Border Patrol agents have come under fire several times in recent weeks from shooters in Mexico, a development taken as a sign that cartels are becoming increasingly reckless and desperate to smuggle people and drugs into the United States.
Agents working in the mountains south of San Diego, California, were shot at on Aug. 9 after taking a group of illegal immigrants into custody near Otay Mountain. Then, early Monday, agents were shot at in a second incident while attempting to make repairs on a damaged spot in the border wall. The gunshots were from about 60 feet away. No one was taken into custody in either incident, according to Border Patrol’s parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
An agent based in El Paso was shot at 20 times while he was on patrol at 3 a.m. on Aug. 6. Camera footage revealed two people shooting with high-caliber rifles across the Rio Grande, which divides both countries. The two suspects fled the scene after, and the agent was uninjured. Three days later, another agent in El Paso was in his vehicle when shooters opened fire five times at his vehicle after midnight. Neither agent was injured. In all the incidents, the shooters were thought to be in Mexico. Because law enforcement agents were targeted, the FBI is investigating.
Dr. Victor Manjarrez Jr., associate director for the University of Texas, El Paso, Center for Law and Human Behavior, said shootings like these normally occur every few months. Four incidents in a 10-day period indicates something more sinister is going on, he said.
“The job’s always inherently dangerous,” Manjarrez said Tuesday. “This is out of the norm in terms of frequency.”
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Manjarrez, as well as current and former U.S. border officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner, said he believes the violence is in response to three things that are hurting the cartels’ billion-dollar annual business smuggling people and drugs north of the border.
The first is that “there is a lot of pressure being built up” on the Mexico side of the border as cartels look to keep pushing through thousands of adults and children into the U.S. every day, said Manjarrez, a former 20-year Border Patrol agent. Smugglers move people across the border day and night, but their ability to move people has been hampered as federal police clamp down on the illegal activity.
Across the border from El Paso is the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, the final stopping point for migrants smuggled through Mexico on their journey into the U.S. Cartels “stash” people in houses and wait for the right time to lead them across the border, oftentimes when Border Patrol agents are not around. The Mexican and U.S. governments recently commenced an all-out offensive to bust the stash houses, taking down 205 of them and preventing thousands of people from making it further into the country undetected. Both countries also launched an initiative in July soliciting information for the 10 most-wanted criminals involved in smuggling, generating tension among the cartels.
Second, many migrants crossing the border are not paying smugglers to get them across. With an average of 7,000 people crossing up and down the southern border each day in July, smugglers have been affected by human traffic jams, which delay their ability to get migrants who have each paid thousands of dollars across the river. With tens of thousands of families coming across the border monthly and surrendering there, it prevents smugglers from being able to move others through that area.
“It creates some bottlenecks,” Manjarrez said, adding that the gunshots serve as a “warning shot” meant to tell agents, “‘Just back off from the area,’ because they’re too busy to have the flow stopped.”
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council union, said the shots show that criminals even within the U.S. have become “emboldened.”
“They know that law enforcement’s hands are being tied right now, and it’s no different on the border than it is anywhere else. When criminals know that they can get away with violating laws, they’re gonna do it,” Judd said.
“What we’re seeing right now on the border is we’re seeing people rewarded for actually violating our laws,” Judd added, referring to illegal crossers who are not deported but rather released into the U.S. “As long as we reward people for violating our laws, you’re going to see the cartels step it up a notch — take it up a notch or two. So we will continue to see this as long as things stay status quo and the policies, operations, and programs from this administration remain the same.”
Meanwhile, the several thousand Border Patrol agents based in these two regions have been told by management to be extra careful.
“I think the agency is doing all it can as far as that goes,” Judd said. “They don’t need to give us instructions. We’re trained to be aware of our surroundings. We’re trained to know when you’re taking people into custody you’re in a vulnerable position, so we do the best we can to make it as safe for us but also for those we’re taking into custody.”
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In a statement issued Tuesday, the Border Patrol said it was collaborating with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement to investigate the shootings.
“U.S. Border Patrol agents continue their unwavering commitment to provide border and national security to the American public despite recent attacks against them along our southwest border. We take these threats and acts of violence seriously and will do everything we can to identify and bring those to justice who have sought to harm the men and women of the Border Patrol,” said Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz.
