Thread: 2 dead after flying Texas trooper fires at vehicle

2 dead after flying trooper fires at vehicle


By The Associated Press

7:48 p.m., Oct. 25, 2012

McALLEN, Texas — Three people were found wounded, two fatally, in a vehicle that was fired upon by a Texas state trooper in a helicopter.

The incident happened Thursday afternoon near the South Texas border with Mexico near the town of La Joya (HOY'-yah), about 70 miles northwest of Brownsville.

Katherine Cesinger (SEHS'-ihn-jur) of the Texas Department of Public Safety says a DPS aircraft was helping a state game warden in a high-speed pursuit when the DPS officer on the aircraft opened fire.

She says two people from the vehicle died, one was injured and six others were arrested. She called the shooting "an enforcement action" but declined to say whether police caused the deaths and injuries. She says the Texas Rangers are investigating and no other information was available.

2 dead after flying trooper fires at vehicle | UTSanDiego.com

Trooper in copter fires on vehicle; 2 killed

Jason Buc, Express-News
By Jason Buch
Updated 11:02 p.m., Thursday, October 25, 2012

Two people died Thursday in the Rio Grande Valley after a trooper in a highway patrol helicopter opened fire on a vehicle fleeing law enforcement.

A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter joined a pursuit initiated by Texas Parks and Wildlife on Thursday afternoon near La Joya in Hidalgo County, DPS spokeswoman Catherine Cesinger said.

A DPS officer “discharged a weapon” during the chase, according to Cesinger's statement.

She confirmed that two people traveling in the vehicle died, one was injured and transported to a hospital, and six others were captured.

Troopers were looking for additional subjects Thursday afternoon and the Texas Rangers are investigating the incident, Cesinger said.

Additional details were unavailable Thursday night.

DPS has taken an aggressive role on the border in recent years, increasing the number of troopers there, deploying boats and dispatching helicopters with designated marksmen armed with powerful rifles.

As a result, the agency has been involved in a large number of high-speed chases — sometimes ending in what troopers call “splashdowns,” when smugglers drive their vehicles into the Rio Grande to escape U.S. law enforcement.

Cartel operatives on the Mexican side often use boats to try to recover contraband from the smugglers' trucks.

The agency's director has said it's been forced into the role because federal agencies aren't doing enough to secure the border and because smugglers have become more aggressive, resorting to splashdowns, using other vehicles to block pursuits and throwing homemade spikes at officers.

But their methods have been questioned, including decisions to shoot at fleeing vehicles from patrol cars and helicopters, a tactic eschewed by other law enforcement agencies.

jbuch@express-news.net

Trooper in copter fires on vehicle; 2 killed - San Antonio Express-News

2 immigrants dead as DPS helicopter opens fire during chase

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By JOEL MARTINEZ, The Monitor
DPS shooting


MGN Online
MAP DPS fatal shooting

Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2012 11:00 pm | Updated: 11:21 pm, Thu Oct 25, 2012.

By JACQUELINE ARMENDARIZ and ILLDEFONSO ORTIZ, The MonitorBrownsville Herald

NEAR LA JOYA — A Texas Department of Public Safety sharpshooter opened fire on an evading vehicle loaded with suspected undocumented immigrants, leaving at least two people dead, sources familiar with the investigation said.

A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game warden attempted to pull over a vehicle suspected of smuggling immigrants Thursday afternoon along FM 2221.

A DPS helicopter was called in to assist in the pursuit and a sharpshooter opened fire on the evading vehicle — a policy permitted by the agency, said two law enforcement sources not authorized to comment on the investigation.

After the smuggler’s vehicle stopped along FM 2221 near Mile 7 Road, troopers found three people shot inside, law enforcement sources said.
Two of the suspected undocumented immigrants died from their injuries, law enforcement sources said.

Authorities are searching for more people who fled the scene, said DPS spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger.

Cesinger confirmed the two fatalities and said a third person was sent to an area hospital for treatment. She said six others have been apprehended.

Cesinger confirmed a DPS officer opened fire during the pursuit, but had no information about whether the officer shot anyone inside the evading vehicle.

“We do not want to speculate on any other issues at this time and have no further information,” Cesinger said in the email.

The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident.

2 immigrants dead as DPS helicopter opens fire during chase - Brownsville Herald: Local News

Boy Texas is getting serious. Maybe the Federal Government should take lessons from them.

Diplomats investigate arrest of 7 Guatemalans

By The Associated Press
9:42 a.m., Oct. 26, 2012

LA JOYA, Texas — Diplomats are investigating the arrest of seven Guatemalans who were fired on by a state police helicopter in Texas during a chase through the desert that left two people dead near the Mexico border.

