BORDER AGENTS INCREASINGLY TARGETED

In 4 Years of Tighter Controls, Violence Has More Than Doubled

WASHINGTON -- Violence against government agents working along the
U.S.-Mexican border is escalating in response to government efforts
to crack down on illegal drug and human smuggling rings, Homeland
Security officials say.

Since 2004, the number of assaults has more than doubled, from 384
that year to 987 in fiscal 2007. And this fiscal year, which began
Oct. 1, is set to outpace the last one.

There have been 409 reported assaults so far this year compared with
275 during the same time period last year.

Most of the assaults involve "rockings," in which drug and human
smugglers throw rocks, bricks and other objects at agents.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said more serious
incidents have been reported.

"We've had occasions of people shooting at agents, trying to run
agents down with vehicles, throwing large rocks or pieces of brick or
concrete at agents, which actually can be fatal, and I've seen some
pretty serious injuries that have resulted from it," he said. "The
levels have consistently increased."

He says the escalation is the result of stepped-up enforcement that
aims to put smugglers out of business. Since the 9/11 attacks raised
fears of terrorists slipping into the USA across its land borders,
Homeland Security has nearly doubled the size of the Border Patrol;
18,000 agents will be on the job by year's end.

One of the most chilling examples of the trend was discovered this
month when five agents working near San Diego found a metal wire
strung taut between a section of double fence that runs along the
border. The trap was designed to cut an agent's throat.

The agents, who patrol between the fences on all-terrain vehicles at
speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, were speeding along on the night
of Feb. 9 when the lead agent spotted the neck-level wire.

"We get assaulted on a daily basis," says J.J. Carrell, a supervisory
Border Patrol agent who was in the group that night. "Between the
rockings every day and them trying to decapitate us ... I've never
seen anything like this."

Agent Shawn Moran, vice president of the local Border Patrol union in
Imperial Beach, Calif., says the rockings are "like a biblical
stoning. This is like what they used to do to kill people."

The discovery of the wire followed last month's death of an agent in
Yuma, Ariz. Luis Aguilar of El Paso was run down and killed by a
Hummer while laying spikes down in an effort to blow out the tires of
smugglers entering the country illegally. Mexican authorities have
arrested suspected drug smuggler Jesus Navarro Montes of Sonora.

Chertoff heads to Mexico today to talk with officials about border issues.

[sidebar]

ATTACKS RISE

Violence against agents who work along the border with Mexico is on
the rise. The number of reported assaults, by fiscal year:

2004 384

2005 687

2006 752

2007 987

Source: U.S. Border Patrol