Thread: 5 Hurt in Shootout at Border, 70 arrested UPDATED X12

Three shot as border agents fire on vans at port of entry

By Jose Luis Jiménez and Susan Shroder
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

Originally published 4:25 p.m. September 22, 2009, updated 5:25 p.m., September 22, 2009

SAN DIEGO – Three federal agents fired shots Tuesday as three vans filled with illegal immigrants tried to run the border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, and four people were injured, three by gunfire, authorities said.

A preliminary investigation indicated there was no return fire, said San Diego police homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney.

The incident created a created a massive traffic jam as the port of entry – the busiest border crossing in the United States – was closed to drivers trying to enter the United States from Mexico during the investigation.

Rooney said the incident began about 3:30 p.m. when three full-sized vans, two with California plates and one with Mexico plates, were in line at the port to cross into the U.S.

The lead van was stopped and the driver was speaking to a U.S. agent at a toll booth when the agent stepped inside the booth and the driver sped off in an attempt to run the border, Rooney said. Drivers of the two vans that were next in line also tried to run the border.

The lead van became trapped in traffic and the driver tried to head to the west exit. The drivers of the other two vans put their vehicles in reverse and tried to head to the east exit.

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement agents and one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent then opened fire, Rooney said. He said he did not yet know how many shots were fired.

Rooney said that two people were shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries; one was injured in a crash.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said that a fourth person, a motorist who appeared to be an innocent victim of the gunfire, also was injured. That person was taken to Mercy Hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, he said.

In addition, a fifth person, an innocent bystander, tripped and fell and was assessed at the scene, Luque said. That person was not taken to a hospital.

Motorists trying to cross the border faced a chaotic scene.

Michael Stray, 56, of Palm Springs, said he had spent the day in Tijuana and had a private driver taking him to the border about 4 p.m. He said the driver spent about an hour going in circles before finding an open street that neared the border. Stray then used the pedestrian crossing, which remained open.

Oscar Armando Arevalo, 51, a hawker at the border for 25 years, said that around 4:30 p.m. he was walking between lanes when he heard nine shots. Several minutes later, he said he counted 27 people whom officers had ordered to the ground near a white van in lane 13 of the 24 northbound lanes. They were later handcuffed and taken away.

Arevalo said that he then saw a handful of people, apparently from another vehicle, being led away in handcuffs in lane 14.

Moments later, ambulances and police officers began to arrive. He said authorities rapidly put up yellow tape to seal off the lanes and began detouring traffic to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

Staff writer Dana Littlefield and freelance journalist Omar Millán González contributed to this report.

Jose Luis Jiménez: (619) 293-1865;
Susan Shroder: (619) 293-1876;

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... der/?metro

San Ysidro border entry point closed after gunfight

September 22, 2009 | 6:41 pm

U.S. authorities have closed the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the border with Mexico after a gunfight there early Tuesday.

San Ysidro is the nation's busiest border crossing. Roughly 40,000 vehicles cross there daily from Mexico.

Three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants tried to speed through the crossing Tuesday afternoon, drawing gunfire from at least two U.S. agents, authorities said.

Three people in the vans and a traveler in a nearby car were injured in the failed attempt to cross into San Diego from Tijuana. About 70 people inside the vehicles were taken into custody, according to authorities.

Smugglers on occasion attempt to run the port of entry but rarely in such an apparently coordinated fashion. Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection fired their weapons at the vehicles, authorities said.

-- Richard Marosi

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... der/?metro

THIS STORY IS ALREADY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

U.S. Closes Mexico Border Crossing After Shootout

Guillermo Arias/Associated Press

Vehicles involved in a shooting at the border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and the United States.

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - U.S. authorities closed the world's busiest land border crossing Tuesday after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and U.S. agents, U.S. officials said.

"The port is closed and will remain closed for several hours," U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman Angelica Decima said after the incident at the congested San Ysidro crossing between the Mexican city of Tijuana and San Diego.

The suspected smugglers shot across busy lines of traffic at U.S. agents when they tried to stop three vans packed with about 70 illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States, the officials said.

The agents returned fire, and three people in the vans and a motorist were wounded, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mexico's violent drug gangs are increasingly moving into the lucrative people-smuggling business, but tight U.S. border security is forcing them to take bigger risks to get narcotics and illegal immigrants into the United States.

Tuesday's brazen attempt was unprecedented at the heavily guarded crossing where helicopters circle overhead and armed agents with dogs keep watch at a series of staggered checkpoints.

