by James Fritz

U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents arrested three men on Monday suspected of smuggling weapons from Texas to Mexico in relation to a firearm that was allegedly used by cartel members in an attack on two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents which left one agent injured and one dead.

ICE agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila where driving down a Mexican highway on Feb 15 when two SUVs carrying armed gun-men ran them off the road. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, several gun-men then approached  Zapata and Ruiz and fired weapons through the rolled down windows of the agents’ vehicle. Zapata was left dead after the incident and Ruiz was injured.

Lancaster, TX resident Otilio Osorio was linked to one of the weapons used in the attack. ATF agents claim that he purchased the weapon in a Texas store on Oct. 10. Otilio along with his brother Raferie, and their neighbor Kelvin Leon Morrison were arrested at their homes on Monday. The Osorio brothers are both being charged with possessing firearms with destroyed serial numbers, while Morrison is being charged with dealing in firearms without a licence, and knowingly making false statements in acquiring a firearm, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

The murder of Zapata was discussed at a joint news conference held at the White House on Thursday between President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. An article in the Associated Press reported Obama saying that the U.S. is seeking extradition of the suspects arrested in Mexico linked with agent Zapata’s death. The article also quotes President Caulderon saying at the conference, “His death [Zapata] must urge us to work together to ensure a prosperous and peaceful future for our region.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Republican led House approved a bill on Saturday, Feb. 19, with $60 billion in overall cuts to the 2012 budget. Democratic leaders in the Senate have labeled the bill draconian and said one reason they will not support it is because of the bills’ huge cuts to border security.

Tougher border security is an important issue for both Democrats and Republicans this year with both sides arguing on what budget measures should take place. One of the main disagreements between the two parties is a section on page 245 of the 319-page spending bill that states, “For fiscal year 2011, the Border Patrol shall maintain an active duty presence of not fewer than 20,500 full-time equivalent agents.” According to statistics from the Department of Homeland Security, the number of agents currently employed is already 20,500, and the agency is currently in the process of hiring 870 more agents. This has Democrats worried that these new hires could be lost when supplemental funding runs out on Oct. 1rst.

According to ABC news, the bill would slash border security spending by an estimated $600 million through the end of this fiscal year which ends on Sep. 30, 2011. The article breaks down the cuts as follows:

• $350 million less than Congress approved last year for border security fencing, infrastructure and technology, which is $124 million below the amount requested by the Department of Homeland Securitiy.
• An estimated $159 million cut compared to last year for Customs and Border Protection modernization and construction programs. This is $40 million less than the amount requested.
• The remainder of the cuts would come in the form of reducing the amount available for Border Patrol salaries and expenses. President Obama’s proposed budget would provide for 21,185 agents, but the bill passed in the House only allocates enough for an estimated 20,500 agents, according to Democrats.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said, “ For gosh sakes, we’ve had everybody talking about secure the borders, secure the borders, secure the borders, and then instead of making some reasonable adjustments in checks we write to oil companies, they’re cutting border security.” However, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tx) seemed hesitant to believe that more funding would help border security. He was quoted in the New York Times Caucus blog as saying, “ Even with all the money in world, the administration would not succeed in securing the border because they are not serious about it.”

The budget bill is expected to encounter high Democratic opposition in the Senate on Monday, Feb. 28 when Congress reconvenes.

The El Paso Times reports today that the drug war on the Juarez side of the border is racking up health-care costs at University Medical Center of El Paso, a county-run hospital. Since the violence escalated in 2008, medical bills associated with the drug war have reached $4.7 million, according to UMC.

Read more about the story and what local officials are trying to do about the problem. Link to story

Fronteras: The Changing America Desk reporter Michel Marizco discusses the latest on the shooting death of Brian A. Terry near Tucson along the U.S.-Mexico border on the PBS Newshour. PBS

by Brandi Grissom and John Tedesco, San Antonio Express-News
November 21, 2010

On a quiet November morning, Johnny Hernandez patrols the dusty back roads along the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County. In the back seat, his M4 rifle sits within arm’s reach. In the trunk is a bulletproof vest. The 15-year Department of Public Safety trooper says he’s been in so many high-speed pursuits that he can’t remember the first one — and, to be honest, he doesn’t even think in terms of which one was the scariest.

“There’s just so much” going on, he says. “Your thoughts are going 100 miles per hour.”

Often, so is his car.

Hernandez is one of about 60 DPS troopers in Hidalgo County who, together, logged far more high-speed chases between January 2005 and July 2010 than officers in any other region of the state, according to an analysis of nearly 5,000 DPS pursuit reports by The Texas Tribune and the San Antonio Express-News. Nearly 13 percent of the chases — 656 — happened in Hidalgo County. Of the 10 counties with the most chases, five were counties along the Texas-Mexico border.

