New Hunting Rules After Border Investigation

Some El Paso hunters are following a new set of rules due to a Thursday evening incident involving armed Mexican authorities. Border Patrol officials said Mexican federal officers illegally crossed into El Paso. Border Patrol officials investigating the incursion are setting new guidelines to protect El Pasoans.

Ryan Augusto hunts doves along the Rio Grande. He said news of the incident won’t stop him from enjoying his hobby. “I don’t feel threatened. I mean, we’re hunters, we’re armed, too,” he said.

Augusto said he’s used to going through the access gate near the Ysleta-Zaragoza Port of Entry whenever he wants, after checking in with the Border Patrol agent on duty. As of Friday, however, that access gate will have new time restrictions.

“The gate is going to be locked at 8 p.m. and it’s going to be re-opened at 6 in the morning,” said Sally Spener, a spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission. “(Border Patrol) wants to try to minimize any problems that can occur during the night time.”

What kinds of problems? An ABC-7 viewer contacted the station early Thursday, saying her son, husband and friends were hunting on the Rio Grande levy on the U.S. side when men on the Mexico side fired shots, narrowly missing them. She said more men on the Mexico side drove up with automatic weapons and into to U.S. side. She said the armed men, “fired weapons and stole hunters’ chairs and drove back into Mexico.”

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier confirmed armed officers with Mexico’s Secretaria de Seguridad Publica federal police were spotted crossing into El Paso without permission.

The Mexican government, Border Patrol and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are investigating the incident.

“Upon approach, our agents observed those subjects (Mexican officers) who committed the incursion return back to Mexico,” Mosier said.

Mosier said that at no point of the initial investigation were there any allegations of shots being fired at subjects on the U.S. side of the border, nor is there any information to suggest that any personal items were stolen from the U.S. side of the international boundary.

“We remain in constant and direct contact with our partners in the government of Mexico as the investigation unfolds,” said Mosier. He said the new guidelines at the access gate will be in place until further notice.

“The areas are still open for hunting, but people just have to be aware of the hours when it is appropriate to be out there,” said Spener.

For more information on the hunting rules, check out this link: Link:International Boundary and Water Commission Guidelines For Borderland Hunters