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 News from Around the Americas | January 2007 
US Border Patrol Agent Shoots, Kills Man
 Associated Press
A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 22-year-old Mexican who was crossing illegally into the United States, U.S. police said on Saturday.
The agent shot Francisco Dominguez, who had crossed into Arizona with family members and other migrants, while trying to take him into custody, Cochise County Sheriff's Office spokesman Carol Capas said.
She declined to give further details, including why the shooting occurred, because of an ongoing investigation. A spokesman at a U.S. Border Patrol office in Tucson, Arizona, could not be reached for comment.
Mexico's Foreign Ministry said it instructed the Mexican Embassy in Washington to investigate the shooting of Dominguez, who came from the state of Puebla.
"The ministry is concerned about these kinds of situations of disproportionate violence that lead to the loss of human lives," it said in a news release.
Every year, thousands of Mexicans risk their lives sneaking across the 2,000-mile border, much of it desert, looking for work to escape poverty.
The millions of illegal Mexican immigrants who work in the United States annually send billions of dollars home to their families.
Last October, President Bush signed legislation to build 700 miles of fencing along the U.S. border, despite massive street protests by opponents and condemnation by Mexico's government.
Immigration is seen as a threat to employment by many Americans. Supporters of the fence say it is also needed to keep out drug smugglers and terrorists.
(Additional reporting by Tomas Sarmiento)
Agent Feared for Life Before Fatal Shooting
Brady McCombs - Arizona Daily Star
Officials still aren't saying if a suspected illegal entrant shot and killed Friday by a U.S. Border Patrol agent had a weapon.
The details surrounding a fight between the man who was killed, Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico, and the Border Patrol agent remained hazy Saturday as officials were tight-lipped about the investigation.
"The agent thought his life was in danger," said Jesϊs Rodriguez, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
The incident occurred just after 3 p.m. Friday 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas, southeast of the Paul Spur Lime plant and Arizona 80, said Carol Capas, Cochise County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
A male agent whose name and age are being withheld by the agency was responding to a call about a group of seven people who were crossing the desert, said Rob Daniels, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
Upon arrival, the agent took six of the seven people into custody without incident but then became involved in a fight with the one man and subsequently shot him to death, he said.
Officials weren't releasing any information about the scuffle.
The agent has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the case, which is standard procedure, Daniels said.
The Cochise County Sheriff's Office is leading the investigation with help from the FBI, said Capas. They were conducting interviews this weekend. The Dominguez-Rivera autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.
The Mexican Consulate in Douglas did not return repeated calls Saturday.
The other six people in the group five men and one woman were apprehended and may be held as witnesses in the case, Rodriguez said. They were illegal entrants and not drug runners, Daniels said.
It is the first agent-related shooting of fiscal year 2007, which started Oct. 1, Daniels said. The agency doesn't release the number of such shootings.
Agents have been in at least 23 agent-involved shootings since 1993, many prompted by rock-throwing, Star archives show. Yet, an accurate count remains elusive.
"This only speaks to the need for an independent entity to look into these cases," said Kat Rodriguez, coordinator for Derechos Humanos, an immigrant-rights organization in Tucson.
It also illustrates the escalating violence along the border and the need to examine protocols on agents' approved use of firearms, she said.
The last time an agent shot and killed someone in Cochise County was June 4, 2003, near the Douglas Port of Entry. In that incident, agent Cesar Cervantes shot Ricardo Olivares Martinez, 22, several times in the chest and killed him. Olivares Martinez had been throwing rocks at Cervantes.
That shooting was rare in that it happened during an attempted apprehension. Most illegal entrants follow agents' orders, but there are exceptions, Border Patrol spokesman Rodriguez said, especially among illegal border-crossers who have criminal records.
"Most of the incidents that happen like this usually happen when someone tries to elude us when they have a criminal history or are fleeing Mexican authorities," Rodriguez said.
While captured illegal entrants with no criminal history can usually choose a voluntary return and avoid jail time, criminals are usually held in jails and prosecuted. About 10 percent of apprehended illegal entrants have criminal records, Rodriguez said.
Having violence erupt near the international line is nothing new, Rodriguez said. Most of the violence involving agents takes place near the border like Friday's incident, he said.
"There's that ability for them (illegal entrants) to run back south and make it," he said.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com. |
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