By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The FBI is trying to determine what happened to more than $500,000 that is missing from the union that represents about 20,000 Border Patrol agents.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told ProPublica that the FBI’s investigation is targeting an apparent embezzlement scheme involving the bank accounts of the union’s El Paso branch, where money went missing in recent years.

“We know the FBI is looking at it,” Judd said.

In November, Judd notified agents in El Paso that money was missing. In a recording of that meeting, Judd said that the union hired forensic auditors, who found “$352,389.31 that was misappropriated. They also found that there was another $150,035.65 that was not properly paid to the IRS in tax money. Somebody pocketed it, just up and walked away.”

Judd told agents, “We expect there will be indictments.”

The FBI did not comment on the investigation.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Customs and Border Protection expanded its facial recognition technology to a fifth location as the agency prepares to deploy the system in other areas this spring.

The newest location is at the Progreso Port of Entry in Weslaco, Texas, where the technology is able to scan pedestrians’ faces as they walk across the bridge, Nextgov.com reports.

Launched in 2018, the technology is in place at border crossings in El Paso, Laredo, Nogales and San Luis, Arizona.

This spring, the agency plans to expand the technology to more land border crossings.

The longterm goal is to deploy facial recognition technology at all border crossings, including land, air and seaports.

CBP officers helped deliver a baby. Photo via CBP.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

CBP officers helped deliver a baby at the Free Trade International Bridge at Los Indios in Texas.

Shortly after 7 a.m. on Sunday, a 16-year-old U.S. resident went into labor at the midpoint of the bridge. CBP officers were preparing to take the teenager to the hospital, but she was in full labor.

So CBP officers helped deliver the baby inside a CBP vehicle.

“Our officers are ready for a variety of situations, even childbirth, and they utilized all of their training and experience to calm the mother and assist with her delivery, which happened almost immediately after crossing back into the United States,” Port Director Tater Ortiz, Brownsville Port of Entry, said in a news release.

The mother and her health baby were transported to a local hospital, where they were reported in good health.

5-year-old Belgian Malinois, Bulder.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A dog park in El Paso will be named after Bulder, the Border Patrol K-9 killed in the line of duty in December.

The city of El Paso wants to honor the courageous dog, a 5 -year-old Belgian Malinois.

“People just think it’s a dog. It’s actually a partner. It’s an agent,” Tim Sullivan, chief patrol agent with U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Group, said, according to Border Report. “So, this resolution honors him and the sacrifice he made while protecting the other agents.”

Bulder was killed during a shootout that occurred as agents tried to execute a search warrant at a home in El Paso.

The 62-year-old suspect who killed the dog out in a shootout was fatally shot with return fire.

“El Paso has a big heart for our pets and of course for the men and women who serve our community,” City Rep. Claudia Ordaz-Perez said. “So we thought it was just fitting that the only dog splash park in the community that we name this park after K9 Agent Bulder to forever serve in our memories.”

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A grand jury determined an FBI agent acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a Robinson, Texas, man while raiding a home with a federal search warrant in July.

The agent, who was not identified, was cleared of wrong doing in the shooting death of Joshua Steven Mitchell after the case was presented to a grand jury in mid-December, McLennan County First Assistant District Attorney Nelson Barnes told the Waco Tribune-Herald.

“The agent clearly acted in defense of himself and the other agents who would have been in the line of fire,” Barnes said. “Mr. Mitchell had multiple weapons next to him and he reached for one, putting the agents in danger.”

Barnes said photographs showed multiple weapons near Mitchell when agents confronted him, which suggested the agents were in danger.

Mitchell was shot four times in the head and neck, as well as once in the arm.

Vultures are covering the tower in feces and corrosive vomit.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Vultures are causing a major headache for U.S. Customs and Border Protection near the Mexican border in southern Texas.

A 320-foot radio tower for CBP in Kingsville is covered in feces, vomit and urine, Quartz reports.

About 300 vultures are roosting on the tower and disrupting communications because of the corrosive excrement.

The agency plans to clean and repair the radio tower and the install a “Vulture Deterrence Netting System” by August before the carnivorous birds’ roosting cycle begins in the fall.

Photo via Border Patrol

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol agents were attacked and hospitalized by migrants trying to enter the country illegally in Laredo, Texas, on New Year’s Eve.

The National Border Patrol Council said an undisclosed number of agents sustained injuries ranging from broken bones and lacerations, and eight people were detained, KENS5-TV reports.

It’s unclear whether the attacks were related to an hours-long gun battle a day earlier between cartel members and Tamaulipas State Police in Nuevo Laredo. The shootout prompted Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar to warn residents on Facebooks to avoid crossing the border in to Mexico.

Shooting captured on a live-streaming video on YouTube.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A former FBI agent who was serving as a voluntary clergy security guard reportedly fatally shot a gunman who opened fire at a Texas Church on Sunday.

The quick actions of the security guard were caught on a video that the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement was live-streaming on YouTube around 10:50 a.m.

The gunman, who had a rifle stashed under his coat, fatally shot two people before the church security guard quickly returned fire. The identity of the security guard has not yet been identified.

Another congregant, who also was serving as a voluntary security guard, returned fire as well, according to media reports.

“Two of the parishioners who were volunteers of the security force drew their weapons and took out the killer immediately, saving untold number of lives,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at a press conference.

Former FBI agent and security expert Greg Shaffer said the quick response by armed guards demonstrates that more houses of worship should consider armed security.

“This incident certainly drives home the critical need of having an armed response,” Shaffer told 5NBC-TV. “Had they not been there, there would have been dozens upon dozens of casualties in that church.”