By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI and Homeland Security are investigating after shots were fired at two ICE offices housed at a building in San Antonio early Tuesday morning.

Bullets pierced a window of an ICE office and Removal Operations Field Office inside the Jefferson Bank building about 3 a.m., KENS-5, a CBS affiliate, reports.

No injuries were reported.

The FBI was at the building Tuesday morning to process the scene and review surveillance footage.

“These shootings were cowardly, brazen, violent acts, absolutely without justification and a threat to our entire community,” said Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio Division.

FBI officials said at a press conference they were “concerned there could be additional attacks” on federal offices in San Antonio.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

FBI agents are reluctant to aggressively investigate white nationalist extremists because they are part of President Trump’s base, according to a former FBI counterterrorism agent.

“I believe Christopher A. Wray is an honorable man, but I think in many ways the FBI is hamstrung in trying to investigate the white supremacist movement like the old FBI would,” the former agent, David Gomez, told The Washington Post. “There’s some reluctance among agents to bring forth an investigation that targets what the president perceives as his base. It’s a no-win situation for the FBI agent or supervisor.”

Some of that hesitation, Gomez said, stems from Trump’s repeated criticism of the FBI during the special counsel investigation.

The comments follow a massacre carried out Saturday by a gunman at an El Paso Walmart, where at least 20 people were killed. Investigators said the gunman posted an anti-immigration manifesto shortly before the shooting.

Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric is fueling hatred and making the country more dangerous, Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro told MSNBC.

“This was the deadliest attack on the Latino community in United States history,” Castro said. “The president blamed the media, the internet, video games. He did not look in the mirror and blame himself.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases are motivated by white supremacist ideologies.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, via FBI.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

About a week ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned the Senate that white supremacy is responsible for most domestic terrorism cases so far in 2019.

Then came Saturday, when a gunman who pledged to attack “as many Mexicans as possible” opened fire at an El Paso Walmart, killing 20 people and wounding 26 others. Early Sunday morning, another gunman killed 9 people and injured 26 others in just 30 seconds in Dayton, Ohio. The motive of that shooting remains unclear.

The bureau is worried the attacks will inspire more acts of violence.

“The FBI remains concerned that U.S.-based domestic violent extremists could become inspired by these and previous high-profile attacks to engage in similar acts of violence,” the bureau said in a news release. “The FBI asks the American public to report to law enforcement any suspicious activity that is observed either in person or online.”

So what’s the FBI doing about the threat of domestic terrorism? According to CNN, Wray has ordered a new threat assessment at the bureau’s offices nationwide in an attempt to stave off future attacks.

A command group at the FBI’s Washington headquarters will lead an effort to get field offices to identify threats of mass shootings.

The bureau also is assisting in the investigations of the shootings in Texas and Ohio.

“On behalf of the FBI, I offer sincere condolences to the victims, families, and communities affected by this weekend’s violence, and we stand by them during this difficult time. We will bring the full resources of the FBI to bear in the pursuit of justice for the victims of these crimes.” Wray said in a statement. “I am proud of our state and local law enforcement partners and the immediate response of FBI agents, analysts, and professional staff, working in close coordination to assist them. I have been in contact with the president and the attorney general, and they both have expressed their support for the FBI’s work in the wake of these tragedies.”

A detention center, via CBP.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Attorneys visiting a crowded Border Patrol facility in Texas made a startling discovery – a teenage girl in a wheelchair holding a tiny, prematurely born baby.

The lawyers said the baby, wrapped in a dirty towel and looking listless, was barely a month old, The Associated Press reports. The mother was in severe pain because of complications from an emergency cesarean section in Mexico.

“You look at this baby and there is no question that this baby should be in a tube with a heart monitor,” said Hope Frye, a volunteer with an immigrant advocacy group.

Since being in Border Patrol custody, the baby received no medical attention, the lawyers said.

The case sheds more light on the inhumane conditions that have been reported under the Trump administration by advocates and the Inspector General.

Since late last year, five children have died after being detained by the Border Patrol.

Photo via Border Patrol

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

So many bees covered a Guatemalan mother protecting her child that a Border Patrol agent believed he saw a bundle of clothing.

What the agent actually witnessed were thousands of bees covering a mother who had been curled over her 8-year-old son to protect him in Texas.

“Upon closer investigation, the agent realized the bundle was a person curled up in the fetal position,” CBP said in a statement to CNN.

The agent called for the woman to seek shelter in his patrol car. At that point, the agent realized “the person was covering a small child.”

The woman and her son ran into the patrol car while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Once the child began vomiting, the unnamed agent rushed the mother and child to a hospital, where they were placed in an intensive care unit.

The mother and child are expected to recover and then be processed by immigration officials upon their release from the hospital.

Border marker, via Border Patrol.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

When Mexican teenagers are shot at the American border, can American families sue in U.S. courts?

The U.S. Supreme Court will try to answer that question, it announced Thursday in deciding to take a case involving a Border Patrol agent who was in Texas when he shot across the border and killed a 15-year-old boy in Mexico, The Associated Press reports.

The family of Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereca said the teenager was playing a game with friends when he was shot in the head by Agent Jesus Mesa Jr.

Mesa said he pulled the trigger because he was under attack by rock throwers.
The Supreme Court took the case in February 2017 but sent it back to a lower court for more proceedings.

At the time, the Trump administration argued the right to sue in U.S. courts “should not be extended to aliens injured abroad.”

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

A former DEA task force officer, who worked for the McAllen, Tex. police department, has pleaded guilty to providing false statements in connection with a federal conspiracy case.

On Thursday, Ricardo Ruiz Jr. agreed to plead guilty to one count of giving false statements to federal agents, in exchange government prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining four counts against him, including two counts of interference with commerce by threat or violence, one count of impersonating an officer, and the remaining count of making false statements to federal agents, The Monitor  reports. 

The former McAllen officer and three others originally faced conspiracy charges in connection with an incident in May 2017, when Ruiz and the others allegedly orchestrated the seizure of a 2013 Cadillac ATS from an unnamed San Juan resident, the paper reports.

Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Juan David

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

The U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of being a serial killer likely used his government-issued weapon to murder four women in September.

The .40-caliber casings found at the scene of each murder “were consistent with the agency issued .40-caliber HK p2000 semiautomatic pistol” that police found in Juan David Ortiz’s truck when he was captured on Sept. 15, the USA Today reports, citing the district attorney involved in the case.  

The Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime lab in Laredo is examining the handgun and casings to determine whether the match is precise.

Ortiz, 35, was arrested after a woman escaped his truck after suspecting that he had killed her friend.

Police said Ortiz drove four women between the ages of 28 and 42 to the side of rural roads and shot them in the head.