Assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors averaged about one a day in the past year, and the number of attacks there more than doubled compared with the previous year.
Nationwide, the number of assaults nearly doubled, with attacks on agents based in Arizona making up more than half the incidents.
From Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, the Border Patrol registered 687 assaults on its agents, up from 349 during the same period along the Southwest and Canadian borders. All but one of the attacks occurred on the Southwest border, officials said.
In Tucson and Yuma, there were 365 assaults during the past fiscal year, up from 179 the year before. The increase reflects the growing influence of organized criminal syndicates in border trafficking, officials said, and the higher profits involved in smuggling migrants across the border for as much as $2,000 per trip.
Federal law enforcement officials told Congress last week that drug cartels from Mexico have gotten much more aggressive in smuggling drugs and people across the border, hiring local gangs on both sides of the international line and arming members with assault rifles, grenades and other weapons.
Agents say they frequently are subjected to grapefruit-size rocks being thrown at their trucks from the Mexican side of the border. Trucks carrying drugs or migrants have tried to ram Border Patrol vehicles when the agents attempt to stop the vehicles. And shootings are becoming more frequent, with 45 in the Tucson and Yuma sectors in fiscal year 2005, up from 15 in 2004.
But, but, waitaminute! I thought all those crossing our borders were just good, decent, docile poor folks who wanted jobs? That's what the newspapers, tv networks, and politicians tell me.
You mean they're lying? I'm stunned!
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