Brewer Falsely Attributes Agent’s Death to Border Security Failure

Luke Witman writes for Examiner.com

Today, friends and family laid to rest slain U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent Nicholas Ivie, who was tragically killed last week while on duty outside of Bisbee, Ariz. Ivie’s death was the result of a critical and still not entirely understood misstep on the agent’s part, but nonetheless, the tragedy has become a political rallying point for those campaigning for increased security at the Arizona-Sonora border.

On October 2, Ivie and another agent responded to an activated sensor in an area of dense vegetation in rural Cochise County. Apparently unbeknownst to Ivie, two other agents were already in the immediate vicinity of the sensor. It is unclear what caused him to act in this way, but Ivie fired shots at the other CBP agents, unaware that he was firing at fellow CBP officers. Ivie wounded one of the other agents, before she or he fired back, killing him. Nobody outside of the four CBP agents was involved in the incident that precipitated Ivie’s death.

The heartbreaking shooting death of Nicholas Ivie highlights the dangerous nature of the job that CBP agents have, patrolling rugged and isolated stretches of desert, often in the dark. However, some in Arizona have used this tragedy to highlight another, somewhat more nebulous threat to the state: the perceived dangers of encroaching Mexican drug cartels.

Immediately following the announcement of Ivie’s death, Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer released a statement. It began by simply offering condolences to the slain agent’s family. But she then immediately seized on the death as a platform from which to launch into her political criticism of Pres. Obama and his stance on border security. “This ought not only be a day of tears. There should be anger, too,” wrote Brewer, “ Righteous anger…at the federal failure and political stalemate that has left our border unsecured and our Border Patrol in harm’s way.” Without proper knowledge of the precise circumstances surrounding Ivie’s death, Brewer seemed to automatically assume that his slaying was the result of Mexican criminals illegally filtering across the border. Read more…

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