entire area, has become a beachhead in a war, he said. The tension is mounting. I personally don't believe we have the luxury of waiting for the political process to play out.

The Tucson sector of the Border Patrol leads the nation in arrests of illegal aliens as the border-crossers apparently have been pushed into testing Arizona by crackdowns and increased personnel along the Texas and California borders with Mexico. A single-month record 60,500 were arrested in March in the sector.

And the Douglas area, where most of 8,430 illegal entrants were arrested within a recent four-day period, is the hot spot within the sector that covers most of Mexico's border with Arizona. The Border Patrol has also added more agents and equipment in the area.

Area residents have begun to take action on their own, warning that the influx of border-crossers ultimately may lead to bloodshed.

A Douglas rancher who, with his brothers, rounded up 27 illegal aliens recently and held them for the Border Patrol is under investigation.

Agents say they now are accustomed to groups of 50 or so dashing into the United States and to finding groups as large as 150 hidden in big-rig trucks.

John Koren of the agency's Douglas office said agents arrested 193 illegal aliens in Tuesday nights rush, intercepting the larger group about a mile north of the border. A week earlier, he said, agents had arrested a group of 183 in the same area.

Koren also said the situation was cause for concern.

If this becomes a trend, you have to scratch your head and figure out how to handle it, Koren said. Its the first time any of us have come across a group anywhere near that large.

Borane agreed that action is needed. He said Douglas plans to file special action in the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C.

We don't have the luxury anymore of sitting around and listening to the politicians, Borane said. The quality of life here has gone to the dogs. Our community is starting to divide into factions about how to address that.

Borane also blames criminal syndicates that manufacture false documents and those who provide jobs for illegal entrants. He has lobbied the Arizona congressional delegation for a return to the bracero program, which provided legal documents for Mexican workers to remain in this country for a few months at a time.

You can put a Border Patrol agent every 20 feet, but they cant do anything about the flow if there are *abundant jobs in this country, Douglas City Attorney Ann Littrell said.

Arizona and other states sued the federal government in 1994 in an attempt to recover the cost of housing illegal entrants in state prisons. That effort failed when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider the states appeal in 1997.

Bill Strassberger, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Laguna Niguel, Calif., said he recognizes the frustration of Douglas officials but didn't like the idea of filing a lawsuit.

Its certainly their prerogative to do that, he said, but the long-term goal is to be of assistance*, not to create problems for the people there. It's something we wish we could turn around overnight, but unfortunately it takes time.

He said additional personnel and equipment will be assigned to Arizona soon.

Copyright 1999 Sierra Vista Herald

*Note: Cochise county unemployment is 19.2% and the poverty rate is 38.8% - Website author.

---

Condemning immigrant job seekers to death
Claudia Smith
SMITH is border project director for the Oceanside-based
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
06-Apr-1999 Tuesday

Since October 1994, with the implementation of Operation Gatekeeper, the strategy of the U.S. Border Patrol has been to push the illegal alien foot traffic out of the city of San Diego -- not to mention out of the public eye -- and into the backcountry of San Diego county and the Imperial Valley. The upshot is at least 386 dead and a less than 1 percent drop in the apprehension figures.

The border may appear under more control, but the Border Patrol is hiding its losses. The much ballyhooed drop in apprehensions around San Diego has been offset by a surge in apprehensions eastward. During fiscal year 1994, there were 477,806 apprehensions in the San Diego and El Centro sectors, combined, as compared to 474,795 apprehensions in fiscal year 1998. In short, the number of apprehensions along the entire California border is about the same as it was at the outset of Operation Gatekeeper.

According to the blueprint for Operation Gatekeeper, the deterrent effect of the strategy should be taking hold by now. It is not just that lower apprehension figures have not materialized. Neither have other key indicators chosen by the Border Patrol as surrogates for measuring deterrence, e.g., a contraction in the supply of undocumented workers. Any way you look at it, would-be illegal aliens are not staying home and are not giving up even when they fail repeatedly to gain entry.

If anything, a slowed job-growth rate and widened wage gap in Mexico have increased the pressure to go north. Every day, thousands walk through the mountains and deserts that straddle the border -- resigned to taking more risks and paying higher fees to professional smugglers. The reason is no mystery. People desperate for work go where the jobs are, so they come here, rightly confident that they can find all sorts of employment.

