Border Horror
By Matthew Vadum
The brutal slaying of a U.S. Border Patrol agent by illegal aliens highlights the perils of the Obama administration’s de facto open borders policy that has transformed the nation’s southern boundary into a taxpayer-funded welcome center for desperately poor unskilled and low-skill workers, sick children, welfare mooches, and violent criminal gang members.
This horrific crime happened not too far from the same border that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sedately insisted was “secure.”
“We hear a lot on TV that the border is secure, that the border is safer and that couldn’t be any farther from being true,” Chris Cabrera, vice president of Local 3307 of the National Border Patrol Council told Neil Cavuto of Fox News.
“It seems to be getting more and more dangerous as the days go by. It seems with all of this talk about amnesty or comprehensive immigration reform, getting [legislation] through, people seem to be more and more desperate to get into this country.”
While off duty this past Sunday, Border Patrol Agent Javier Vega Jr., just 36 years old, died in south Texas, gunned down by two illegal immigrants trying to rob him while he was on a fishing outing. He was murdered in front of his family, including his two children and parents.
The bandidos ordered the family to get on the ground and were surprised to discover that Vega and his father were armed, unlike the typically helpless victims in Mexico and other Latin American countries where life is cheap and privately owned firearms are forbidden or severely regulated.
Vega suffered a mortal wound in the chest during the bungled attack, but as life drained out of his mangled body he pleaded with his dad to “keep shooting.” Vega’s father took a non-fatal shot in the hip and his mother picked up an AR-15 rifle and fired upon the killers’ vehicle, hitting it several times as the two assailants fled the scene. The vehicle apparently broke down and was found abandoned a few miles from the site of the shooting.
Other robberies that fit the same pattern as the Vega case had been taking place locally, police said.
Willacy County, Texas Sheriff Larry Spence, who has held his post for nearly three decades, said the crime was heartbreaking. “I called out a prayer asking the Lord, help us resolve this and five hours later, we found the individuals,” he said.
The National Border Patrol Council praised Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officials for apprehending the killers. “It is through their professionalism and tenacity that the wretched animals who committed this crime will face the full measure of Texas justice.” The Council created a memorial fund for Vega’s surviving family members.
Cabrera complained about the strictures the Obama administration places on border guards, explained his lack of surprise at the illegal alien status of the two suspects.
“Unfortunately it’s not surprising to me, the laws that we have on the books aren’t enforced the way that they need to be,” he said.
“The time served, the detention time that they’re giving is often very short,” he said. “It’s frustrating to see and then when something like this happens, whether or not it’s a Border Patrol agent that gets killed, there’s multiple people killed everyday, some of them by illegals and it’s just frustrating.”
The NBPC expressed its members’ outrage at the Vega murder on its official Twitter account, stating, “Border Patrol Agent Javier Vega: MURDERED by two illegal aliens. Victim of lax border enforcement. Blood on hands of Congress and President.”
The suspects in the killing have long rap sheets.
Gustavo Tijerina, who also uses the surname Tijerina-Sandoval, was reportedly arrested on at least four occasions from 2007 to 2010 for illegally entering the U.S. He pleaded guilty to illegal entry on July 9, 2007 and was sentenced to 30 days with credit for time served, plus a $10 fee. Oct. 4 that year he was convicted of the same offense, and was given a 60-day sentence plus a $10 fee. According to court records, he waded his way through the Rio Grande River. On Oct. 25, 2008 he illegally entered the country the same watery way again. Next month he was sentenced to 90 days and handed another $10 fine to pay.
On Dec. 15, 2009, a grand jury indicted Tijerina on illegal entry charges. The indictment stated that he “had previously been denied admission, excluded, deported and removed, knowing and unlawfully was present in the United States having been found near Edinburg, Texas.” He failed to secure the consent of the U.S. attorney general and homeland security security to seek lawful admission to the country. At some point a warrant was issued for his arrest. It indicated he could receive as much as 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Tijerina was held by authorities without bond on Jan. 26, 2010, and sentenced to a nine-month jail term and given a $100 fine.
Hernandez’s rap sheet is less expansive. He has reportedly been removed from the U.S. just twice for unauthorized entry.
Tijerina and Hernandez were arraigned this week. After reportedly confessing their crimes, they were denied bail and now stand formally accused of capital murder of a peace officer, attempted murder, and some lesser charges.
