Mexican national admits to assaulting border agent

McALLEN — A 28-year-old Mexican national pleaded guilty Monday to assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year during a failed arrest attempt.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Garcia, of Villa De Ramos, S.L.P., Mexico, faces up to 20 years in prison for the attack, which fractured the agent’s left shoulder.

Gonzalez told authorities he was one of three men in a pickup truck who agents pulled over Dec. 13 just outside Roma, according to court documents.

When agents discovered he was in the country illegally and tried to arrest him, Gonzalez resisted, knocking himself and the arresting agent to the ground. The impact injured the federal law enforcement officer.

Authorities arrested Gonzalez a short time later nearby. He has remained in custody since his arrest.

Gonzalez was previously detained and deported in August 2006 after illegally entering the United States through Laredo.

In 2005, he served 10 months in a U.S. federal prison for smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States.

Assaults on Border Patrol agents working the nation's Southwestern border continue to rise as the nation takes a tougher stance on illegal immigration.

During fiscal year 2007, the agency reported a total of 987 attacks with weapons including rocks, vehicles, guns and Molotov cocktails, according to U.S. Customs and Border

Protection statistics. That number marks a substantial increase over 2006’s total of 752.

But incidents of violence in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, a region that extends from Brownsville to Roma, have remained relatively few and minor, according to agency reports.

Gonzalez awaits sentencing at a June 6 hearing.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.