The type of operation you are describing in your second paragraph is quite common. It happens everyday. US Customs is responsible for many laws that the general public is, most times, unaware of. US Customs is required to enforce both import and export laws.

FB

Thanks for that clarification. My apologies. I believed ICE was responsible for things crossing in at the border, and Mexican authorities would be responsible for keeping contraband out of Mexico.

Edit to add: I shouldn't have described that last type of operation then and I apologize for doing so. I'm still confused on how DHS could be blamed for this though, unless the argument is that they should have been inspecting vehicles leaving the country for illegal weapon supplies. Shouldn't their resources be focussed on contraband coming into the US?

If there is probable cause to do so, yes. FB already clarified that. Should CBP not stop drugs at the border because "oh well, they'll be Mexico's problem?" There are export laws that need to be enforced as well. FB covered it much better than I could.

I'm not saying people should be harassed, but if there is intel about an illegal drug or weapons shipment that's happening and the i's can be dotted and t's crossed for it to happen legally, then why shouldn't they? Interdictions happen quite a bit based on intel.

On another note ATF is actually part of DOJ, not Treasury. http://www.atf.gov/about/

I'm not disputing that there shouldn't be interdictions or that weapons should not be crossing the border. I'm just puzzled at the blaming of DHS for the ATF failure here.

Nothing indicates there was probable cause for a search, particularly because this was an ATF operation. Why would DHS be investigating an ATF operation or have probable cause to perform a search of the Mexican drug runners involved? Unless the argument is they should have been investigating them, which perhaps they should, but ATF was already investigating them, and gave them the weapons. Was ICE supposed to be investing ATF agents? I don't understand, at least not without more information presented than was in the article, how this was a DHS failure and why DHS is being blamed for weapons entering Mexico.

My point, which apparently I did not make well at all, is that it seems unfair to blame DHS for not investigating an ATF operation. The only other way DHS should have been involved was a suspicionless border search, which AFAIK it could not legally perform to look for contraband leaving the US. I'm confounded at the anger at DHS over this. Tell me what I'm missing here.

I thought that was right, thsank you for confirming it for me.^

I stand corrected, it changed in 2003. Thanks for correcting me and giving the info!

Thanks for the correction.

It seems there were a few agents shot. Terry was apparently shot in Arizona. The article linked to in the OP says he was killed "in a shootout with bandits near Rio Rico, Ariz."

edit: 3 agents killed. 2 in Mexico. Terry, who was the one in the OP, was killed in Arizona.

Thank you for for the updated information. I had forgotten that ATF shifted from Treasury to Justice during the same government reorganization that started DHS.

FB

Brian Terry was a Border Patrol agent that was shot and killed in Arizona near the Border with Mexico.

Jaime Zapata was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent that was ambushed, shot and killed on a road in the interior of Mexico.

Victor Avila is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent that was traveling with agent Zapata at the time of the ambush and survive the attack.

So to be accurate, there were two agents killed from two different agencies and one who survived the attack.

FB

You're kidding, right?

ATF was in Treasury until the creation of the DHS, when all Treasury lost their law enforcement role. Secret Service went to DHS, and ATF to DOJ.

Wow.

I have been corrected above (and again, thanks for the correction!), and I wasn't kidding, I fail to see how DHS is in trouble for an ATF operation.

I too question Project Gunrunner, where the ATF allowed these firearms to knowingly be smuggled into Mexico. I guess it's actually Fast and Furious where they were trying to track these, or some such... Who only knows what they were trying to do with all of their different programs, other than try to cook the statistics.

DHS Chief Napolitano says she was not aware of agency's link to ATF "gun running"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_16...html?tag=stack

Sources tell CBS News and documents indicate that an agent from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was working in the ATF group tasked to Fast and Furious. The Department of Homeland Security oversees ICE. Today, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Napolitano about that at a hearing before the Judiciary Committee.

Don't trust her, don't believe her.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_16...in;contentBody