It's very easy, then, to imagine immigrants as the enemy. Some 8,270 Border Patrol agents stand guard over the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico. That's a 122 percent increase from six years ago, when the government announced a plan to block traditional crossing routes. Smugglers lurk unseen. Children throw rocks and bottles.
Bullets splash in the murky water.
We're easily outgunned,'' agent Banuelos says. 4 dead as Mexicans fight over city hall At least four people were killed and 50 wounded Friday when rival members of Mexico's troubled ruling party clashed in a pitched battle over control of a city near the capital, officials said. Mexico state Attorney General Gerardo Sanchez told a news conference that three people had been beaten to death and one shot and killed in the rioting in Chimalhuacan, a city of about 1.5 million people 20 miles northeast of Mexico City. The plan, of course, is dead on arrival in a country wary of illegal immigrants from the south. President-elect Vicente Fox knows this as well.