The truth is that Operation Gatekeeper is, for the most part, political. While the illegal alien death toll keeps mounting, we conveniently choose to ignore the "pull" side of the illegal immigration equation. Consider this: The Immigration and Naturalization Service imposed a pitiful 10 fines on San Diego employers during fiscal year 1998.

Crossing the border illegally has become a death sentence for hundreds of these job-seekers. Nine died this past weekend; five died the weekend before that. The results of "redirecting" illegal aliens to some of the worst terrain and climate in the country were fairly predictable. In fact, the blueprint for Operation Gatekeeper acknowledged that the environment to which the illegal alien foot traffic would be redirected posed a mortal danger to illegal entrants.

When asked recently about the death toll, INS Commissioner Meissner responded that there had always been deaths along the border. She left a 600 percent increase since 1994 unexplained.

Last year alone, 145 illegal aliens died at the California border -- 63 percent more than the year before. The 1997 deaths were up 50 percent over 1996. And so on back to 1994, when the Border Patrol shifted from detaining illegal entrants as soon as they crossed the border to deterring illegal entry.

Record numbers continue to die despite the Border Patrol's much-belated search-and-rescue initiative. Some 122 illegal aliens have died since the initiative went into effect last June. That is more than one-fourth of the four-year death toll.

Although the nine deaths this past weekend were the result of extreme cold in the back country, most illegal aliens have died in the desert, where heat illness can progress from a serious problem to a medical emergency within minutes. It is already getting real hot in the Imperial Valley, which has some of the highest temperatures anywhere in the United States. That means dozens of illegal aliens will be dying in the desert, again. The first death this year from heat stress happened a few days ago. Before Gatekeeper, heat stroke deaths were few -- only one along the California stretch of the border during all of 1994. Four years later a total of 105 illegal aliens have died of heat stroke -- 47 of them in 1998.

The environmentally related deaths are bound to escalate with the so-called "El Centro initiative," a deployment of more agents and technology that will only serve to drive border crossers deeper into the desert.

As if the terrain and climate were not bad enough, three of the deaths during the weekend of March 28 resulted from an accident while riding in a Border Patrol vehicle. The cause of the accident has not yet been determined, but why were there seven detainees in a Bronco with a three-passenger limit?

For years, my organization has complained to the Border Patrol of chronically overloaded vehicles. Detainees have told me of up to 18 illegal aliens being packed into a Suburban with a seven-passenger limit. I myself have counted 109 detainees getting off a bus with a 64-passenger limit. Always, the complaints were blithely dismissed by the sector chiefs.

Last August, San Diego Border Patrol agents accused their supervisors of "imperiling the lives of thousands of illegal aliens" by allowing unlicensed and overly tired agents to drive poorly maintained vehicles. In February, a press release issued by the agents' union charged that, despite a record budget of $3.95 billion for the INS, vehicles were not being serviced or repaired. The union made the stunning claim that up to 50 percent of the El Cajon station's vehicles were inoperable and that many vehicles assigned to other San Diego stations were in similarly poor shape.

All in all, God help us if California is really where, as INS Commissioner Doris Commissioner Meissner boasted not long ago, we have "figured out... the basic elements of what it [takes] to make the border work."

Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune

---

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - APRIL 1999
Our border is out of control, as thousands cross it illegally

The eastern portion of San Diego County is literally in a state of chaos. Illegal aliens moving, mostly trespassing, through the back country, while in search of a better life for themselves are ruining the lifestyles and lives of residents in this area.

Civil disorder here is at an all-time high while thousands of illegals move through the area. The fact is, not all who are moving through are simply in search of work in "The Promised Land." Smugglers are running drugs into our country.

Hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars are spent on Operation Gatekeeper while our civil, law enforcement and emergency resources are tied up in dealing with illegals as opposed to being fully available when legal residents require services. Many areas of civil service are understaffed due to budget problems. Yet how can we afford to spend millions on illegals?

Our border is out of control and I would like to stand eyeball to eyeball and have a heart-to-heart talk with whoever says it isn't.

ED TISDALE - Boulevard, CA (Morningstar Ranch)

Immigration reform is a must if invasion is to be stemmed

We are literally being invaded, and Congress must put a stop to it. The Republican Party can endear itself to 70 percent of the people by addressing and taking action on this one issue.

Let's discuss why illegals come here: because we make it so attractive with handouts and ease of corrupting the system. We need a verifiable identification card to allow employers to screen job-seekers. Let's discuss changing the bestowal of citizenship on babies born of foreign parents, and the undeserved benefits it carries.

