06:20 PM MST on Thursday, June 30, 2005

Arizona Daily Star

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were shot while working east of Nogales early this afternoon, according to U.S. Border Patrol officials.

The two agents, who have not been identified, were shot in the leg, according to Jose Garza, a spokesperson for U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. They were shot just after 12:30 p.m. while working in an area about five miles east of Nogales and less than a mile north of the U.S. Mexico Border.

One of the victims was airlifted to an unspecified level one trauma center, according to Charles Griffin, another Tucson Sector spokesperson. The other injured agent was taken by ground to a hospital for treatment. Griffin refused to name either agent, or say where they were taken.

Violence against Border Patrol agents has been up dramatically in the past year, according to Griffin. He said there have been more than four times more shooting assaults against Border Patrol agents by suspected illegal border crossers in the current fiscal year than during the same period last year.

Griffin said there were a total of 118 of assaults on agents in each of the previous two fiscal years, which begin October 1 and end on September 30.

"The border has become more violent in the last couple of years. This fiscal year we are 195 through today, 23 of which are shooting, 105 rockings, 30 physical, 33 vehicular assaults and four others, steel pipe etc."

"I think the numbers speak for themselves," said Griffin. "It's an indirect measure of our success."

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©The Arizona Daily Star, 2005