Southern Border Incursions
[Guest post by DRJ]
A January 29, 2008, article from the El Paso Times reports the release of government records (obtained by Judicial Watch) that show 25 incursions by Mexican military and police into the US in 2007, and 278 incursions since 1996:
“At a time when violence in Juárez is affecting El Paso, a report released Monday showed that Mexican police and soldiers made 25 incursions into the United States in 2007, including two in El Paso.
The Border Patrol documents, obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C., said that 21 of the incidents involved Mexican police officials and four incidents involved Mexican military personnel.”
Here are the numbers for the past 10 years:
“Number of incursions by Mexican government personnel (soldiers and police officers) into the United States at the border since 1996:
# San Diego sector: 22.
# El”Centro, Calif., sector: 77.
# Yuma, Ariz., sector: 42.
# Tucson sector: 51.
# El Paso sector (includes all of New Mexico): 37.
# Marfa sector: 8.
# Del Rio sector: 3.
# Laredo sector: 9.
# Rio Grande Valley sector: 29.# Total: 278.”
The article provided details of the only two incursions from Mexico that occurred in the El Paso sector during 2007:
“The two incidents that occurred last year in the El Paso sector, which covers all of New Mexico, are as follows:
# On May 13, 2007, a Mexican police helicopter allegedly flew a quarter-mile into U.S. airspace near Columbus, N.M., for at least four minutes. The Border Patrol report into the incident said the helicopter might have been looking for a group of lost Mexican nationals. It flew back into Mexican airspace. The incursion was listed as “intentional.”
# On Sept. 20, 2007, a Mexican police officer entered the United States in pursuit of a suspect somewhere in El Paso. The officer went about 44 feet into U.S. territory before turning around, according to the report. The suspect, who was limping, was caught by the Border Patrol and taken to Las Palmas Medical Center after he complained that the Mexican police had shot him in the knee.”
There have also been US incursions into Mexico:
“Mexican officials have also criticized U.S. officials for border incursions into Mexico, although those appear to be fewer in number.
In El Paso for example, Border Patrol agents crossed into Mexico in November 2006 while pursuing drug smugglers west of Fabens. Border Patrol officials at the time said the incursion was no more than 25 feet into Mexico and the agents acted in the heat of the moment, but the incident generated a public opinion scandal in Mexico.
Border Patrol officials said they kept track of those north-to-south incursions as well but could not provide a list right away.”
There are fewer incursions from the US into Mexico than from Mexico into the US, so it’s interesting that one of the US incursions into Mexico happened in November 2006 in Fabens, the same sector where Ramos and Compean encountered and shot Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. After the Ramos/Compean case, Fabens is a surprising sector for Border Patrol agents to (1) pursue smugglers and (2) cross the international border, let alone to do so (3) “in the heat of the moment.” And yet it apparently happened.
Are the Border Patrol agents in the Fabens sector not as well-supervised or could they be more prone to reckless behavior? It’s possible but, especially after the Ramos/Compean incident, I doubt it. At this point, Fabens seems like the least likely Border Patrol sector to have something like this happen.
I wonder what happened in November 2006 that caused the Fabens Border Patrol agents to cross the border in pursuit of a drug smuggler?
– DRJ
“There are fewer incursions from the US into Mexico than from Mexico into the US”
These appear to be only incursions reported. If the mexicans don’t watch their border as well as we do ours, we would expect to see less incursions into their border
Comment by stef — 2/2/2008 @ 4:34 pm
I was talking to sailing friends today about the Ensenada Race, a race from Newport Beach to Ensenada Mexico in April. The friends said that friends of theirs in Mexico suggested that this is not a good year to go into Mexico due to problems with out of control police, some of whom are ex-police who were hired in spite of a lack of qualifications and who have now been discharged in a government shake-up. There are reports of attacks on tourists by some of these ex-police.
Comment by MIke K — 2/2/2008 @ 5:34 pm
The Mexicans arn’t interested in watching their northern border. They are too busy putting their military on their southern border to try to prevent incursion from those from Central/South America. And for those who do get across on their quest for El Norte, the Mexican military do not treat with kid gloves or provide them with “diplomatic” consultations from their native countries.
What in the world would our BP be doing trying to catch a drug runner?
Perhaps to prevent his product from reaching your child?
Comment by retire05 — 2/2/2008 @ 5:37 pm
If a Texas Ranger hadn’t make an “incursion” into Tamaulipas, I might still be rotting in the Matamoros jail.
Comment by steve — 2/2/2008 @ 6:59 pm
1) steve - is there a “rest of the story” there?
2) “the incident generated a public opinion scandal in Mexico.” Well, they say one of the most effective ways to hide your own malfeasance is to get really, really upset when someone else does it. Kind of like Islamist riots and/or vigils in Europe when “one of theirs” gets hurt breaking the law or mugging someone.
Comment by Merovign — 2/3/2008 @ 12:05 am
Invasions from a forein army into america is a act of war its time to declair war on mexico
Comment by krazy kagu — 2/3/2008 @ 11:17 am
I’m still pondering this story. The Texas-Mexico border is divided by the Rio Grande and separated by parallel 10-foot-high levees so it’s impossible to cross the border without realizing it. In addition, Border Patrol agents are trained not to cross the border because it can cause an international incident and is very dangerous. They could probably lose their jobs for doing it.
Despite all this, what would make Fabens Border Patrol agents chase a drug smuggler across the border? I know this will sound like a conspiracy theory but my first thought was that they were chasing someone they recognized and really wanted to apprehend … someone like Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. Conspiracy theory or not, I can’t help it. I still wonder if that’s what happened.
Comment by DRJ — 2/3/2008 @ 10:09 pm