NOGALES, Ariz. — Incursions of what appear to be Mexican military personnel on the American side of the border have been commonplace for years and have actually decreased since 2002, the U.S. Border Patrol chief said Thursday.
Responding to reports this week that heavily armed drug smugglers wearing Mexican military gear confronted Texas and federal law enforcement before retreating across the Rio Grande, Chief David Aguilar said American officials will continue to work with the Mexican government to find a solution.
"I feel confident that it will get the attention that's needed," said Aguilar.
Aguilar said reports of incursions on the U.S. side of the border have decreased by 55 percent since 2002.
Since that time, he said, there have been 105 such instances, though it's unclear whether the reports involve members of the Mexican military or criminals. The Mexican government has denied being involved in the incursions.
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The Border Patrol has identified individuals dressed in what appears to be Mexican military gear as "potentially being involved with illegal alien or narcotics trafficking," Aguilar said, but stressed that's as much as he knows.
"The incursions of Mexican entities is something that we have been dealing with for years. These things happen. We have detained Mexican government-entity representatives, military police, things of that nature — right here in Tucson while I was here," said Aguilar, who served as chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector before he was named agency chief in July 2004.
"I have to tell you that we have had instances where we have incurred accidentally onto their side of the border also. There are also situations we can speak to that there has been an attempt on the part of criminals to basically shroud themselves as representatives of the Mexican government and in some cases representatives of the American government — a very complex situation to deal with."
Aguilar told reporters that he's been in the Western part of the United States this week to talk about increased violence against Border Patrol agents.
Last year, the Border Patrol recorded 778 assaults on officers, up from 396 the previous year.
Some recent incidents Aguilar cited included:
● A report from El Paso that a Border Patrol agent was struck in the head with a large rock and required 25 stitches.
● Two agents were shot last year near Nogales and seriously wounded.
● And in Laredo, Texas, this week there were two incidents where shots were fired at agents, but the agents were not injured.
According to Aguilar, since September 2004 the Border Patrol has apprehended at least 160,000 illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions — at least 400 of them for homicide.
"These are people illegally crossing into this country, trying to make their way back into this country after having been criminally convicted, served time, sent back to their country of origin," Aguilar said.
"We recognize that danger comes with the job that we do. . . . But one of my intents here is to ensure that the American public recognizes the outstanding work that our officers do and that this violence we deal with is serious, we take it very seriously and when serious things happen in response to this violence, it needs to be placed in context."
Inside
● Barbs traded on incursion
Page A5
● Mexico won't give out maps
Page A11
