U.S. sends agents to patrol Mexico border
The U.S. is dispatching federal agents to Texas to combat violent crime along the Mexican border, a source of tension between the two countries in recent months.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the issue would be the focus of his meeting in San Antonio on Thursday with his Mexican counterpart, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca.
The Violent Crime Impact Team will go to the border city of Laredo, Gonzales told reporters Wednesday at the Justice Department. Such teams previously have been sent to about 20 U.S. cities that are struggling with violent crime problems despite a dropping U.S. crime rate.
The teams typically include agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; FBI; and Drug Enforcement Administration. A Justice Department prosecutor handles cases of those charged.
Investigators focus on prosecuting people for firearms violations, which often accompany gang activity, illegal drug organizations and organized crime groups.
Gonzales said border violence is “something the president has expressed to me concerns about.”
In August, U.S. and Mexican officials traded accusations over who is to blame for problems in border security.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said he closed the American consulate in Nuevo Laredo, just over the border from Laredo, partly to punish the Mexican government for not stopping violence there. The closure followed dozens of drug-related killings, the assassination of the police chief and a city councilman, and a machine-gun, grenade and rocket attack on an alleged drug safe house.
Mexican president Vicente Fox has said the problems are not just Mexico’s. “On that side and this side there is organized crime. On that side and this side there is drug consumption,” Fox said at the time.
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US agents shot at, tension mounts on Mexico border
U.S. Border Patrol agents have come under fire twice along the Rio Grande in Texas in recent days amid rising tension on the frontier with Mexico, although no one was reported wounded, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.
A Border Patrol spokesman said unknown gunmen fired on agents on patrol in Brownsville, Texas, late on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if the shots came from Mexico or from within the United States.
"Shots were fired, no one was injured and the FBI have taken the case over," Jose Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Border
'Made in Mexico' uniforms miff border cops
The labels inside the U.S. Border Patrol uniforms have been making many federal agents feel uneasy. It's not the fit or feel of the olive-green shirts and pants, but what their labels read: "Made in Mexico."
"It's embarrassing to be protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and be wearing a uniform made in Mexico," says T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a 6,500-member union.
Agents and lawmakers are concerned about the consequences if the uniforms for agents charged with combating illegal immigration fall into the hands of criminals or terrorists.
"If we're manufacturing uniforms in
Local agents help Mexico in rescue
Border Patrol agents rescued a man from rising waters during the heavy rains Thursday.
A press release sent to the News-Herald from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs states that around noon Thursday the Border Patrol received a telephone call from Mexican authorities requesting assistance with the rescue of an individual in the Rio Grande.
According to the release, agents responded by launching the agency’s airboats into the “very high and rapidly†flowing river.
Once they located the man, who was clinging to a tree branch in the middle of the river, it was
Agents patrolling Mexico's border facing more dangers
Those tracking smugglers of drugs and immigrants are being attacked at a growing rate
Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled along the Mexican border over the past year as patrols cracking down on drug trafficking and migrant smuggling encountered increasing resistance — including the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire.
At least 687 assaults against agents were reported during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the previous year's total of 354 and the highest since the agency began tracking assaults across the Southwest border in the late 1990s, according to
Mexico Calls for Probe in Border Shooting
The Mexican government called for an investigation Friday into a shooting by two federal agents that left one person dead at the worlds busiest border crossing. A union representing the Border Patrol agent involved in the shooting defended the officers conduct.
The shooting took place Thursday afternoon after U.S. agents surrounded a sport utility vehicle that was under surveillance on suspicion of immigrant smuggling, police said.
The driver refused to get out, and when agents smashed the vehicles window with a baton, he accelerated in the direction of five U.S. agents blocking his
US says migrant deaths at record on Mexico border
Deaths of illegal immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border soared to an all-time high in the past year, as a brutal heatwave killed hundreds in the remote Arizona desert, the U.S. agency in charge of border security said on Monday.
The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said at least 464 immigrants died crossing the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border during the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, a rise of 43 percent on the previous year and the highest number since records began.
Spokesman Mario Villarreal, speaking in a phone call from Washington, said well
Tunnel Under U.S./Mexico Border Found In San Diego
(AP) SAN DIEGO American and Mexican authorities are investigating a tunnel found near the San Ysidro border crossing.
U-S Border Patrol agents made the discovery on Monday after it caved in and the asphalt roadway above it collapsed.
The 35-foolong tunnel began in an area that's either owned or leased by Mexican Customs and ended in a patch of vacant land on the American side.
It's not clear when the tunnel was built or whether it might have been used for smuggling drugs or people. Federal authorities say smugglers are increasingly trying to go underground after
Mexico not to beef up border patrol on frontier with U.S.: spokesman
Mexico would not beef up its border patrols or boost security on its northern frontier with the United States despite U.S. security escalation on its side to combat illegal immigration, a Mexican government spokesman said Monday.
There are no plans for a Mexican border patrol, spokesman Ruben Aguilar told media. It would be absurd given the way the Mexican government looks at the (immigration) phenomenon.
More than 50 U.S. National Guard troops that arrived Monday are the first batch of 6,000 soldiers to be dispatched to the border this
Officials discover tunnel at U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego
U.S. Border Patrol agents stumbled on a cross-border tunnel after it caved in and the asphalt roadway above it collapsed, officials said.
The 35-foot-long tunnel, which was found Monday, ended in a patch of vacant land on the U.S. side near the San Ysidro port of entry, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The primitive tunnel was about 3 feet by 3 feet and appeared to have been used recently, she said.
The exit on the U.S. side was sealed with
Stop guns going to Mexico
Assault weapons purchased in the United States are flooding into high-violence areas along the Mexican border and contributing to the wave of crime across the border. A large amount of violence has been centered in and near Nuevo Laredo, where about 128 murders have been recorded this year.
Many of the slayings are believed to be related to the fierce battle between rival drug cartels fighting for control of drug trafficking routes into the United States. A unified effort by law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border is needed to reduce the flow of
