'Killing of Border Patrol agent prompts multiagency manhunt '
VIDEO - ABC Channel Ten News, San Diego
ARTICLE - From the Los Angeles Times
Killing of Border Patrol agent prompts multiagency manhunt
U.S. and Mexican officials are searching for those responsible for the death of Robert Rosas. Tecate police say they arrested a man walking near the crime scene with a Border Patrol-issued weapon.By Richard MarosiJuly 25, 2009Reporting from San Diego — A U.S. Border Patrol agent was fatally shot while pursuing a group of people in a remote valley about 60 miles east of San Diego, triggering a manhunt by federal, state and Mexican authorities, Homeland Security officials said Friday.
Robert Rosas, a three-year agency veteran, was responding to an incursion Thursday night just inside the steel border fence when one or more assailants opened fire, authorities said. He died at the scene.
Rosas, a 30-year-old father of two, was the first border agent to be shot and killed in the line of duty in nearly a decade, officials said. "It was a cowardly act against an agent trying to protect this country," said Rick Barlow, acting chief of the agency's San Diego sector, where flags flew at half-staff outside of headquarters in Chula Vista.U.S. officials said they were working closely with their counterparts in Mexico.
Police in Tecate, Mexico, announced late Friday that they had arrested a man walking near the crime scene with a Border Patrol-issued weapon shortly after the shooting. The man, Ernesto Parra Valenzuela, 36, was injured and was taken to a hospital, according to a news release.The FBI said late Friday that no one had been arrested or charged in connection with the killing.
Earlier in the day, the Mexican military sent about a dozen vehicles to secure the sparsely populated area south of the border fence. Mexican federal police were also seen searching.The attack occurred near the rural town of Campo in eastern San Diego County. The hilly, scrub-covered terrain has long been a favored spot for smugglers.
There were signs of a struggle, and at least one of the gunmen may have been injured, investigators said. Two sources with knowledge of the investigation said K-9 units tracked a blood trail to the border. The assailants took Rosas' weapon and radio, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Raul Tovar, a longtime Campo resident, said he was barbecuing when gunfire rang out in the distance. "I heard two shots. Crack. Crack. First I thought it was . . . my neighbor shooting coyotes, but it sounded like large-caliber bullets."Within minutes, scores of agents began scouring the area and two helicopters hovered with searchlights, Tovar said.
The attack occurred during a period of relative tranquillity on the San Diego County-Mexico border. Apprehensions of illegal immigrants and assaults against agents are down significantly from last year.But agents have made numerous drug seizures in the Campo area in recent weeks, mostly at the Interstate 8 checkpoint near Pine Valley, leading some observers to speculate that frustrated smugglers are retaliating.U.S. authorities said it is too soon say whether smugglers are escalating their tactics.
The FBI announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the attackers. Hospitals were urged to report any suspicious people seeking treatment. "There's still a lot of work to do," said Keith Slotter, the special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego office.The region south of the fence is a largely lawless expanse with little to no police presence. The nearest police department is in Tecate, about 20 miles away.
The events leading up to the shooting began about 9 p.m. Thursday, when agents using night vision equipment spotted a group near the fence. Rosas and other agents, in separate vehicles, headed to the scene near Shockey Truck Trail.Agents heard the shots and tried to contact Rosas, but his radio had gone dead. Rosas had apparently gotten out of his vehicle to chase the intruders.
Pursuing suspects alone is a routine part of the job, and in most cases, they give up without incident, Border Patrol agents said. But there are obvious perils."He was doing what agents do out there, trying to head them off on the trail," said Chris Bauder, the president of the local branch of the Border Patrol union. "But we never know who we're going to be encountering. You don't know whether they're coming into the country to work, or looking to do harm.
"Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the department's full resources would be used in the investigation. "This act of violence will not stand -- nor will any act of violence against the Border Patrol," she said.
richard.marosi@latimes.comTimes staff writer Tony Perry in San Diego and Times photographer Don Bartletti in Campo, Calif., contributed to this report.
UPDATE - From CBS News Channel Eight, San Diego
ACTIVIST COMMENTARY -Today's horrible news report should provide additional evidence about the state of our borders and make it crystal clear that our borders are not secure. That extreme levels of violence in Mexico is indeed crossing our border and now it has claimed the life of a young U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Our nation's failures to secure its borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity is not a new problem, but it is unconscionable that this deplorable situation has been permitted to persist by "leaders" of both political parties. President George W. Bush refused to secure our nation's borders even in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and President Bill Clinton refused to secure our nation's borders or address the issue of the lack of integrity in the immigration bureaucracy even after the two terrorists attacks of 1993 which resulted in the death of two CIA officers and the wounding of three others in January 1993 by a Pakistani national who had succeeded in gaming the immigration system by making a fraudulent claim to political asylum and then showed his gratitude by gunning down those CIA officials.
Of course it is also to be remembered that just one month later, in February 1993 a team of Middle Eastern terrorists planted a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center Complex that left 6 people dead, hundreds injured and a half billion dollars in damage inflicted on the World Trade Center complex. At least a couple of those attackers had acquired lawful status through immigration benefit fraud and yet just a couple of years later the Clinton Administration implemented a program known as Citizenship USA (CUSA) that naturalized more than one million aliens and the GAO subsequently conducted an investigation of this insane program that determined that tens of thousands of those aliens who naturalized were statutorily ineligible to be accorded United States citizenship.
Today our nation's leaders are still unwilling to take the necessary steps provide our nation and our citizens with true security. I found it amazing that this evening Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano appeared on Bill Maher's show, "Real Time." Maher questioned her about the stringent measures implemented at ports of entry in the name of national security and she talked about how Richard Reid was the "shoe bomber" and thus we now must remove our shoes before boarding an airliner. She also noted that because other terrorists were planning to use a combination of liquids to make a bomb on airliners that now requires that passengers not be permitted to bring large quantities of liquids on board airliners.
Of course Bill Maher who knows nothing about national security failed to follow up Ms Napolitano's statements by asking why our nation has been able to learn about how the terrorists might attack airliners but the fact that Reid and the other terrorists who were behind the liquid bomb plots were all British nationals and as such were exempt the visa requirement under the Visa Waiver Program.
For the most part all that our government has provided its citizens is the illusion of security.
Illusory security measures will not save any lives or prevent an attack.
We live in a perilous era and it is time that our nation and its citizens were afforded real protection.
Law enforcement is a dangerous profession but it is unreasonable that considering the continuing escalating levels of violence in Mexico and in the border regions of the United States, that our Border Patrol agents be subjected to the unreasonable risk of working solo in what is becoming a near "war zone."
As I have noted on many occasions, a country without secure border can no more stand than can a house without walls!
In less than two years each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. In less than two years more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!
The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.
I implore you to get involved!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
READ THIS - CHECK IT OUT AND THEN DECIDE FOR YOURSELF IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE IT IS FROM THE HOUSE OF HORRORS -