Immigration reform is desperately needed.

BONNIE ROBINSON - Rancho Bernardo, CA

Illegal aliens resented; legal immigrants don't cheat

As a legal immigrant in this country from Belgium, I resent every foreigner who just walks into this country illegally.

As a Belgian citizen and college educated I had to fill out forms and submit papers, then wait two years before I could enter this country as a permanent resident in 1956. To become a U.S. citizen in 1968, I had to be screened by a judge in U.S. history and U.S. government, and I had to be able to speak English.

Although I speak and write five other languages, I learned English as the official language in the United States.

TUILA GOBLE - San Diego, CA

U.S. should put troops along the border with Mexico

If we can send troops half way around the world to control the borders of Bosnia, why can't we put troops on our southern border to stop the invasion of the United States by illegal aliens from every country in the world?

When we get our border under control, the citizens of this country need to demand that every city, county, state and federal law enforcement officer and agency be required to assist the Border Patrol to round up and deport every person in this country in violation of our laws.

JAMES NOEL - San Diego, CA

Invasion of illegal aliens threatens our infrastructure

Any party or candidate who wants the votes of Californians must address the issue of illegal immigration. Education, health, public safety, job displacement and wage suppression are all impacted by this invasion of our state.

Our officials can do no accurate long-range planning for schools, hospitals, sewers, housing, etc., because there is no way for them to predict population growth. Our social, economic and physical infrastructures are at the breaking point because of this invasion.

B.E. VICKROY - Escondido, CA

America's culture is in danger

At a time when the issue of both legal and illegal immigration has reached national concern, both the Republican and Democratic parties seem to be paralyzed when it comes to taking swift and meaningful action. Unless definitive action is taken soon, the time left for preserving America's traditional culture, which has been a beacon to the rest of the world, will be running out.

LOUIS A. SKUCE - Escondido, CA

U.S. must get a firm grip on its immigration policy

As a "nation of immigrants," we Americans have been receptive, historically, to immigrants, and our immigration laws and practices are among the most lenient in the world. As one result, we face a threat of inundation by foreigners who burden our social services without commensurate contribution to our economy and society.

In dealing with this problem, we should take three steps.

Regain physical control of our borders, employing barriers, increased border guards and National Guard troops, as necessary, to discourage illegal immigration.

Stiffen penalties against U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens knowingly. To assist in this effort, we should adopt a tamper-proof national identification card. The argument that such a move invades personal privacy lacks validity. In the course of normal living, all of us must identify ourselves with driver's licenses, Social Security cards and the like.

Restrict legal aliens, with few exceptions for humanitarian reasons, to those who possess the health, skills or capital to become productive, rather than dependent, members of our society.

America should continue as the land of opportunity without becoming the land of the handout.

BRYCE F. DENNO - Coronado, CA

Illegal aliens should not benefit from U.S. education

Your editorial of August 3 opposes the Gallegly amendment, which would deny public education benefits to children of illegal aliens. The thrust of your argument is that these children need to learn English so they can get a job, and refusing a free public education to these illegal children would put them on the streets to create a crime wave.

Illegals are not supposed to get a job here. Employment of illegals is illegal. Why should an American taxpayer pay to teach illegals English or educate an illegal for a job that the illegal should never have?

An illegal's bilingual education costs substantially more than that of a native-born student. Denying educational benefits to illegals will save millions of dollars that can be spent on our own the education of our own children. The responsibility for the education and conduct of illegal children rests with their parents. If the children break the law, as some surely will, they and their parents should be deported immediately.

THOMAS LAWRENCE - Rancho Peñasquitos, CA

If our immigration quotas are full, they are full; period

Sixteen years ago, when I moved here, I had no idea how vastly different it was going to be living next to our southwestern border with Mexico rather than our northeastern border with Canada. Before you holler "racism," let me just as quickly say "Americanism."

I don't care if our southern border had a civilization of purple people eaters on the other side, this is our country, our border, our rules, our laws. It is positively sinful that the sieve we call a "border" exists as it does today. If world whackos make their way into our country, surely we can't wonder how.

We offer immigration -- legal immigration. We have quotas. We speak English. We have laws. It is not ordained that we be the world's keeper. If the quotas are full, the quotas are full. End of story.

GERALDINE S. SPENCER - San Diego, CA

Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune