According to a report obtained by Fox News, attacks on US Border Patrol officers are on the increase even as over all illegal border traffic has decreased slightly.
The report, compiled by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Border Security Operations Center, details ” local and federal authorities encountering smugglers carrying millions of dollars’ worth of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, some of which was found in vehicles filled with biblical passages and religious items; federal agents being assaulted and shot at; gang members brazenly approaching people in their homes; and ranch workers witnessing men crossing into the U.S. wearing camouflage and carrying long guns and automatic weapons.”
In the week of July 16-23 alone, according to the report, U.S. authorities apprehended 6,028 illegal immigrants, 4,152 of whom were not from Mexico. Most came from Central America. But there also were people from Russia, Morocco, China, Cuba and India, among other nations.
Cabrera, the union rep for the Rio Grande Valley Sector, the most heavily trafficked portion of the border, was shown a copy of the report by FoxNews.com. He contends the increase in attacks against law enforcement and the compilation of such events–including the game warden assault that occurred in Cabrera’s sector — should have been shared with him and his colleagues. But only higher-up officials receive the weekly reports, he said.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety declined to respond on the record; Border Patrol did not return FoxNews.com’s request for comment.
The 83-page report for July 16-23 reveals, among other things, that authorities seized $478,879 in U.S. currency, recovered more than seven tons of marijuana (street value: $6.35 million) and turned up more than a million dollars’ worth of cocaine and methamphetamine.
According to the report, a game warden trying to seize a raft was assaulted with a rock thrown at his head from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The assailant then used children to shield himself from any counter action.
Game wardens have also reported seeing people in black uniforms and armed with rifles on the Mexican side of the border, and automatic gunfire was heard from the Mexico side on four different nights from July 16-23.
“This happens all the time. We’re out on the border, often we are alone, and all you hear is gunfire,” a Border Patrol agent working an overnight shift along the Rio Grande said last week.
“We are sitting ducks, and it’s only getting worse. Every night, it gets worse.”
I’ve heard the nightly sound of gunfire over the course of about a week. But that was in Baghdad, not Texas.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member