Mexican police chief asks for US asylum

AP:

The police chief of a Mexican border town racked by smuggling-related violence fled to the U.S. seeking asylum after his deputies abandoned him, federal officials said Friday.

Emilio Perez, the chief of Palomas, Mexico, showed up at the international port of entry in Columbus, N.M., late Tuesday, saying his two deputies had left the department and that he now needed protection, too, according to Doug Mosier, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in El Paso.

Perez was taken in and was believed to be in custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday, according to Mosier. Leticia Zamarripa, an ICE spokeswoman, declined to comment on the case, citing privacy issues.

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Perez's village, just south of the border with New Mexico, was once a relatively quiet town. But violence has increased in the last few years, as it has elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border, and appears to have spiked of late.

On Thursday, the bodies of two people were found wrapped in blankets and dumped along a road near Palomas, and several other people were seen taken hostage over the past few days by heavily armed men, the newspaper El Diario of Juarez, Mexico, reported Friday.

Last month, two men were gunned down at a gas station near the international checkpoint, officials said.

The telephone went unanswered Friday at the Mexican consulate in El Paso, Texas, and at federal police headquarters in the state of Chihuahua — where Palomas is located.

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Are they all looking for asylum or are they too busy fighting the bad guys to answer? The flight of chief Perez is an indication or how perilous law enforcement has become along the Mexican border region. He appears to have been isolated with little back up and support from the federalis. It is hard to blame him for not acting like Shane, but we have to find ways for Mexico to support these guys.