Border Patrol agent shoots at immigrants

Feb. 14, 2007, 11:01PM
Border Patrol agent shoots at immigrants
© 2007 The Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas — Border Patrol officials are investigating a shooting at the Mexican border that involved one of their agents.

Doug Mosier, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, said an agent fired at least one shot at a group of would-be immigrants Tuesday night during a confrontation along the border near downtown El Paso.

The agent fired at least one shot after some of the immigrants began throwing rocks at him, narrowly missing the agent's head, Mosier said.

The immigrants ran from the border after the agent fired. Border Patrol officials do not believe anyone was injured, Mosier said.

The shooting is under investigation, though Mosier said initial reports show the agent fired in self-defense.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4555199.html

EOM

Study cites 20-fold increase in migrant deaths (4:45 a.m.)
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN / Associated Press
Article Launched: 02/15/2007 04:44:54 AM MST


TUCSON, Ariz. - A "funnel effect" that moved illegal immigrant traffic from urban areas in California and Texas into Arizona's forbidding deserts dramatically increased the number of deaths, a new study concludes.
In studying all deaths of illegal immigrants examined between 1990 and 2005 by the Pima County (Tucson) medical examiner's office, the Binational Migration Institute said there was a 20-fold increase in deaths over that period, "creating a major public health and humanitarian crisis in the deserts of Arizona."

The medical examiner's office examined and processed 927 recovered bodies between 1990 and 2005, according to the institute, which is part of the University of Arizona's Mexican American Studies and Research Center.

Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said deaths in Arizona accounted for at least 78 percent of the increased southwestern border deaths between 1990 and 2003.

Experts including the GAO "now explain this crisis as a direct consequence of U.S. immigration control policies initially instituted in the mid-1990s," the report said - referring to "prevention-through-deterrence" measures that funneled illegal immigrants "into Arizona's remote, harsh geography."
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http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_5232221