Mexican criminal syndicates are stepping up their attacks on American agents patrolling the border as homeland security officials here intensify efforts to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs into the United States, American officials said Thursday. In recent months, scores of border patrol agents have been fired upon or pelted with large rocks as well as with cloth-covered rocks that have been doused with flammable liquid and set ablaze. Since October, agents have been attacked in more than 190 cases.Most of the attacks have occurred along the border near San Diego, but shootings have also been reported along the border in Texas near the cities of Laredo and McAllen. In the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, there were 778 attacks on agents, up from 374 in the previous fiscal year, homeland security officials said. One rock struck an agent in the eye; a gunshot hit an agent in the leg. The officials could not say precisely how many officers had been injured.
"This is what we're facing," said Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar, who played a videotape at a news conference on Thursday that featured a patrol car riddled with bullets and agents scrambling for cover as stones rained down on them. "This is a very serious type of situation."
The homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, who led the news conference, said officials planned to continue their efforts to secure the border. This week President Bush asked Congress to increase the homeland security budget by nearly 6 percent. The Border Patrol would receive an extra $459 million to hire 1,500 new agents, bringing the total force to about 14,000. An additional $410 million would be allocated to add 6,700 beds for detainees so that fewer illegal immigrants would have to be released before being deported. Another $100 million would be spent on cameras, sensors and other detection technology.
Chertoff said the department planned to focus on illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico, who have typically been released after apprehension because of shortages of bed space. Last fall, he expanded the use of summary deportations, a process known as expedited removal, in which illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico are detained and then deported without seeing an immigration judge.
As for the violence on the border, the officials said Mexico had deployed 300 federal police along its side of the border to help out. But many of the Mexican gangs remain deeply entrenched. Last week, immigration officials announced that they had seized a cache of weapons in Laredo, including materials for 33 explosive devices, assault weapons and machine gun assembly kits. Officials believe the weapons were intended for criminals in Mexico.