Securing the border imposes a toll on life in Texas
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas — The red pickup truck tears down the country road, mesquite trees and untamed brush all around. It bears a heavy load in the back, which officials later said provoked Texas game wardens to suspect drugs and give chase. Within minutes, a helicopter carrying state troopers — including a sharpshooter — joins the pursuit near a small town in the Rio Grande Valley on the border with Mexico.
"It's got a tarp with what looks like [drug] bundles," a voice says over the two-way radio. More details are supplied: southbound at 80 mph. The truck makes several turns before heading east on an unpaved road, according to an audio recording of the pursuit obtained by KRGV-TV, a local station. The truck charges east on Mile Seven. "We have a clear spot." The radio goes silent for 14 seconds. Sharpshooter Miguel Avila takes aim at the pickup truck. "Shots fired! Shots fired!"
No "bundles" were found. The pickup truck was carrying a group of Guatemalan migrants who had slipped across the border in search of jobs further north. Two were killed. According to autopsy reports, Marcos Antonio Castro Estrada, 29, and Jose Leonardo Coj Cumar, 32, died from gunshot wounds. Both were husbands and fathers, said the Guatemalan consul. Cumar had set out for the U.S. to find work to pay for a surgery for his son.
Last year's shooting in the Rio Grande Valley, a daisy chain of small towns and cities, rattled politicians outraged Texans across the state and transcended debates about immigration and became a hometown-security issue. "Only in Texas do we have sniping from helicopters," read one headline. The American Civil Liberties Union-Texas (ACLU-TX) mounted a public drumming of the state police and joined other groups for a vigil at the site of the shooting. The (McAllen) Monitor, a local newspaper, framed the shooting by asking: "What if it was a father trying to rush an injured child to the hospital? What if it was just a 14-year-old kid who decided to take a joyride in daddy’s truck?"
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/25/living-under-thelawofbordersecurity.html