"They're Feeling They Have To Fight Their Way Through Now"

"Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled along the Mexican border over the last year as patrols cracking down on drug trafficking and migrant smuggling encountered increasing resistance - including the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire. At least 687 assaults against agents were reported during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the previous year's total of 354 and the highest since the agency began tracking assaults across the Southwest border in the late 1990s, according to Border Patrol officials," the LA Times says. "To avoid being struck by flying objects, [one agent] said the Border Patrol now planned to cut gun portholes in the second border fence so they could fire pepper ball rounds at smugglers without being exposed. In other dangerous areas, agents drive customized rock-proof vehicles, dubbed war wagons for their armored exterior. Some of the windows are bulletproof."

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