TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Baja Border Crossing

This was the scene at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Tuesday after federal agents opened fire on vans suspected of smuggling migrants, leaving four injured and backing up traffic for hours. - Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune

By Jose Luis Jiménez and Susan Shroder
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
September 22, 2009

SAN DIEGO – Three federal agents fired shots Tuesday as three vans filled with illegal immigrants tried to run the border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, and four people were injured, three by gunfire, authorities said.

A preliminary investigation indicated there was no return fire, said San Diego police homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney.

The incident created a created a massive traffic jam as the port of entry – the busiest border crossing in the United States – was closed to drivers trying to enter the United States from Mexico during the investigation.

Rooney said the incident began about 3:30 p.m. when three full-sized vans, two with California plates and one with Mexico plates, were in line at the port to cross into the U.S.

The lead van was stopped and the driver was speaking to a U.S. agent at a booth when the agent stepped inside the booth and the driver sped off in an attempt to run the border, Rooney said. Drivers of the two vans that were next in line also tried to run the border.

The lead van became trapped in traffic and the driver tried to head to the west exit. The drivers of the other two vans put their vehicles in reverse and tried to head to the east exit.

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent then opened fire, Rooney said. He said he did not yet know how many shots were fired.

Rooney said that two people were shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries; one was injured in a crash.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said that a fourth person, a motorist who appeared to be an innocent victim of the gunfire, also was injured. That person was taken to Mercy Hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, he said.

In addition, a fifth person, an innocent bystander, tripped and fell and was assessed at the scene, Luque said. That person was not taken to a hospital.

Motorists trying to cross the border faced a chaotic scene.

Michael Stray, 56, of Palm Springs, said he had spent the day in Tijuana and had a private driver taking him to the border about 4 p.m. He said the driver spent about an hour going in circles before finding an open street that neared the border. Stray then used the pedestrian crossing, which remained open.

Oscar Armando Arevalo, 51, a hawker at the border for 25 years, said that he was walking between lanes when he heard nine shots. Several minutes later, he said he counted 27 people whom officers had ordered to the ground near a white van in lane 13 of the 24 northbound lanes. They were later handcuffed and taken away.

Arevalo said that he then saw a handful of people, apparently from another vehicle, being led away in handcuffs in lane 14.

Moments later, ambulances and police officers began to arrive. He said authorities rapidly put up yellow tape to seal off the lanes and began detouring traffic to the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

Mike Arata, 58, of San Diego, said he was walking across the border into Mexico about 3:30 p.m. en route to a doctor's appointment when he heard three gunshots. After a pause, he heard four to five more shots.

Arata said he saw a customs agent standing on the U.S. side of the border with his gun drawn. The agent's weapon was pointed at a man in a white T-shirt who was standing between a vehicle and a chain-link fence.

Later, Arata said he could see from the window of an office building that vehicles were being turned around. As he walked back across the border at around 5:40 p.m., no vehicles were heading north into the U.S., he said.

This the third shooting in the last two months involving federal agents in the border area.

Border Patrol Agent Robert Rosas, 30, was shot and killed July 23 near an isolated stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border near Campo. Rosas had been tracking suspected illegal immigrants when he came under fire.

Last week, a Border Patrol agent shot and injured the driver of a pickup as he tried to run over another agent in the Tijuana River Valley. The driver has since been charged with assault on a federal law enforcement officer and human smuggling.

More...

"...That land route was particularly difficult Tuesday for smugglers who tried to speed three vans full of illegal immigrants through the San Ysidro border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California...

...said police Lt. Kevin Rooney.

Tuesday's incident was the second shooting in less than a week in San Diego involving federal authorities. Two Border Patrol agents are under investigation after shooting at a smuggling suspect they believed was trying to run one of them over with a vehicle...

... Why anyone would try to run a heavily secured checkpoint in Tuesday's incident may be beyond comprehension to some people. Rooney said he understands.

"There's a sense of desperation that exists these days trying to get folks across the border," he said.

ICE spokeswoman Mack said she was taken aback, particularly since San Ysidro has "a major obstacle course," with speed bumps, concrete barricades, a gate and tire shredders.

"What was surprising," she said, "was the brazen attempt in a very public area in the middle of the day, to assume that they could run the port of entry in today's world.

"That's not too smart," she added. "What do they call that? Felony stupid?"..."

Agents on both sides of the border are scratching their heads, trying to figure out why anyone would even attempt this. In the past, efforts to run the border involved crossing over to the Southbound lanes. Agents are considering this incident as a possible attempt at a diversion. Just don't know what they may have missed.

video-

I feel sorry for the officer's but I haven't seen a good Keystone Cops episode in years!

When I first watched the video I thought it was staged it was so funny...