For troopers who spend their days and nights patrolling the interstates, highways and meandering caliche roads of South Texas, the reason is simple. “We’re the first line of defense out here,” Hernandez says. “We’re going to have pursuits.” DPS troopers say smugglers are becoming more active and brazen, taking desperate measures to avoid being caught.

The analysis also reveals that troopers use aggressive pursuit tactics — including firing guns and setting up roadblocks — that many other law enforcement agencies prohibit. One expert says that DPS policies allow troopers to take too many risks, endangering the lives of officers and bystanders. “They’re crazy,” says Geoffrey Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina, who has studied pursuits at police departments across the country.

DPS officials and troopers say their training has improved in recent years and that safety is always their top priority. “We’ve got families, too, and we want to go home to them,” Hernandez says.

Eluding officers

Statewide, DPS chases resulted in 1,300 accidents, 780 injuries to troopers, other officers, suspects and bystanders, 28 deaths and an estimated $8.4 million in property damage in the last five years. In Hidalgo County, the chases caused 71 injuries, two deaths and more than $440,000 in property damage.

The pursuits didn’t always end with fleeing motorists in handcuffs, though. The suspects in about 40 percent of chases in Hidalgo County escaped on foot — or swam away to Mexico — eluding officers and often leaving behind loads of marijuana and narcotics in vehicles mangled in accidents and sometimes submerged in the Rio Grande. Statewide, more than 30 percent of all DPS chases ended with the suspect eluding officers on foot. Fewer than a quarter of all suspects, both statewide and in Hidalgo County, stopped and surrendered.

Despite the danger involved and the fact that so many suspects get away, Hernandez says, most pursuits are successful because they at least take off the market a few loads of drugs that would otherwise be sold on the streets or in schools. “We would love to arrest him and let him pay the consequences,” Hernandez says. “They know they can get over there [to Mexico], and we have no jurisdiction.” 

New tactics

Troopers say smugglers are constantly developing new tactics to avoid arrest and get the drugs or humans they’re hauling into Texas. In the last year, smugglers started using homemade spikes — bags full of nails welded together in a triangular shape — to blow out tires on patrol vehicles. They also take advantage of dirt roads in rural areas to kick up dust, reduce visibility and elude officers.“I’ve been doing this 23 years, and it still scares me,” says Sgt. James Davidson, who has been the lead officer on at least five chases in the last five years. “These guys have no regard for anybody’s safety.”

Trooper Chases Totals By County: Jan. 2005-July 2010

Source: Texas Department of Public Safety

Sometimes the suspects they chase don’t even have regard for their own lives. Last April, trooper Edwardo Ruiz was blazing down back roads in Hidalgo County at nearly 100 miles per hour, his patrol car’s siren blaring and lights flashing, in pursuit of a reckless driver in a black pickup. Suddenly the truck’s red taillights disappeared from view. Ruiz, filmed on the car’s dash camera, stopped where the road came to a dead end. “It looks like they grew wings and flew or something,” Ruiz said to another officer on his cell phone, as he peered into dark, empty fields. “He disappeared on me, man.”

Thirty minutes later, officers found the truck smashed into a canal on the other side of the dead end. The 18-year-old driver was dead inside. His blood-alcohol content was .22 — nearly three times the legal limit.

Troopers blame smugglers for the high number of pursuits on the border. But DPS has also beefed up patrols. Since 2006, DPS has assigned more than 160 additional troopers to the border. “We’re making it more difficult for the smugglers to move their products across and try to get them to the middle portion of the state,” says DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange.

Since 2007, lawmakers in Austin have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to beef up border security, including hiring more state troopers to patrol the region. About a decade ago, just 20 highway patrolmen worked in Hidalgo County, says Lt. Armando Garza, who supervises them. Now there are three times as many. Garza recently moved back to the border after working for 12 years in Corpus Christi, where, he says, troopers had one or two chases every three or four months. In Hidalgo County, it’s almost a daily occurrence. The peak was earlier this year, when there were six pursuits in two days — including one that ended when the suspect escaped from his car only to get pinned under a train that severed his arm.

“The only thing we can do is remind our [troopers] to be cautious, not to take any unwarranted risks,” Garza says. 

“Loose” policies

DPS policies allow troopers to engage in riskier chase tactics than several other large Texas police and sheriffs’ departments. Troopers can set up rolling and stationary roadblocks to end a chase, a strategy they used 68 times from 2005 to 2009. Troopers also can shoot out a suspect’s tires if other methods, such as deploying spike strips, fail to stop the pursuit. Troopers fired their guns during chases nearly 90 times over the last five years, with 14 of those incidents occurring during pursuits in urban areas.

