Homeland Security has detected a number of cases of individuals armed with weapons sneaking into the U.S. from Mexico, together with one the place brokers making an attempt to arrest a bunch of unlawful immigrants got here beneath hearth twice.
None of the brokers have been injured and the gunman — and the group of unlawful immigrants — escaped again to Mexico, however the Aug. 18 incident alarmed the Border Patrol, which mentioned it’s seeing an “escalating” degree of violence.
That incursion passed off within the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area, a rugged terrain in California that’s typically utilized by teams of migrants.
Days later, National Guard troops assigned to help the Border Patrol have been utilizing a scope to maintain tabs on the wilderness space and so they noticed an armed individual climb over the border fence.
A day later, two extra armed individuals have been noticed in the identical place.
The Border Patrol’s tactical response group was deployed however reported “negative results,” the company mentioned in an announcement. No photographs have been reported in both of these incursions.
But within the Aug. 18 one, brokers confronted two volleys of photographs.
The first rang out when an agent was shifting in to arrest a bunch of migrants. The Border Patrol mentioned there have been “multiple shots.”
Other brokers responding mentioned they noticed muzzle flashes coming from close to the place the group of migrants was. Moments later, one other volley of photographs got here at them, and so they have been compelled to take cowl whereas the group — and presumably the gunman — rushed again into Mexico.
The tactical response group was deployed however discovered no individuals or weapons.
“These incidents and individuals pose a significant danger to agents patrolling the area as well as migrants attempting to illegally enter,” mentioned Patricia McGurk-Daniel, the chief agent within the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol.
Reports of armed incursions was extra frequent across the flip of the century and thru the George W. Bush administration, because the U.S. started fortifying the border to derail what on the time had been the worst migrant surge in U.S. historical past.
Things cooled off throughout a few of the Obama administration and the Trump years.
Now, because the border sees a brand new wave of chaos beneath President Biden, Chief McGurk-Daniel mentioned the armed incursions sign that the Border Patrol is reducing into the smuggling cartels’ enterprise.
“Our agents are preventing smugglers from conducting their illicit business and this is their very dangerous response,” the chief mentioned. “This callous display clearly shows that smugglers do not care about the safety of migrants or law enforcement.”
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