WASHINGTON – In the vast distances of South Texas, sheriff’s deputies, local and county police officers, Texas rangers and highway patrols, U.S. border patrol agents, immigration officials and other law enforcement officials work together on a daily basis.
So it was not uncommon for border patrol agents and immigration and customs officials to respond to a desperate plea for support from Uwalde Police Department on Tuesday. However, it was very unusual for ICE staff to pull children out of school windows and for border patrol agents to play such a central role in response to a school shooter firing the bullets that killed him.
Uwalde police asked for tactical equipment when they called for reinforcements, and members of the border patrol’s tactical unit, a SWAT team version, abandoned what they were doing and went to the school, about a 40-minute drive from where they were. has worked on the southwestern border.
(Although the border patrol’s mission is to guard the nation’s international borders, it is allowed to operate within 100 miles of a land or coastal border.)
After all, about 35 minutes after the squad arrived at the school, Stephen C. McCrow, director of the Texas Public Safety Department, told a news conference on Friday – it was a sniper from the Border Patrol Tactical Unit or BORTAC who killed the shooter around 12:50 p.m.
At the press conference, Mr McCrow said the local police were responsible for the reaction and that not sending law enforcement officers to the classroom where the attacker was for more than an hour was a “wrong decision”.
The Border Patrol set up the BORTAC unit in 1984 in response to riots in immigrant detention facilities. Since then, agents in the unit have sometimes found themselves in high-level situations. In April 2000, a BORTAC agent took up arms with Elian Gonzalez, a Cuban boy who was at the center of an international custody battle. The agent snatched the boy from his uncle’s arms after agents broke into the Miami house where Elian was staying.
The little-known El Paso-based unit has about 250 agents. Its members most often operate along the country’s borders, carrying out operations such as breaking into hiding places where smugglers hide drugs and weapons. Most of the people targeted by the unit are abusers with long criminal records. Its agents have improved training such as special forces; they usually carry stunning grenades and hold sniper certificates. They arrived at Rob Elementary School on Tuesday with three ballistic shields designed to stop or deflect bullets and other projectiles.
Becoming a member of the unit involves a three-week selection process that includes constant physical and mental stress and deprivation of food and sleep.
“We are looking for a complete combination of toughness, heart, intelligence and integrity,” said Mike Marino, BORTAC’s supervising agent, earlier this year. “The goal is to appreciate in someone what is usually immeasurable. You have to feel the true nature of man. ”
Members of the unit also operate around the world, providing training and supporting military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The department has been criticized for some of its actions, including its involvement in the efforts of former President Donald J. Trump to quell protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon in 2020, after the assassination of George Floyd. In June, Mr. Trump sent 66 specialized agents, along with other federal law enforcement officials, to Perland, Texas, for the funeral of Mr. Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Mr Trump has also sent members of the unit to so-called refuge cities – where local police have been instructed not to help federal immigration officials. They were sent to help immigration and customs officials arrest undocumented immigrants. Many saw the operation as an intimidation tactic, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration.
A BORTAC agent working in the Rio Grande Valley in 2018. The unit has provided military training worldwide. Credit … Adrees Latif / Reuters
Although it is rare for the BORTAC team to play such a central role in the response to local crime, this has happened before.
In 2015, team members assisted in the search for the escaped convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweet in upstate New York. A member of the team shot and killed Mr Matt after the team found him hiding in the woods.
Many agents and employees of the Border Patrol with Customs and Border Protection, its parent agency, live in the Uwalde area, which is part of the 245-kilometer Del Rio Border Patrol sector. The sector includes a station and a checkpoint about an hour from the US border with Mexico. Parts of the Texas border are popular checkpoints for undocumented migrants, and border patrol agents in their green uniforms are everywhere.
Raul Ortiz, the head of the border patrol, said that when his agents received a call about the shooting in Uwalde around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, between 80 and 100 of them – both on duty and off – went to school. .
“We immediately decided we needed to get involved,” Mr. Ortiz told CNN on Wednesday.
Members of various law enforcement agencies in Uwalde. In situations like Tuesday, “all local law enforcement is responding and responding,” a police chief said. Credit … Christopher Lee for The New York Times
“People who work in law enforcement, especially in South Texas, have such a strong bond, almost family,” said Charlie Wilkinson, executive director of the United Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, a professional association. “Sometimes in South Texas, law enforcement is seen as one thing.
Chief Victor Rodriguez of the McAllen, Texas Police Department said the Border Patrol worked so closely with local law enforcement that it was considered another asset of law enforcement in the community.
Most often, he said, incidents to which the Border Patrol responds with local officials are related to immigration.
In a situation like the school shooting in Uwalde, Mr Rodriguez said, “all local law enforcement agencies are reacting and reacting to see if they can help.”
Edgar Sandoval contributed to a report from Uwalde, Texas.
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