By contrast, the San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin police departments and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office prohibit officers from using their firearms during a pursuit except in self-defense or to defend others, and they are not allowed to set up roadblocks to stop a chase. The Houston Police Department prohibits gunfire during pursuits but in some cases allows roadblocks. The policy at the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office says deputies can use their guns only as a last resort and in some cases can use roadblocks.

Alpert says there’s no good rationale for firing a weapon at a fleeing vehicle. “What if there are passengers in the car?” he asks. “How do they know who else is in the car? How can you use deadly force for a traffic offense?” He says most state highway patrol departments have “very aggressive, loose policies,” perhaps because troopers often operate in sparsely populated communities. Half of all DPS pursuits occurred in rural areas; the other half were in urban areas or a mix of the two.

“What works for some agencies doesn’t work for others,” Mange insists. “Our folks are often in the middle of nowhere, alone, and we have to empower them to make the decisions they think are correct.”

John Steen, a San Antonio lawyer who serves on the Texas Public Safety Commission, says he has no problem with the way troopers handle vehicle pursuits, especially on the border. “These drug smugglers are desperate,” Steen says. “And they fear their ruthless bosses more than law enforcement officers.

DPS’s policy gives troopers much leeway in deciding when to pursue and how to end the chase, but in 2007 the department acknowledged it needed to do a better job giving officers hands-on training after crashes involving troopers increased by 30 percent. “We fall short in providing the necessary practical driver training to our officers,” said a February 2007 newsletter published by the department’s public information office. At the time, troopers practiced their driving skills at a parking lot around a football field in Austin. Since then, DPS has received money to build a modern training course, where more than 880 officers have trained since June 2009.

“They all run”

Trooper Hernandez says he’ll stop a pursuit if it puts the lives of other officers or of the public at risk. But of the nearly 5,000 DPS chases in the last five years, only 142 — less than 3 percent — were terminated voluntarily by the trooper or by a supervisor. Still, Hernandez says, troopers are trained well and quickly acquire plenty of real-world experience about driving safely and keeping their calm.

Standing on the banks of the Rio Grande between a neighborhood of mobile homes and a colorful waterfront bar and grill, Hernandez recalls a time when the river was full of boaters and jet skiers and folks on the banks cooking food and enjoying the tropical breezes. The revelers are gone now. And he and other troopers regularly stand guard while workers pull vehicles loaded down with dope from the muddy river bottom. “They all run,” he says. “It’s easy money for them, and they don’t want to get caught.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://trib.it/bNyRqL.

NMSU‘s Kevin Von Finger guides you through the fascinating arid environment of the Chihuahuan Desert, our North American Outback. Visit ancient caves with revealing clues that indicate this desert is surprisingly young. See gigantic skeletons from animals that roamed the area in the last Ice Age-mammoths, giant sloths, and prehistoric camels. Learn about the phenomenal changes that this land has seen since the beginning of earth. Our North American Outback provides a unique journey to North America’s largest desert.

Can the U.S. and Mexico come together on immigration and border enforcement?
From: utaustintexas | Anthropology Professor Cecilia Balli discusses how the U.S. and Mexican governments are united — but also divided — over immigration and border enforcement.

Balli studies the sexual murder of women in Ciudad Juárez, the construction of a border fence and the Mexican anti-drug campaign. She is an award-winning journalist with Texas Monthly magazine and is working on a book about the border fence in the Rio Grande Valley.

Related
Visit UT’s Border Views for additional experts videos.

013 Crossing Borders— From Mexico to US
Host— Marcos Martinez of KUNM-Alberquerque
Airdates— 5/28/2008 – 6/4/2008
mp3
A Tale of Two Countries: In “Sasabe,” a Sonora, Mexico border town, Scott Carrier talks to immigrants on their hazardous, illegal desert crossing, and to the border patrol waiting for them in Sasabe, Arizona.
Luis Alberto Urrea reads from his books Vatos and The Devil’s Highway, about death in the desert.
Guillermo Gómez-Peña imagines “Maquiladoras of the Future,” fantasy border factories.
“And I walked…”, by Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler, is a sound-portrait of Mexicans who risk their lives to find better-paying jobs in the United States.
And sounds from the Quiet American’s one-minute vacation (Hearing Voices from NPR)

Those covering country’s offensive against drug cartels say traffickers are out to silence them.

By Jason Beaubien, NPR

Mexico is celebrating its bicentennial this week, marking the beginning of the insurrection in 1810 that ended Spanish colonial rule.

But the festivities come at a tough time for Mexico. Drug violence is dominating the country and social problems persist.

So a group of business leaders and media companies launched a new program — the Mexico Initiative — to try to lift the nation’s spirits and highlight Mexicans who are doing good works.

Recent opinion polls confirm that the majority of Mexicans feel that their country is worse now than it was when President Felipe Calderon took over in 2006.