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

I wonder if Sen. Schumer will have any comments?

Ya probably "stop the presses"

Kathyet

Originally Posted by Ratbstard

I wonder if Sen. Schumer will have any comments?

I was wondering the same thing. Our border is a disaster. Homeland Security isnt doing its job to protect America either. Fire the incompetent fools.

SAN YSIDRO

Agents fire at vans running the border

4 people injured during alleged smuggling attempt

By Susan Shroder
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. September 23, 2009

Northbound lanes at the border were shut down after a shooting.  

Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune - San Diego Union-Tribune
Photo by Eduardo Contreras San Diego Union-Tribune

Traffic was halted at the U.S.-Mexico border after a shooting. U.S. agents fired on alleged smugglers in three vans. It was reported that there was no return fire.   Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune

Three federal agents fired shots yesterday 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 massive traffic jam at the port of entry — the busiest border crossing in the United States — which was closed to drivers entering 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 United States.

The lead van was stopped and the driver was speaking to a U.S. agent at an inspection 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 cross 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 injuries not considered life-threatening; one was injured in a crash.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said that a fourth person, a motorist, appeared to be a victim of gunfire. That person was hospitalized with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Luque said.

In addition, a fifth person, a 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.

Oscar Armando Arevalo, 51, a hawker at the border for 25 years, said 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 later were 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 the lanes and began detouring traffic to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

This is the third recent shooting involving federal agents along the border.
Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas, 30, was shot and killed July 23 near an isolated stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border near Campo. Rosas had been tracking suspected illegal immigrants when he came under fire.

Last week, a Border Patrol agent shot and injured the driver of a pickup as he allegedly tried to run over another agent in the Tijuana River Valley. The driver has been charged with assault on a federal law enforcement officer and human smuggling.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ?uniontrib

2 drivers arrested after border crossing shootout

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 8:50 am

SAN DIEGO -- San Diego police have arrested two of the three drivers who tried to storm their immigrant-filled vans past border inspectors. The driver of a third van has fled to Mexico.

Police say the two unidentified drivers are in federal custody, along with 74 people who were inside the three vans.

Police say federal agents on Tuesday afternoon shot and wounded the 31-year-old male driver of one van and a 42-year-old male occupant when the vehicles tried to cross at the San Ysidro port of entry connecting San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

Authorities say one of the vans then smashed into a truck, injuring a 37-year-old male van passenger in the head.

A 30-year-old passenger in the truck was treated at a hospital after complaints of pain.

http://nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/ ... 8b178.html

It took almost 24 hours but USA TODAY finally got the story on their site.
They did a pretty good job of it too.

2 drivers, 74 immigrants held in bid to smash through U.S. border

Two men are in federal custody after they and another driver tried to bust their vans through the border crossing in San Diego in an attempt to smuggle suspected illegal immigrants into the United States. The third driver escaped back into Mexico. Mexican officials said they had arrested one person but it's not clear if it was the driver.

Authorities found 74 people packed inside the three vans. All are in custody.

Federal agents fired on the vans, wounding one driver and one passenger. Two others suffered minor injuries.

The drama began yesterday about 3:30 p.m. PT and caused a massive traffic jam at the San Ysidro port of entry, the country's busiest border crossing. All 24 lanes lanes were finally reopened today before dawn.

The crossing had been under extra scrutiny after federal officials issued alerts regarding a terror probe in New York City.

The Los Angeles Times writes that smugglers occasionally try to run the border crossing, "but rarely in such a coordinated fashion or with so many suspected illegal immigrants."

The Times explains what happened:

The vans, one following the other, tried to speed past a booth as a Customs and Border Protection agent checked the first vehicle's license, according to a law enforcement statement. Officials 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. The vans attempted to find an open lane but ended up stuck in traffic, the police statement said.

At least one Customs and Border Protection agent and one agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement fired at the driver of the third van as he sped toward them, the statement said. ...
The San Diego Union-Tribune has more details and another photo.

(A Customs and Border Protection officer guards one of the vans that tried to break through the U.S.-Mexico border crossing at San Ysidro, which links San Diego and Tijuana. Photo by Guillermo Arias, AP.)

Posted by Michael Winter at 04:00 PM/ET, September 23, 2009 in Crime, Nation
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http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/20 ... order.html

San Diego TV 8 news said that the drive who ran back into Mexico is a minor and was apprehended by Mexican law enforcement. They didn't know if he would be extradited back to the U.S.

The drivers who were arrested here will be in court on Thur.

As I read through all of this I can't help but wonder what were these people thinking??? Did they really think they could just speed on through and go their merry way? Is this stupidity or arrogance? Or is it something else?
Obviously there was no concern for the safety of the passengers or any bystanders, not to mention the agents on duty.
There's a lot to be learned by this as I believe it shows the desperation of these people and their willingness to kill for their desires. No other thought inters their mind other than what they want and feel they deserve.
Agents Rosas is a prime example.
It is actions such as these that lead many to believe there is an undeclared war against America with Mexico in full support.

Police: Agents felt trapped in border shooting

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, The Associated Press
6:21 p.m. September 23, 2009

SANDIEGO — Federal agents felt trapped when they opened fire on the driver of one of two vans packed with suspected illegal immigrants that barreled toward them at the nation's busiest border crossing, an official said Wednesday.

The agents "were out on foot, they didn't have an area of safety they felt they could go to, and the drivers were going right at them," said San Diego police Lt. Kevin Rooney.

Four people were injured after drivers of three vans stormed past an inspector Tuesday at the San Ysidro border crossing connecting San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

The drivers were trying to escape onto nearby Interstate 5. But the vans got stuck behind cars in an area that funnels vehicles through a few lanes to the freeway.

