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| Border Patrol Agents Fire on Undocumented Immigrants |
| 2005-09-09 |
| Several Border Patrol agents were involved in a shooting near the Hidalgo port of entry Saturday. The Mexican consulate in McAllen was notified when the incident occurred, said vice consul Sandra Mendoza, but they have yet to receive a written report. Border Patrol spokesman Roy Cervantes confirmed a shooting took place but would not comment on Mexican media reports that two agents were hospitalized for injuries received when they confronted three Mexican nationals attempting to cross the Rio Grande. The immigrants reportedly threw rocks at the agents, who responded with gunfire and orders for the three to stop. âThe FBI is still investigating the incident,â said Federal Bureau of Investigation media coordinator in McAllen, Jorge Cisneros. Abner Burnett is a lawyer with the South Texas Civil Rights Project in San Juan and characterized the incident as an âunfortunate confrontationâ that did not cast any parties involved in a favorable light. Burnett said the exact circumstances surrounding the incident would have to be examined. âIt sounds like excessive use of force, but if I were bleeding, I guess I would think of it differently,â he said, âCommonly, the use of deadly force is only justified if the life of the officer or a fellow officer or another citizen is eminently threatened.â Border Patrol officials declined to provide a copy of their deadly force policy at press time Tuesday. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #19 Touche' ed! Very good points. And besides breaking Federal Law, many have become more criminal once they got here. Murder, rape, theft, etc. And, another argument all good liberals can buy off on, is that it's just "NOT FAIR" to all of those who want to come here legally and can't. Just because Mexico shares a border with us, that doesn't mean the Amigos should take priority over Africans, Europeans, Aussies and even Asians because they have no "Rio Grande" to just walk across. Heck, even Mexicans who came here legally (filled out appropriate papers and waited to come across) don't like the amigos sneaking in, because they had to wait/fill out papers/pay $ to get here legally. |
| Posted by: BA 2005-09-09 18:49 |
| #18 Other than by violating US borders and living a semi-underground existence and bankrupting border counties unpaid medical and legal bills, criminal illegal aliens are 1/3 of Federal inmates. But more importantly, they displace the least educated and skilled citizens as well as entry jobs for the young. For instance illegals have taken much of the construction and janitorial jobs by driving down wages. For example, 30 years in Los Angeles janitorial jobs paid about $18 (today's dollars) and was enough to support underclass families. Now janitorial jobs pay $6-8 and there is no way to live independently in LA on that wage. So you have a whole undereducated class that used to do that job now on welfare with unwed mothers and fathers unemployed and sneaking into the mother's apartment when the welfare case worker is not watching. You also have the idle men making money by dealing drugs, petty crime, etc. There is a huge monetary and social cost that is transferred from the illegal alien's employer to the rest of society. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-09-09 18:14 |
| #17 Why is it such a bad thing for Mexicans to cross the border? Just asking. And don't say "because it's against federal law." What's the reasoning behind it? (Remember, I'm ex-LIB -- not up to speed on everything conservative just yet, or . . . am I just bettering your apologetic? Hmmm . . . we'll never know). |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2005-09-09 16:36 |
| #16 Well, I wanna know if we're gonna hold a press conference to ask them when they'll respond to accusations of their official military shooting at our agents. Or the very least, the human traffikers who are firing real bullets at our agents. Then and only then should we respond to this accusation. |
| Posted by: BA 2005-09-09 13:27 |
| #15 Discouragement of illegal aliens should be added to the ROE as a justification for the use of deadly force. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-09-09 13:10 |
| #14 Hmmm. There wasn't an article about this in Austin's newspaper. |
| Posted by: Mr.Bill 2005-09-09 12:53 |
| #13 "The immigrants reportedly threw rocks at the agents, who responded with gunfire and orders for the three to stop." Lesso#1: Don't bring rocks to a gunfight. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-09-09 12:48 |
| #12 'Undocumented Immigrants' Bullshit. These are ILLEGAL ALIENS - their presence is a violation of federal law. I'd call them invaders. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-09-09 11:45 |
| #11 It's Brownsville. Like San Antonio, they write for their Hispanic readership base. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-09-09 11:25 |
| #10 Yeah, that headline & article had definite slants - she should be writing for the New York Times. |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-09-09 10:49 |
| #9 'Undocumented Immigrants' Bullshit. These are ILLEGAL ALIENS - their presence is a violation of federal law. Ask me and I would say that that in itself is enough justification. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-09-09 09:49 |
| #8 The M3M 50's with MK-47 Auto Grenade Launcher as backup makes an area DENIED, a little dusty and pockmarked but I can live with it. |
| Posted by: Steven 2005-09-09 09:29 |
| #7 active denial systems open season w/ 25 mike mike. |
| Posted by: Slesing Graviling5428 2005-09-09 03:53 |
| #6 Time to deploy the sonic cannons and active denial systems |
| Posted by: robi 2005-09-09 01:42 |
| #5 what was that a few days back about building cement forts every 30 meters on Iraq's border. Maybe it's time to start that here and have the death star fully operational. With all sensors intact as well :) and the obvious force being with them of course. |
| Posted by: Jan 2005-09-09 01:35 |
| #4 Perhaps they should adopt the California approach to endangered species found on private property: shoot 'em quick and bury them deep. It eliminates many future problems. |
| Posted by: Random thoughts 2005-09-09 01:17 |
| #3 Shoot to kill if they throw rocks and bottles. If that's unpalatable, then rubber bullets will do. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-09-09 01:05 |
| #2 Sounds like Abner's doing the early spin. Shoot to kill if they throw rocks and bottles. Those kill too. Time to stiffen the spine and play straight: let the illegals know it's over and stop the flow. Those who fight are killed |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-09 00:50 |
| #1 So the BP guys are to blame because they returned fire? We need to have Congress make disproportionate force SOP. The Republican nomination is wide open for someone who wants to address this issue. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-09 00:21 |