Immigrants detained illegally entering Arizona across the southern border are becoming more likely to lash out aggressively at the Border Patrol agents who stop them, according to the president of the union that represents agents in the state.
”In recent years, undocumented immigrants’ aggressiveness has increased and that is something we face when we patrol the desert,” union president Art Del Cueto said in an interview with the Spanish language publication Efe and translated by Fox New Latino this week.
According to the translation, Del Cueto said that 12 years ago, when he started as a Border Patrol agent, his first arrest involved 80 people and all followed his instructions. Now, he argues, the situation is different.
“Now, when we stop two or three people, often we find that, at least, one of them is aggressive,” he said to Efe.
Del Cueto pointed to the recent assault of a Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent at the hands of a Mexican national as an example.
The Dec. 7 assault caused the agent to suffer facial injuries that required 22 stitches. The alleged assailant, Carlos Manuel Pena Nieblas, escaped.
“This incident is under investigation and it is another example of the dangers Border Patrol officers face daily,” Del Cueto said.
As recently as last week in Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began looking into a call made to the police claiming that a Mexican cartel had kidnapped a Border Patrol agent.
According to Fox News Latino, the Tuscan Sector of the Border logged the largest number of assaults for Fiscal Year 2014, at 99. Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Sector came in second with 89 incidents.
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