Published: 01.09.2007
Maricopa prosecutor calls for probe of Guard border incident
The Associated Press

PHOENIX - A prosecutor plans to ask state and federal lawmakers to investigate an incident last week in which National Guard members backed off from armed men who were near them at the Mexican border.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said he was troubled by the retreat and questioned whether the rules the National Guard members operated under at the border were appropriate.
"This is a terrible precedent to set," Thomas said.
Border Patrol officials are investigating the incident, which happened Jan. 3 near Sasabe. A group of armed men were spotted about 100 yards from a Guard observation post and the four-man team decided to move to a safer position. A Border Patrol spokesman said after the incident that it was minor.
"There were no shots fired, no attacks, no overrunning of the National Guardsmen," nor any contact with the group, spokesman Mario Martinez said.
The National Guard troops are in Arizona and the three other border states assisting Border Patrol agents in a variety of roles, such as operating surveillance cameras, repairing border fences, constructing vehicle barriers and reporting illegal entries. The team involved in the recent incident were armed.
Thomas said a more independent probe was needed because the Border Patrol was involved in the incident.
Even though Maricopa County does not share a border with Mexico and the incident happened outside the county, Thomas said drug and immigrant smuggling has caused huge problems.
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