Attacks On Border Patrol Agents Escalating
Rocks, Bottles, Concrete Thrown At Agents, Officials Say
Jessie Degollado, KSAT 12 News Reporter

POSTED: Friday, May 21, 2010
UPDATED: 10:22 pm CDT May 21, 2010

LAREDO, Texas -- Flying objects being hurled at its agents from the riverbank are nothing new in the U.S. Border Patrol's 84-year history.

"They haven't just started. They've been going on for a while," said Matthew Hudak, a patrol agent in charge in the Laredo sector.

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Except now, he and other agents from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, Calif., report those sporadic incidents are on the rise and, at times, have become more violent.

"It's not an everyday occurrence, luckily," said Hudak.

The assaults are considered a backlash by human traffickers and drug smugglers who are having a harder time penetrating a tighter border. The number of Border Patrol agents has doubled, and they are using better technology and other methods to control the border.

"The smugglers respond in kind." Hudak said. "That frustration, if you will, manifests itself with these incidents."

The smugglers also are known to use them as a diversionary tactic. Besides rocks and bottles, some agents also have been injured by chunks of concrete. Recently, an agent from the Rio Grande Valley sector was treated for a head injury at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He is now recovering.

Border Patrol vehicles also have been rammed by smugglers on the run. Others throw metal spikes in the road, similar to what law enforcement uses in car chases. Last year in California, an agent there was ambushed and killed by a group of men he was tracking. They were later arrested in Mexico and the U.S. The shooter is serving a 40-year sentence. After the agent was murdered, the area was saturated by federal, state and local law enforcement.

"It's not productive to the smugglers to engage in any kind of activity that would be dangerous toward an agent," said Hudak.

According to Laredo Police, an agent in Laredo several weeks ago shot and killed a known drug smuggler during a struggle. The case remains under investigation.

"Just like any other law enforcement agency, those are the inherent risks of coming out and doing this job," said Hudak.

As an example earlier this week, Laredo agents who patrol the Rio Grande on air boats encountered about a dozen men and women grasping a large inner tube in the river. They had already returned to the Mexican side after encountering agents on the ground. Their second attempt foiled by the air boats, they scrambled back onto the Mexican riverbank.

As they did, armed agents on the boats were on the look out for retaliation by the smugglers.

"It's their business and when they don't get their people across, they don't make any money," said Agent Albert Ramirez.

The incidents, from "rockings" to finding weapons on those they apprehend, vary but can number several dozen a year.

"We do have isolated incidents," said Hudak. "I hope they remain exactly that: isolated."


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