Mexican Military Border Incursions on the Rise

A few weeks ago, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, during his visit to the United States, criticized Arizona’s tough new illegal immigration law from the well of Congress before a joint session. Not surprising was the Democrat lawmakers reaction to his rhetoric -- a standing ovation.

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According to Tom Fitton, president of public-interest group Judicial Watch, he should have taken some time to explain why Mexican government officials, including members of the Mexican military, continue to flood across the border and attack U.S. Border Patrol agents. On March 22, 2010, Fitton's group of legal experts obtained records from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) concerning Mexican government incursions and encounters along the U.S. border. The documents were incomplete and included huge gaps in the data, but nonetheless indicate an increase in the number of incursions in 2008 and 2009. Analysis of the data by JW staff shows:

• 76 Mexican Government incursions from January 2008 to December 2009 (data missing from February 2009)
• 50 Mexican Government incursions in 2008 alone, which is double the number of incursions from the previous year
• 528 assaults against CBP agents from January – June 2008
• 11 assaults against National Guard troops from January – June 2008

By comparison, CBP statistics previously obtained revealed 25 incursions in Fiscal Year 2007. Overall, Judicial Watch has documented 226 Mexican government incursions between 1996 and 2005. In addition to the incursion data, the CBP also records the number of tunnels discovered along the border which are allegedly used for smuggling and human trafficking. In 2008 alone, CBP discovered 25 of these tunnels. Overall, between 1990 and March 2009, CBP discovered 103 tunnels along U.S. borders -- one along the U.S border with Canada and 102 along the U.S. border with Mexico. According to Fitton, the most recent batch of documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the CBP is missing large amounts of data. Through FOIA, Judicial Watch requested incursion and encounter reports from January 2008 to present. However, CBP provided full statistical reports for the first six months of 2008 only. The remaining reports only include the numbers of incursions. Moreover, data for February 2009 is missing entirely. Fitton states that Judicial Watch already filed an appeal with CBP to obtain the missing information. But even with incomplete information, the documents clearly show that President Obama and the federal government continue to be derelict in securing the nation’s southern border. These new government documents depict a chaotic and dangerous situation for our nation’s Border Patrol agents -- and for border states such as Arizona. Previous Mexican government incursion documents obtained by Judicial Watch describe incidents involving shots fired on both sides of the border, unmarked helicopters invading U.S. airspace, drug smuggling, and confrontations between U.S. Border Patrol agents and members of the Mexican military. "Agents of the Mexican government violate our sovereign border on a regular basis, and something needs to be done about it," says Fitton.