Stand Down Border Patrol Peeps

Yeah kind of what I thought. Heck no, I don't like it ... BUT ... the Mexican troops get shot at, too. Why would we have a single border patrol agent alone on a smuggling path in a remote area where the border isn't clearly marked? If we're that short on Agents, hire more. And I'd wager the Mexican troops are about every bit as afraid for their lives out there as anyone else would be. This is mismanagement on both sides and just more proof that we are not managing the Southern border in an effective manner. Yes, he identified himself - might not a smuggler say "I'm border patrol, too"?

Scioli said the agent repeatedly identified himself in English and Spanish. After four minutes the soldiers lowered their weapons and crossed back in to Mexico on foot.

The stretch of desert is frequently crossed by human and drug smugglers from Mexico, and the border line in the area is not always clearly marked, Scioli said.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said the incursion had been brought to the attention of the Mexican government, and appeared to be accidental.

"Our understanding is that this encounter stemmed from a momentary misunderstanding as to the exact location of the U.S.-Mexican border," Gonzalo Gallegos said.

(edited 10:32 PM) I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. For all I know they thought they were in Mexico and found the Border Patrol Agent alone on a smuggling route. It could happen. Just getting it posted-up for you and going to go check into it myself.

Comments

[Compared To What]

This isn't the 1st time, not even the 2nd or 3rd. Talk to some of the BP guys working out of Yuma and you'll find that it it happens frequently.

[Jimmie]

Dan, my educated guess, based on my work experience, is that he was most likely in uniform and probably not out patrolling by himself on foot. If he wasn't in his marked vehicle, he was likely not that far from it. Most portable radios carried by the police, especially a woefully underequipped department like the US Border Patrol, don't have a particularly wide range. If he was carrying an older "repeater" type radio, he wouldn't be able to go out of eyesight of his vehicle or he'd end up out of radio contact altogether.

I can't confirm that, but it does match the experiences I've had working with understaffed departments. At the very least he would have been in uniform. I find it difficult to believe that it took the Mexican soldiers four minutes of standing there with their guns on him to figure out that the guy in a Border Patrol uniform identifying himself as such was what he said he was. I'm skeptical of the official story.

[seekeronos]

Something is fundamentally wrong with that picture:

1 US Border Patrol guy, likely armed with a pistol or a shotgun, or if he is lucky, a semi-auto carbine patrolling the same stretch of turf allotted to four heavily armed professional soldiers of Mexico.

Why don't we have a few divisions of US Army or National Guardsmen patrolling our border?

Why isn't our border heavily mined (both antipersonnel and anti-armour mines) and protected by air cav patrols and clearly marked as a kill zone in Spanish and in English for anyone sneaking across?

It seems to me that our money would be better spent protecting our borders from Mara Salvatruchistas and terrorists gaining access through our hyper-porous border than squandering it overseas.

[Scrapiron]

Mexico can provide the smugglers and criminal aliens with maps and GPS units but can't provide a $100 GPS to the military. Yep, I get the drift of that. Mexican military excorting drug smugglers for the Mexican politicians. Time for a little old time border control, bouncing betty land mines (removes the nuts from the tallest of the tall) and shoot to kill orders.

[tk]

I live in Arizona and tell you the Mexicans protect the drug smugglers not the illegals. Nothing well change until the Mexican government is held responsible for border violations.

[seekeronos]

And you see,. that is why shrapnel mines and antitank mines would do wonders: they don't discriminate between illegals, drug smugglers, gangsters, or members of the Mexican Military who dare cross our borders uninvited.

If they want to take the chance of being ground down into refried beans, then that's the risk they should have to face.