All the illegal immigrants were arrested and taken into custody and the crossing, a major smuggling corridor for narcotics and illegal immigrants, was shut while police carried out the investigation.

Some 90 million people a year use the California-Mexico land border crossings, with almost half the traffic going through San Ysidro alone.

Angry drivers started blaring car horns as a huge traffic jam built up on the Mexican side while U.S. agents signaled them to turn round.

"I've never known the entire crossing to be closed before. We just didn't believe the agents when they told us to turn around," said a Mexican student who gave his name as Juan Carlos and who crosses the border almost daily.

U.S. officials are directing motorists to California's other six border crossing, which also handle trucks.

(Reporting in Tijuana, Robin Emmott in Monterrey and Tim Gaynor in Phoenix, editing by Philip Barbara)

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/09/ ... o-usa.html

It's in the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Shuts Down Mexico Border Crossing After Shootout

Wall Street Journal - 59 minutes ago

US authorities closed the world's busiest land border crossing on Tuesday after a shootout between suspected Mexican human traffickers and US agents, ...

I wonder if Beck had reported this that this would have gotten a decent response? Too bad that Beck is so controlled that he won't even allow these sort of stories on his show!! But I am the bad guy, right?

Excellent reports JD, thanks for all the updates.
Most folks don't know that the Tijuana/San Diego border crossing is the busiest border crossing in the world, it takes a lot to shut this one down.

Originally Posted by MountainDog

Excellent reports JD, thanks for all the updates.
Most folks don't know that the Tijuana/San Diego border crossing is the busiest border crossing in the world, it takes a lot to shut this one down.

One of the local TV news programs says that the last time it was shut down completely was 46 years ago when Kennedy was killed.

San Ysidro border crossing closes after shooting

U.S. officers fire at three vans carrying more than 70 suspected illegal immigrants as the vehicles try to speed north through the checkpoint. At least four people are hurt.

By Richard Marosi
September 23, 2009

The nation's busiest border crossing was closed and declared a crime scene Tuesday after at least two U.S. agents attempted to stop smugglers from speeding through the San Ysidro Port of Entry by firing their weapons at three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants.

Port Director Oscar Preciado said it was the first time officials had shuttered the 24-lane border crossing to vehicular traffic since President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Three people in the vans suffered injuries and a person in a nearby car also was wounded in the unusually brazen smuggling attempt, U.S. authorities said. More than 70 people inside the vans were arrested.

Northbound traffic at the checkpoint, where about 40,000 cars cross daily from Mexico, was backed up into Tijuana for miles as San Diego police investigated. The secondary inspection area filled with potential witnesses from cars in the lanes near the shooting. By evening, the lanes approaching the crossing had been mostly cleared of traffic.

Smugglers on occasion attempt to run the border crossing, but rarely in such a coordinated fashion. The vans, one following the other, tried to speed by a booth where inspectors from Customs and Border Protection check identification and ask questions before determining a person's eligibility for entering the United States.

As the vehicles tried to run through, a Customs and Border Protection officer and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fired multiple gunshots.

Officials also deployed a runner-alert system: An alarm blared and gates and metal barriers automatically blocked exits out of the secondary inspection area, which was already full of cars.

"They had to stop because of the traffic stopped in front of them," said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection.

There are numerous trafficking groups in Tijuana that specialize in smuggling illegal immigrants through the border crossing, but they typically try to hide them in trunks or hidden compartments. Attempts at smuggling so many across a port of entry at the same time are unusual.

The port, which was declared a crime scene by the San Diego Police Department, remained opened to pedestrians, but it was not clear when it would reopen for vehicles. Drivers were being encouraged to use the Otay Mesa Port of Entry a few miles east. Mexican authorities did not close the southbound lanes.

The three injured immigrants were taken to a hospital, where one was being treated for life-threatening injuries, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. The fourth victim suffered injuries that were not life-threatening when one of the vans struck the victim's vehicle while trying to escape.

The shooting was the latest in a recent string of violent incidents along the California-Mexico border. Last week, U.S. Border Patrol agents in San Ysidro shot and wounded an alleged smuggler who was speeding toward them in a truck, and another agent was fatally shot in July by a suspected smuggler in a rural area of eastern San Diego County.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 7503.story

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4531--0-0.html

Thanks for the links I am passing it around to other message boards...sadly things like these maybe will wake people up to the problem we all have been talking about for years..

here is another link from Tijuana

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/tags/tijuana-mexico/

Kathyet