Authorities also activated a system of tire shredders and steel planks that shoot up from the ground at the freeway entrance.

Drivers of two of the vans backed up and drove toward another freeway entrance, heading for the agents who drew their guns and yelled for the drivers to stop, Rooney said.

The agents felt that if they jumped out of the way, they might dodge the first van but not the second, he said. Others in the area may also have been in harm's way, Rooney added.

The shooting sparked criticism from some immigrant activists because the officials – two from Customs and Border Protection and one from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – fired in thick afternoon traffic.

The American Friends Service Committee said the use of force was excessive.

Rooney said no evidence suggests anyone in the vans was armed.

Officials at CBP and ICE declined to comment on whether the shooting was justified. A CBP statement said only that one driver "posed a threat and attempted to flee."

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said in a statement that it was concerned about the incident and was trying to assist the Mexican passengers.

Police said the driver and a passenger in one van were shot. Another passenger suffered head injuries and cuts when the van hit a truck, where another man was hurt.

Two drivers were arrested and prosecutors were reviewing the case for possible smuggling charges. Another driver ran back to Mexico, where he was captured and will be prosecuted, according to CBP.

The agency said 78 suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico were traveling in the three vans and were taken into custody. All seats except the driver's had been ripped out of the vans. One of the vehicles had been stolen near SeaWorld San Diego last month, Rooney said.

"They had to have been packed in there beyond belief," said Mike Unzueta, special agent in charge of investigations for ICE in San Diego.

Authorities closed all 24 U.S-bound vehicle lanes for hours after the incident, causing major delays.

A union official said a key question for San Diego police investigating the shooting is whether the agents could have escaped as the vans headed toward them.

"A vehicle is a deadly weapon if it's coming at you," said Harold Washington, president of National Treasury Employees Union Local 105, which represents border inspectors in San Diego. "If you do not have time to escape, you have to defend yourself."

In the 1990s, it was common for drivers, known as "port runners," to speed past inspectors to Interstate 5.

Then the government erected rails that required motorists to navigate a serpentine path, Washington said. They were later removed because they clogged traffic and motorists inadvertently struck the barricades.

The port runner alert system of tire shredders and steel planks has almost halted the practice.

"There's no way they possibly could have gotten out of there if the alert system was activated," Washington said.

More recently authorities have contended with "port runners" who try to enter the United States by driving the wrong way into Mexico-bound traffic. There are fewer barriers in those southbound lanes.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=171106

U.S.-Mexico border run not smugglers' usual method

Three vans full of more than 70 suspected illegal immigrants simply tried to smash their way through. Some say it could be a sign of increasing desperation in face of tightened enforcement.

San Ysidro border crossing closes after shooting

By Richard Marosi
September 24, 2009

Reporting from Tijuana - The three drivers moved through traffic toward the U.S. border crossing, their vans packed with about 70 immigrants who stayed hushed as canine units patrolled outside.

Mauricio Cantera, a 59-year-old grandfather who sells churros to crossers, said the vans probably passed inches from his tray of sweets Tuesday afternoon, but he didn't notice anything amiss.

Having worked the crossing for decades, he said smuggling runs through the San Ysidro Port of Entry are common. What happened next, however, wasn't.

When the vans reached the inspection booths, instead of stopping, the drivers tried to storm through the crossing, triggering a brief chase that ended with blasts of gunfire, a crunch of vehicles and authorities shutting down the border crossing for the first time in 46 years.

Three suspected smugglers were arrested -- one of them caught by Mexican soldiers as he tried to flee into Tijuana, another hospitalized for a gunshot wound. On the U.S. side, two Customs and Border Protection inspectors and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot at one of the vans as it sped toward them trying to escape, according to San Diego police.

The brazen incident baffled U.S. authorities, who declared the port of entry a crime scene, sent helicopters aloft and closed all 24 lanesfor the first time since the assassination of President Kennedy. The closure lasted more than six hours.

Traffickers typically take a more stealthy approach at the crossing, hiding immigrants inside trunks, three or four at a time, or stuffing them in hidden compartments or the undercarriage of vehicles.

"It doesn't make any sense to us," said Michael Unzueta, the special agent in charge of ICE in San Diego. "When you have 30 or 40 people in a van, they're going to be blatantly obvious" to inspectors.

Federal agents Wednesday interrogated the 54 men, 15 women and five minors who were in the vehicles. The immigrants said they were going to be charged $2,500 to $4,200 to be smuggled across, Unzueta said.

On the Tijuana side of the vast gateway complex, port director Cesar David Montoya said port runners, as such illegal crossers are known, usually take a different approach, going late at night, against traffic, through the southbound lanes where his agents patrol.

"This clearly shows the desperation that these groups have in response to the bolstered enforcement in the U.S.," Montoya said.

The incident occurred about 3:30 p.m. as the lead van approached the inspection booth. When the agent ran the license plates, the van stormed through, followed by the other two.

Port runners face an obstacle course of zigzagging concrete barriers and clogged car lanes in the secondary inspection area. The port runner alert system sounds alarms and activates gates and metal barriers at all the exits, in effect trapping smugglers.

The three vans were trapped, but two still tried to escape -- one drawing gunfire as it headed toward agents, according to authorities. It eventually crashed into another car, injuring a passenger.

Some border observers speculated that the incident could have been part of a diversion, noting that smugglers have been known to send one or more decoy vans storming through the crossing to draw attention while another immigrant-laden vehicle passes through.

Or maybe the smugglers just panicked, said Cantera, the vendor. "Maybe they thought they could slip through," he said, "but when they saw they were going to be inspected, they decided to make a run for it."

richard.marosi@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 3937.story