Thread: Mexican Gunmen Open Fire On Road Crew In Hudspeth County, Te

Mexican Gunmen Open Fire On Road Crew In Hudspeth County, Texas
Staff Report
POSTED: 1:44 pm MST January 13, 2011

EL PASO, Texas -- Hudspeth County, Texas Sheriff Arvin West confirmed a Hudspeth County road crew came under fire this morning.

Sheriff West told ABC-7 that around 10:30 a.m, Thursday a road crew was repairing a part of Indian Hot Springs road, just east of Neely's crossing along the US-Mexico border when they came under gunfire from the Mexican side.

The crew was able to escape unharmed and managed to call for help. Units from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol and Hudspeth County sheriff's deputies responded within minutes. They were able to determine the shots came from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande but were unable to spot the actual gunmen.

West added this is the first time county crews have come under direct fire. No one was injured and no equipment was damaged.

http://www.kvia.com/news/26484512/detail.html

Mexican gunmen fire across border at U.S. highway workers
By Adriana Gómez Licón / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/13/2011 01:35:53 PM MST

Mexican gunmen opened fire on U.S. road workers 25 miles east of Fort Hancock, Texas, about 10:30 a.m., said Arvin West, sheriff of Hudspeth County.

County employees were working on the Indian Hot Springs Road, a county road that runs almost adjacent to the western Texas-Mexico border.

They heard three to four rounds of shots coming from the Mexican side and departed the area.

West did not say how many workers were there, but he said they were not injured. He said his sheriff's office and the Texas Ranger Division were investigating the shooting. West said drug smugglers use that area to traffic narcotics and appeared to have fired their guns to scare the road workers away.

Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.


http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_17087113

HEY NAPPY! I THOUGHT YOU SAID THE BORDER WAS SECURE?

Better get your stories streight!

Time to send in the Calvery! Shooting at American Citizens from Mexico sounds like some act of war!

What would happen if Americans started shooting into TJ? Ya think the whole Mexican government would be in a uproar!

Where is our government?

Any other land border in the world and this would be considered a major international incident!

related

Texas Workers Fired On by Gunman in Mexico
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-224579.html

"Bean Bags and Harsh Language!"
"Hey! you guys Knock that off, fore I hit you with this here Bean Bag!"
Gonna be a little hard fighting for our country with bean bags!

Mexican gunman fires across border toward U.S. highway workers
by Adriana Gómez Licón / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/14/2011 12:00:00 AM MST


FORT QUITMAN, Texas -- At least one Mexican gunman fired a high-powered rifle across the border at four U.S. road workers Thursday in an isolated ghost town east of Fort Hancock, Hudspeth County sheriff's officials said.

The bullets did not injure the four men.

Mike Doyle, chief deputy of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office, said a rancher spotted a white pickup fleeing the area on the Mexican side at 10:30 a.m. -- the time the shots were fired.

The bullets stuck private land along the unpaved Indian Hot Springs Road, which is about half a mile from the border fence. Hudspeth County borrowed the land to store gravel and rocks used for road construction. The workers were filling a hole left last year by rainstorm damage.

The ghost town of Fort Quitman is 25 miles east of Fort Hancock and 80 miles southeast of El Paso. Fewer than a dozen ranchers raise cattle in the remote area.

Doyle said the gunman might have shot at the road workers to distract them or get them to flee.

"Maybe they were trying to get them outside this area," he said.

Doyle said the sheriff and the Texas Rangers at this point are assuming the bullets were fired from Mexico. He said one of the county workers said he heard eight shots that "sounded like high-powered rifles."

On the Mexican side, the nearest community is Banderas, but there are roads that connect to Ojinaga, right across from Presidio, and also to Juárez.

Two Texas Rangers and Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West and
Deputy Doyle later were at the scene looking for the bullets with a metal detector.

Drug cartels use this busy smuggling corridor in between the Quitman Mountains and mountains in the northwestern part of Chihuahua state to traffic marijuana and sometimes cocaine, Doyle said.

The U.S. government built narrowly spaced steel poles north of the Rio Grande to fence the border in that West Texas area. The slots are not wide enough for people to cross, but small objects can fit between the 15-foot-tall poles.

"You can walk up and stick your gun through," West said. The river where it separates Fort Quitman from Mexico is only a few feet wide.

It is the first time Hudspeth County officials reported gunfire coming from across the border.

In El Paso, stray bullets from a drug-related gunfight hit City Hall in June. Another stray bullet struck a University of Texas at El Paso building in August.

On Falcon Lake, a border area near Laredo, Texas, American tourist David Hartley was reportedly shot by Mexican gunmen in October.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Texas Rangers, referred calls to sheriff's officials. DPS officials said only that troopers escorted the workers and their equipment away from the scene.

Border Patrol spokesman Bill Brooks said his agents in the Marfa sector responded to the gunfire after DPS alerted them. The agents are not part of the investigation, he said.

Brooks said the agency is not deploying more agents to the area. "There is no beefing up in any way," he said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's spokeswoman Katherine Cesin ger said the governor's office had yet to confirm the incident.

"If these reports are true, it is yet another incident of border violence and spillover," Cesinger said. "It goes back for the need for the federal government to provide more resources to the border, which is certainly feeling the effects of the escalating violence in Mexico."

The shots from across the border angered U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco, R-Texas, who represents the area.

"It is completely unacceptable that Americans at work, doing their job in America, come under gunfire from across the border in Mexico," Canseco said in a statement. "Our border is not secure from violence that threatens American lives. Securing our border against the cartels and their violent threat must be a top priority."

Adriana Gómez Licón may be reached at agomez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_17087113

Originally Posted by elpasoborn

"It is completely unacceptable that Americans at work, doing their job in America, come under gunfire from across the border in Mexico," Canseco said in a statement. "Our border is not secure from violence that threatens American lives. Securing our border against the cartels and their violent threat must be a top priority."

"How many Senators and Governors and Reps. and Sheriff's and Judges and etc..etc... have to say secure our borders before Barry actually does it, is he going to turn our whole country into "Chicago gangland!"

Apparently, being shot at only counts if it involves someone in the government or someone far more important than a lowly worker.

Originally Posted by elpasoborn

Apparently, being shot at only counts if it involves someone in the government or someone far more important than a lowly worker.

"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS"
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10