Man arrested in border agent's killing charged with being in U.S. illegally

By Debbi Baker
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:01 p.m. July 27, 2009

SAN DIEGO – A man arrested in San Jose after the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent has been charged with being in the country illegally after a previous deportation, authorities said Monday.

Salvador Picaso-Ambriz, 39, of Mexico, was arrested at O'Connor Hospital on Friday at the request of federal authorities, San Jose police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said.

He appeared in federal court in San Jose on Monday morning, officials said, and is being held in federal custody without bail.

According to court documents, Picaso-Ambriz was deported on Oct. 10, 2003, from Brownsville, Texas, and was again removed from the United States from San Ysidro on July 20, 2009.

FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth said he was not confirming that Picaso-Ambriz's arrest was connected to the death of 30-year-old Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas.

No one has been arrested or charged with the agent's death, Foxworth said.

Mexican federal law enforcement authorities on Friday announced the arrest of Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, 36, whom they identified as the gunman.

He was taken into custody by Tecate municipal police not far from where the shooting took place, and he had a 9 mm pistol in his possession.

Mexican authorities also arrested four other men suspected of human smuggling, along with 21 migrants, said Commissioner Elias Alvarez Hernandez, head of federal police forces in Baja California.

One of those men, a member of a smuggling operation whose members are wanted by U.S. authorities in connection with two recent homicides and a rape, pointed to Valenzuela as the shooter.

The FBI has not confirmed that the four have connections to Rosas' death, although it has been widely reported by media outlets.

[b]“There are no pending U.S. charges at this time against any individuals reportedly in Mexican custody,â€