Immigration Law

Violence Against Border Agents Up 47% In Past Six Months

By Robert Kraft

Here's a troubling bit of news from today's Dallas Morning News: Violence against U.S. Border Patrol agents is up 47 percent for the first six months of the fiscal year, as surveillance toughens along the 2,000-mile stretch of U.S.-Mexico border, David Aguilar, the nation's top Border Patrol official, said Tuesday.

"As we continue to gain control of our borders, we fully expected the violence to go up," said Mr. Aguilar, in Dallas for a quarterly gathering of about 50 sector chiefs and other leaders.

In the past six months, there have been nearly 500 incidents against Border Patrol agents, as varied as rock-throwing, physical assaults and gunfire. Smugglers "frankly thought they owned" the border region, and could operate with impunity, Mr. Aguilar said.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on April 09, 2008 (boomark / email).