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Shooting incidents not related to
border volunteers, officials say
By Billie Jo Jannen
The Alpine Sun
CAMPO — People are getting hurt on the border but there seems little means of determining whether the incidents are related to border watchers who have been patrolling the area between Campo and and the Imperial County line.
So far, investigations are leaning away from blaming the border watchers in two shooting incidents near Tecate and gunfire in Boulevard.
In fact, the gunplay may simply be business as usual for this stretch of border, where border agents report that assaults have long been on the rise.
Agent Kurstan Rosberg of the U.S. Border Patrol said assaults for the period of October 2004 to July 2005 are at 151 for the San Diego sector as a whole and the bulk occur in the rural portion of the border.
Assaults are defined as any kind of physical attack, whether with knife, gun, rock or fist, but “rockings” are the most common. Rockings made up 128 of all attacks in the San Diego sector, Rosberg said. Some agents have been permanently impaired in rock attacks, he added.
Assaults for the October 2003 though June 2004 numbered 134, from Campo to Jacumba, with 112 being rock attacks, he said.
Mexican authorities reported that two Mexican men said they were shot in two separate incidents Saturday night, one north of the border and one south of it.
The exact location in relation to Tecate is unclear. The two men, one of which said he was 200 yards north of the border with a group, were treated at Mexican hospitals. Rosberg said that no border agents, nor border watch volunteers were involved in the incidents.
Border watch volunteers located about 18 miles east of Tecate reported gunfire from south of the border early Saturday morning, Rosberg said. No one was hurt and nothing more has been discovered about who fired — and who the shots were aimed at.
The reported incident is not far from the spot where a Campo agent was shot in the leg by fleeing drug smugglers last month near Red Shank Road — an area where residents say they are being overrun.
Unlike the volunteer border watchers, local residents often round up illegals in their own properties — a step that volunteers currently operating on public lands may not make. That operation is strictly watch and report.
But, though they do it on their own properties, they don’t like the necessity for having to defend against a problem most feel the government should be handling better.
“We have essentially been abandoned by our government” said Bob Fox of Boulevard, who said his family is endangered and his property trashed by northbound foot travelers. “They are ignoring us — both parties, Republican and Democrat.”
Fox and his sons have become proactive, both patrolling their own Boulevard property and participating in the Arizona Border Watch this spring.
The family is also instrumental in helping to design the upcoming Friends of the Border Patrol watch, scheduled to begin in
September.
The Fox boys, Tim and Jay, have made documentaries about the problem using local interviews and footage from the family’s trip to the Arizona border and to Washington D.C. to ask for better border controls.
At a meeting Sunday, Campo resident and FBP volunteer Wade Rowley said the Fox boys had been threatened by pro-open borders activists who did like being filmed for the Fox projects.
Rowley said the FBP operation has already drawn applications from over 1,000 people from all over the country.
Operations will be managed by local people, who have received fairly extensive training over the past two months. Rank and file volunteers will receive about a day’s training — and this only after they have been cleared via a background check.
Among the chief differences between the FBP operation and the current one, led by Oceanside resident Jim Chase, is that it will be conducted on private property, Rowley said. Applications are being accepted via the
Friends of the Border Patrol
website.
FBP is also seeking private property owners who would be interested in participating. Properties with broad views of the landscape are favored and a variety of releases are signed by volunteers: “Basically, everybody is signing releasesa of liability to everybody,” he said.
Rowley said this choice was made for several reasons, including the ability to avoid confrontation and interference by protesters.
Chase’s group, which is operating on Bureau of Land Management and other public lands, have reported a number of incidents and even residents say they have been harassed.
According to Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Hogue, there have been three reports taken and one arrest since the July 16 commencement of the watch.
A protester was cited for disturbing the peace when he allegedly tried to incite others into illegal acts against the border watchers, Hogue said. To date, no border watchers have been cited, he added.
The current operation is slated to continue through Aug. 7.
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