U.S. Border Patrol Agent Killed in Arizona

The violence and lawlessness which plagues Mexico continues to spread into the southern United States, brought by the illegal immigrants who are invading the region.

On Tuesday night, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry, 40, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and a former policeman, was shot dead by an armed gang in Santa Cruz county, AZ:

Authorities combed the rugged terrain west of Rio Rico on Wednesday, searching for a fugitive suspect in the deadly shooting of a Border Patrol agent near Rio Rico.

Four suspects were detained immediately after Agent Brian A. Terry, 40, was shot late Tuesday in the Peck Canyon area. But a fifth eluded capture and was last seen heading south on foot in blue pants and a blue-and-white-striped shirt.

Police radio chatter early Wednesday afternoon noted a possible sighting of the suspect on the west slope of Atascosa Peak. Shortly after the radio report, the Nogales International witnessed a Department of Homeland Security Blackhawk helicopter circling over the peak, approximately 15 miles northwest of Nogales.

Sheriff Antonio Estrada said his office first received a call for assistance shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday night.

“Border Patrol called our dispatch, reporting shots fired and requesting emergency medical services to meet with them at Peck Canyon and Circulo Sombrero,” Estrada said.

The shooting happened near Forest Service Road 4197, he said.

Terry was airlifted to a Tucson hospital, where he was pronounced dead early Wednesday.

Representatives of the Border Patrol agents’ union said Terry and three other agents were waiting for suspected border bandits when the shooting began. No other agents were injured, but one of the suspected bandits was reportedly wounded.

Apparently Agent Terry was a member of BORTAC, the Border Patrol's version of the SWAT team, specialising in patrolling the most dangerous, violent and bandit-ridden sections of the border:

BORTAC units are SWAT-type teams that respond to some of the Border Patrol’s most dangerous situations, Judd said.

“They specialize in activity such as what they encountered last night, that’s what they’re there for,” he told the NI. “Any time an agent encounters a known suspect that has weapons, we call BORTAC.”

The area in and around Peck Canyon has been plagued in recent years by border bandits, with Border Patrol agents, hunters, rancher and illegal immigrants regularly reporting encounters – sometimes violent – with armed men. It’s no coincidence that Terry was working in the area, Judd said.

Agent Terry died a hero, defending his country - which is more than the vast majority of American politicians, Democrat or Republican, will do. They're too busy condemning anyone who dares point out their consistent policy failures in securing the United States' southern border, and their lack of actual will to do so at all.

Here's Rick Oltman in the San Francisco Examiner, explaining how the government has effectively abandoned the area:

But one thing we can say for certain is that this area has been abandoned by the U.S. Government to the Mexican cartels.

Almost exactly 12 months ago, December 27, 2009, a Border Patrol agent was shot in the same area. I have been told that after that shooting the BP supervisors declared the area “too dangerous to patrol” and only BORTAC, the Border Patrol's SWAT team, goes into the area. Terry was a Marine; of course he joined BORTAC.

Tactically, the Border Patrol supervisors abandoned the area.

Strategically, that abandonment created a corridor that was exploited by smuggling cartels.

Watch the game camera video on the left that has been provided by the Concerned Citizens and SBI. The images are from early 2010 from an area 10 miles North of where Agent Terry was killed.

Some U.S. Border Patrol agents in that sector spent their own money purchasing game cameras and placed them in the area west of Rio Rico and have given pictures of the smugglers to their supervisors who have been aware of the heavily armed drug traffickers for months.

These agents’ personal initiative has provided information about, at least, two groups of criminals operating in the area who are ripping off drug mules, robbing illegal aliens and raping the women.

The result of this excellent Intel? The agents were told by supervisors to pick up the cameras and not to be circulating any more pictures of the illegal traffic. After all, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has declared the area safe.

It seems that if the U.S. government have their way, the sacrifices of brave men like Agent Terry, defending their country from violent, merciless criminals and the chaotic lawlessness of a Third World country, will be in vain.