Thread: Take the time to remember a border hero

Take the time to remember a border hero
Jan. 26, 2008 12:00 AM

Andri Dukeshier was seated in his friend's car last Saturday morning when this nation's border crisis came hurtling toward him.

For him, it was a getaway weekend with the wife and kids, a family outing to the Imperial Sand Dunes west of Yuma, where they often go to ride quads and camp out with friends.

For U.S. Border Patrol Senior Agent Luis Aguilar Jr., it was another day on the never-ending lookout for the bad guys, the ones who cross the dunes from Mexico, running their drugs and pocketing their profits and to hell with anyone who gets in their way. advertisement

Tragically, Agent Aguilar got in their way.

Chances are, most people didn't hear much about what went on at the border last Saturday morning when a good man lost his life while trying to protect the rest of us. But then hey, it's not like he was an actor who played a gay cowboy.

I called the Border Patrol in Yuma, wondering why the story merited only a few paragraphs.

"That's pretty much what happened nationwide with it," said agent Jeremy Schappell. "He's a federal agent and nobody really cares. For the most part it's pretty much like the border. Who cares? That's honestly my opinion. If you don't live in a border state, if you're not Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico or Texas, what happens on the border really doesn't matter."

It mattered a lot last Saturday to Dukeshier, 31, an air-conditioning installer from Peoria, and to John Jamison, 39, a Phoenix insurance adjuster. Both men were with their families at the Buttercup Camp Area, 20 miles west of Yuma.

The alternator on Dukeshier's truck had gone out, and he and a friend were leaving the campground about 9:30 a.m. to get another in Yuma when a pair of Border Patrol agents came running across the road, motioning them back.

"They opened this box, and they were proceeding to string these tire-blowout things across the road," Dukeshier said. "As they were stringing these spikes across the road, we noticed this H2 Hummer coming toward them."

About 30 minutes earlier, agents had spotted the brown Hummer and a red Ford F-250 pickup coming north through the dunes, up to the Interstate 8 frontage road. It's a popular route for smugglers, what with no fence and plenty of off-road vehicles to blend with.

On this day, however, they were spotted, and as agents attempted to pull them over, they turned back toward Mexico. Only the Buttercup Camp Area stood in their way.

Jamison had just left the campground office and was walking back to his 9- and 11-year-old sons when he heard loud pops, like gunfire or tire blowouts, and saw the approaching Hummer.

"They came through there, 55-60 (mph), and ran over the agent," he said. "They probably drug him from where he was 20 feet or so, made a 45-degree turn out into the sand and just kept going into Mexico."

We don't know a lot about senior agent Luis Aguilar Jr., the man they left to die there on the road. But we know enough. We know he was a 31-year-old husband and father of two. A native of El Paso who joined the Border Patrol six years ago.

We know from witness accounts that some of his last thoughts were of clearing the area and making sure that no innocents came in harm's way last Saturday.

And we know, sadly, there will be more Luis Aguilars, dead on the border, because the bad guys are pushing their way in every day and we aren't yet doing near enough to push back.

"I can't imagine what his family is going through," Dukeshier said. "I can't imagine, especially his partner, just from seeing his reaction afterward. He was getting help, he was asking for people to call, he was asking for helicopters. Then later, I saw him grieving in the back of a truck, his head down. I can't imagine what those people go through, just to keep us safe."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... s0126.html

Luis Aguilar Jr. was a true hero, giving his life in trying to make Arizona and America safer. Luis Aguilar Jr. was an enforcement officer trying his best to uphold our laws at the same time illegal aliens decide no laws apply to them. The apathy of our government, our government leaders, our Congress, and bureaucrats all over America is telling...they don't give a damn about securing our borders and protecting us from the human and drug invasion we are experiencing from south of the border.

Please wake up, America, and fight the invasion. The only way to survive as a soverign nation is to re-establish the rule of law. The more we become a nation of illegal immigrants, the deeper we fall into anarchy.

This is unbelievable..the total disregard for human life these smugglers have .. The area where this happened is a major hot spot for camping. On any given weekend there are thousands of families there enjoying the sand dunes. The area is also known as Glamis sand dunes. My kids have been going there for years. My heart goes out to the family of this brave man who tryed to stop this idiot before he hurt someone, or escaped to Mexico.

U.S. House honors slain Border Patrol agent
Times staff report
Article Launched: 02/14/2008 03:51:07 PM MST


Senior Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar Jr., who was struck and killed by suspected drug smugglers near Yuma, Ariz. last month, was honored by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday.
House Resolution 954 was passed Tuesday offering condolences to the family and honoring Aguilar Jr., of El Paso, for his dedication and service as an agent. The resolution also recognizes the dedication and sacrifice of men and women who have lost their lives while in the Border Patrol.

On Jan. 19, Aguilar Jr., 31, who was a graduate from El Paso High School, died while he was placing spike strips in the path of a Hummer and Ford Pick-up that had entered the country illegally. He was killed when he was allegedly intentionally struck by the Hummer.

Jesus Navarro Montes, 22, was arrested by Mexican authorities, in Sonora, in connection with the death of Aguilar Jr.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_8262781