Free Talk Live

In the wake of a dramatic increase in deaths at the hands of U.S border patrol agents, the Department of Homeland Security has agreed to launch a long-awaited investigation into the agency’s use of force. Since 2010, border agents have killed at least 18 people, including Valeria "Munique" Tachiquin, slain by a Border Patrol agent on September 28 in broad daylight several miles north of California’s border with Mexico. Tachiquin was a U.S. citizen and mother of five children. Her family is now brings a wrongful death lawsuit against the Border Patrol.

DERBY LINE, Vt. --
A recent increase in border patrol along side streets dividing Derby Line, Vt., and Stanstead, Canada, are causing confusion and animosity between locals and border patrol agents.

Mexicans are seething over the second death of a countryman at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in two weeks, an incident near downtown El Paso that is threatening to escalate tensions over migrant issues.

PHOENIX — Minutemen groups, a surge in Border Patrol agents, and a tough new immigration law aren't enough for a reputed neo-Nazi who's now leading a militia in the Arizona desert.

Jason "J.T." Ready is taking matters into his own hands, declaring war on "narco-terrorists" and keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants. So far, he says his patrols have only found a few border crossers who were given water and handed over to the Border Patrol. Once, they also found a decaying body in a wash, and alerted authorities.

Mexico’s drug cartels depend on smugglers to move their illicit wares. But to listen to the U.S. Border Patrol, you’d get the impression that most of the smugglers are Mexicans. In fact, most are born-in-the-USA Americans, as the cartels prefer that their mules look like Walter White. And the Border Patrol knows it.

Investigators said Valeria Alvarado ran down the agent with her car as border patrol agents were in a Chula Vista neighborhood to serve a felony warrant on Friday.
The agent said he had no choice but to defend himself and fired at Alvarado get her to stop the car. Alvarado was hit by five bullets.
According to eye witnesses, the shooting left the mother of five with bullet holes in her face, arms, and chest.

The U.S. government on Thursday notified 60,000 federal workers responsible for securing borders and facilitating trade that they will face furloughs due to government-wide spending cuts. Customs and Border Protection said it expects furloughs and other austerity will cause delays at ports of entry, including international arrivals at airports, and reduce the number of border patrol officers on duty at any one time. David Aguilar, the agency's deputy commissioner, said it must cut about $754 million by September 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Sylvie Nelson's border crossings are anything but routine. Customs agents sometimes order her out of her car. Twice, they handcuffed her in front of her young children. Once, agents swarmed her car and handcuffed her husband, too.

She tells them: It's not me you want, it's a man with the same birth date and a similar name. Agents always confirm that and let her go.

Then it happens again. And again.

SELLS, Ariz. — An eerie hush settles in at sundown on the Tohono O’odham Nation, which straddles 75 miles of border with Mexico.

The roads crawl with the trucks of Border Patrol agents, who stop unfamiliar vehicles, scrutinize back roads for footprints and hike into the desert wilds to intercept smugglers carrying marijuana on their backs and droves of migrants trying to make it north.

By the bad luck of geography, the only large Indian reservation on the embattled border is caught in the middle, emerging as a major transit point for drugs as well as people.