The Guatemalans were apparently in a vehicle carrying suspected illegal immigrants that was pursued down an isolated dirt road near the town of La Joya (HOY'-yah), about 70 miles northwest of Brownsville.

The pursuit ended when a state police sharpshooter fired from the helicopter. Two people died.

Details of the chase were scarce. The Guatemalan consul in McAllen said her government is looking into the matter.

The nationalities of the dead and of an eight person arrested later are unknown.

Diplomats investigate arrest of 7 Guatemalans | UTSanDiego.com

Diplomats investigate arrest of 7 Guatemalans

We seem to be seeing more from Guatemala, USAID has a program for Guatamalans that encourages them to send their cash home.


Migrant-Backed Loans: Remittances in Guatemala
SUBMITTED BY Dasha Kuts ON Fri, April 8, 2011 11:03 | COMMENTS (0)



Yesterday’s After Hours Seminar focusing on migrant-backed loans featured two speakers from William Davidson Institute (WDI), Khalid Al-Naif and Raul Reynoso and WOCCU’s Saul Wolf.
Background

In 2010 WDI initiated migrant-backed loans (MBL)¹ with assistance from the Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC) in the United States and ACREDICOM in Guatemala. MFIC marketed the product to migrants in the United States while ACREDICOM helped process loans in Guatemala. According to this report, some of the benefits of MBLs are the following:

1. Migrants provide 50 percent of the funding with the remaining 50 percent coming from formal banks. The overall effect doubles the recipients eligible loan size.
2. The ability to obtain a loan from a formal bank enables recipients to establish credit history.
3. In Guatemala recipients stated that they were more comfortable with getting a MBL than with going to the bank to get a loan; senders stated that MBL gave them more assurance that they will receive some of their money back and that their remittances would be put to good use.

Promoting Financial Inclusion

According to the report "Two Trillion and Counting" prepared by Peer Stein in 2010, the total need for credit by all formal and informal micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets today is in the range of $2.1 trillion to $2.5 trillion. Among the estimated 365 to 445 million formal and informal MSMEs in developing countries, only 25-30 million are formal SMEs. Formal SMEs usually have 5-250 employees and some history of working with the formal banking sector.
The vast majority of MSMEs in the developing world consists of micro or informal enterprises. The credit gap for micro and informal enterprises around the world is about $1.4 to $1.7 trillion. Even though Latin America has the highest percentage of MSMEs with access to finance (about 60 percent) according to Peer's findings, the credit gap in that region is still very wide.
Access to Credit

It is very challenging for MSMEs to obtain credit because of the following reasons:

1. MSMEs often have no collateral and no credit history, making lending risky and unattractive for banks.
2. The remote location of some MSMEs makes transaction costs very high.
3. MSMEs have lower revenue potential, making these investments less attractive for banks.

Nevertheless, providing MSMEs with access to finance (referred to as financial inclusion) is essential to fostering sustainable economic development. When meeting in Seoul in the end of 2010, the G20 established the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) in order to emphasize importance of this issue.
Experts working with GPFI identified the following steps that need to be taken to address this issue:

1. Engage governments in establishing enabling environments that will encourage banks to lend to MSMEs by making necessary changes in the regulatory environment or by providing credit guarantee schemes to make it less risky for banks to lend to MSMEs.
2. Reduce barriers to property registry or reduce enforcement costs for lenders.
3. Address the problem of high transaction costs when banks deal with MSMEs located in remote areas through improved infrastructure.
4. Provide entrepreneurs in the developing countries with access to loans through migrant-backed loans.

Final Thoughts

Since the WDI project was recently completed, it is hard to draw conclusions. I thought that it was interesting to note that MBLs in Guatemala were offered at 19 percent interest rate while microcredit loans had rates of 22 percent. It is possible that the lower rate of MBLs reflects the fact that formal banks found MBLs to be less risky. While I think MBLs are a useful product, I think it is important to offer it not just for credit but also to promote savings. In addition, I think it would be beneficial if WDI considered offering training on financial literacy to the recipients of such loans.
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¹A migrant-backed loan (MBL) is an instrument that allows migrants to not just send their wages back home but to use remittances that they send to help their friends and family obtain a loan from a bank. MBLs require the establishment a separate account where remittances can be deposited. Migrants provide 50 percent of the loan, and the remaining half comes from the bank. If the beneficiaries do not pay back their loan, the bank takes the funds provided from the migrant out of the separate account and the migrants do not get anything back. Once the recipient pays their loan in full, the account is unfrozen and the migrant gets their money back.
Migrant-Backed Loans: Remittances in Guatemala | USAID Microlinks

Disclaimer: The information provided on this website is not official U.S. government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.

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