Assaults on Border Patrol agents up
Since October authorities reported 21 assaults in Valley sector
McALLEN — Assaults against local U.S. Border Patrol agents have increased during the last few months — a sign, agency leaders say, that they are making progress in the battle against illegal immigration.
Since early October, agents have reported 21 assaults in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, spanning from Brownsville into Starr County, officials said earlier this month. The attacks ranged from pushing to rock throwing, local agency spokesman Oscar Saldaña said.
Last year, local agents suffered 113 assaults total. If the trend continues, there will be an increase of about a dozen assaults next year, officials said.
The rise mirrors numbers nationwide.
Since Oct. 1, agents along the entire U.S.-Mexico border have dealt with 250 assaults, up 181 from the same time last year, according to the Border Patrol.
“To us, it’s an indication of the frustration these drug smugglers, human smugglers are having to deal with,” Saldaña said.
The Border Patrol is in the process of adding 6,000 new agents to its ranks in line with President Bush’s call in May 2006 to increase the total number of agents from 12,000 to 18,000 by the end of 2008.
In the Valley on a recent weekend, Saldaña and other agents signed up 267 applicants to take the agency’s entrance exam. There is no guarantee, however, that the test takers will pass or that they would be stationed in the Valley if they do become agents.
“As we increase the personnel, obviously we’re going to increase the number of these incidents we see,” Saldaña said of the assaults on agents.
No agents suffered serious injury in the 21 recent Valley attacks, most of which occurred as agents struggled with border crossers they were trying to detain, Saldaña said.
Occasionally people heave rocks at agents, and earlier in the year agents near Mercedes and Donna exchanged gunfire with assailants across the border. No one was injured in either instance.
To combat the rising number of assaults, the Border Patrol has equipped agents with non-lethal steel batons and pepper-spray weapons.
Most of the assaults occur along the California and Arizona borders, according to agents.
On average, three agents are assaulted each day.
Organized drug and human smuggling operations have largely spurred the increase, said national Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar.
“The American public and the border community must understand that this situation is no longer about illegal immigration or narcotics trafficking,” he said in a statement.
“It is about criminals and smuggling organizations fighting our agents with lethal force to take over a part of American territory so that they can conduct criminal activity.”
Mexican officials have also noticed a slight increase in violence, particularly involving smugglers, said Miriam Medel, spokeswoman for the Mexican Consulate in McAllen.
“We have received some reports on smugglers behaving in a more aggressive way as well,” Medel said. “I wouldn’t say it’s an indication that the border is becoming more violent.”
Border Patrol officials met with Mexican authorities last month in the Valley and discussed increasing local cooperation in what Medel called “a new meeting, a new initiative.”