Sheriff Spence said the two men told him that they did not know their victim was an off-duty Border Patrol agent. “They do now,” he added.
The men were caught in a shed behind the home of a local man. When they were informed that their now-dead victim was a Border Patrol officer, they reacted with “shock and concern,” Spence said.
The two men are probably connected to organized crime, he added.
“They claim to have been involved in other incidents, this means you’ve got stolen vehicles going into Mexico,” Spence said. “Everything is going to be cartel-related, there’s a connection somehow.“
“This is not the first episode of border violence in Willacy County but it’s the first time someone’s been killed,” the sheriff said.
Vega isn’t the only Border Patrolman to be murdered in the Obama era.
Brian Terry was shot and killed by illegal aliens in December 2010 while on patrol in the desert near Nogales, Ariz. The foreign gunmen had obtained firearms from the U.S. government as part of President Obama’s morally reprehensible Fast and Furious program. Under the program Mexican gangsters were provided with guns by the U.S. in the hope that they would go on a killing spree that would whip up public hysteria that might have led to a crackdown on gun ownership.
Terry died during a firefight after having suffering the bad luck of coming across a so-called rip crew.
These criminal gangs steal illicit drugs that have already been smuggled into the United States. (This means illegals illegally steal illegal drugs from others who have illegally snuck them into the country.)
The U.S.-Mexico border has become increasingly anarchic since the Obama regime took over. It has become a recruiting center for Latin American criminal gangs, according to the Border Patrolmen’s labor union.
“We know the cartels were exploiting this and continue to exploit this crisis in south Texas, it makes sense that MS-13 and other gangs would do the same,” Shawn Moran, national vice president of the 17,000-member National Border Patrol Council told Fox News.
MS-13 (the MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha, apparently a reference to El Salvador) has been taking advantage of a Red Cross telephone bank on the border that was created to help unaccompanied illegal alien minors to reach relatives. “These phones are being utilized by gang members to recruit, to enlist, to pressure people, other juveniles into joining the MS-13 gang,” Moran said.
Because border officials are required to treat minors with kid gloves, they are unable to separate gang members from other detainees.
“We’re being told we have to look the other way,” Moran explained. “If we see gang tattoos, we’re not allowed to treat them any differently than anybody else applying to be allowed to stay here or to apply for asylum. It’s a security issue that we feel could really snowball out of control and it would put agents at risk. It puts the other detainees at risk.”
MS-13 is “one of the biggest threats we face on our southern border,” he said. “They do not hesitate to use extreme violence if necessary. They are considered one of the top threats to border patrol agents.”
Juveniles, apparently including MS-13 members, are being shipped all over America by the Obama administration. Patriots in some communities have organized to prevent their relocation, with some success.
Meanwhile, KRGV in Weslaco, Texas is reporting that two Honduran men suspected of being in the U.S. illegally have been arrested in the beating of another Border Patrol officer. Investigators say Nelson Chavarria-Ramos punched the officer in the face several times as Marco Avelar-Gomez held down the legs of the victim. The agent, whose name was not provided in the news
report, somehow arrested the duo.
This is just the beginning, of course.
The ongoing assault on the Border Patrol is completely preventable. Evidence strongly suggests it is part of President Obama’s plan to cause chaos on the border as part of his larger assault on the nation’s free institutions. Obama’s policies encourage illegal aliens, including gang members and other violent criminals that are part of the Democratic Party’s natural constituency, to invade the United States in record numbers.
It is a kind of Mariela boatlift in reverse in which the U.S. president is aggressively recruiting and importing the dregs of Latin American society into the U.S.
It is taking a grave toll on the people of the United States.
As Breitbart News reports, a new report from the U.S. Department of Justice states that roughly half of all federal criminal cases in 2013 were filed in regions close to the southern border.
To no one’s surprise, the news report states:
During [Fiscal Year] 2013, U.S. Attorney’s offices filed a total of 61,529 criminal cases against defendants, according to the DOJ. Regions along the border each had more convictions than in any other district. 6,341 cases were filed in Western Texas, suggesting it is home to the country’s most severe crime patterns. 6,130 cases were filed in Southern Texas; 4,848 were filed in Southern California; 3,889 were filed in New Mexico; and 3,538 were filed in Arizona.
The lawlessness will continue and undoubtedly escalate in the remaining two and a half years of Obama’s term of office.
More Border Patrol deaths are inevitable thanks to the dangerous policies of this malevolent administration.
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