Border Patrol Kills Rock-Thrower At Border Fence

ABC News
October 11, 2012
By RANDY KREIDER

Local police have confirmed that one person is dead after a Border Patrol agent fired his gun at a crowd throwing rocks across the border fence in Nogales, Arizona late last night, and Mexican media reports say the deceased is a 14-year-old male.

According to the Border Patrol, agents in Nogales were responding to a report of two suspected smugglers on a road that parallels the border fence at 11:30 p.m. when they saw the alleged smugglers drop a narcotics load on the U.S. side of the boundary and flee back into Mexico.

The Border Patrol told ABC Tucson affiliate KGUN that while the smugglers were trying to climb back over the fence, a crowd on the Mexican side of the border in Nogales, Sonora began pelting the agents with rocks.

"Subjects at the scene then began assaulting the agents with rocks," said the Border Patrol in a statement. "After verbal commands from agents to cease were ignored, one agent then discharged his service firearm. One of the subjects appeared to have been hit."

The Border Patrol says it then notified the Mexican government of the shooting, and is "fully cooperating with the FBI-led investigation" now underway.

Nogales Police confirmed to KGUN that one person died at the scene.

A reporter for the Mexican radio station XENY took a photo of emergency personnel removing the body from the street, and reported that the victim was male. Other Mexican media have reported that the person who died at the scene was a 14-year-old male. The Border Patrol declined to confirm the age and gender of the deceased when asked by ABC News.

In June 2011, a Border Patrol agent in San Diego, California fatally shot a suspected border crosser who was allegedly perched on top of the border fence, throwing rocks and wood with exposed nails at agents while they attempted to arrest other suspected border crossers, authorities told ABC affiliate KGTV in San Diego.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/border-patrol-kills-rock-thrower-border-fence/story?id=17456759

Bishop bill seeks to waive environmental rules for border patrol

Salt Lake Tribune
April 14, 2011
by Thomas Burr

Washington • Border patrol agents would be able to cross into sensitive wilderness areas, build and maintain roads, construct fences and patrol the areas with vehicles without fear of breaking environmental laws under a bill introduced this week again by Rep. Rob Bishop.

The Utah Republican, chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee over federal lands, says his bill will allow border agents to secure the border without what he says are barriers — literally physical barriers in some cases — put up by public land managers.

Bishop, who toured the border in Arizona last year and plans to go next week as well, is holding a joint hearing Friday with the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to look at border security along the U.S.-Mexico line.

He says federal lands along the U.S. border are a “haven of criminal activity” and environmental laws meant to protect the lands are actually allowing border crossers to destroy them.

“I have seen firsthand the damage that has been done to our federal lands from trash, foot traffic and man-made fires,” Bishop said in reintroducing the bill he proposed last session. “Providing Border Patrol with the necessary access to deter and apprehend those who cross through our federal lands illegally would deliver the greatest benefit to both national security and the long-term health of our federal lands.”

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, under which border patrol operates, said the department doesn’t comment on pending legislation. But he noted that DHS is fully committed to cooperating with Interior and the Forest Service, which also has lands abutting the international border.

Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff also declined to comment on pending legislation but noted that the department’s work with Homeland Security has allowed basic border security infrastructure to be strategically located on federal lands to meet DHS’ goals.

Interior, Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture entered into an agreement in 2006 that allows border patrol to enter sensitive wilderness areas in pursuit of criminal activity, though Bishop has contended the deal still hampers the ability to secure the border.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/51622503-90/border-lands-federal-patrol.html.csp

Congress Members Urge Napolitano to Restore Rule of Law Along Border

KPBS San Diego
June 23, 2009
by Amy Isackson

Twenty-seven members of the U.S. Congress have asked the Secretary of Homeland Security to respect all laws along the U.S. Mexico border as they build the border fence. As KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson explains, about 40 miles of fencing are still under construction in environmentally sensitive areas.

The more than two-dozen members of Congress want Secretary Napolitano to respect laws her predecessor set aside to make way for the border fence.

Former Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff waived all state, local and federal laws along the border. They include the Endangered Species, Historic Preservation and Clean Water Acts.

The Congress members petitioning Napolitano say the lack of compliance has damaged public lands and public trust.

Matt Clark is with Defenders of Wildlife. He says no one should be above the law and the Secretary needs to abide.

"To minimize and avert potential disastrous consequences for very environmentally sensitive areas like the Otay Mountain Wilderness Area," he says.

The Otay Mountain Wilderness is federally protected and home to endangered species.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/jun/23/restore-rule-law-along-border/