Border agent shot dead in Arizona, four arrested

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead by suspected smugglers close to the Mexico border in southern Arizona and four suspects have been arrested, authorities said on Wednesday.

Agent Brian A. Terry, 40, was shot dead after he confronted several suspects while on duty in a mountainous area a few miles northwest of the border city of Nogales late on Tuesday night, local and federal police said.

Police arrested at least four suspects, and are searching for another who remains at large, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the Terry family for their tragic loss," CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin said in a statement.

"Our commitment to Agent Terry and his family is that we will do everything possible to bring to justice those responsible for this despicable act," he added.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer ordered state flags flown at half staff in tribute to Terry, a Marine Corps veteran from Detroit, Michigan, who served in the Border Patrol's Tucson sector.

Agents patrolling the sector's 262-mile stretch of the Mexico border make around half of the illegal immigrant arrests and marijuana seizures recorded along the southwest border.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said the assailants were likely smugglers who use the rugged, mountainous area west of Nogales to haul both drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States.

"That area is known to be a smuggling area, both human and drug smuggling, so it was either one of the two more likely," Estrada told Reuters.

The FBI is leading the investigation into the agent's death, with the assistance of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.

The last Border Patrol agent to be killed on duty was Robert Rosas, 30, who was shot to death near Campo in southern California in July 2009. Police caught the killer, who was subsequently jailed for 40 years.

Bailey: "Any of you left wing liberal idiots getting the picture yet of why America has to do something about the illegal Mexicans coming across our border ?"  

White House insists health law rollout unaffected

– Tue Dec 14, 11:39 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The White House insisted Tuesday that the implementation of President Barack Obama's landmark health care law will not be affected by a negative federal court ruling, and the Justice Department said it would appeal.

"There's no practical impact at all as states move forward in implementing ... the law that Congress passed and the president signed," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said that, as expected, the department would appeal Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson in Virginia. Hudson declared that a central provision of the law — the requirement for nearly everyone to carry health insurance — was unconstitutional.

The ruling by the Republican-appointed judge in a high-profile lawsuit by Virginia's Republican attorney general was a setback for the Obama administration, but not a surprise. Two other district court judges, both Democratic appointees, have found the law constitutional.

Obama administration officials noted that consultations with states on implementing the law were moving forward. Later this week officials from all but a handful of states are expected to travel to Washington to meet with the Health and Human Services Department to discuss setting up the state-based insurance marketplaces, called exchanges, required by the new law.

These include officials from many of the 20 states that are simultaneously suing to overturn the law in a fourth case which begins oral arguments Thursday in Florida. Many state officials have concluded that it's better to participate in discussions on implementing the law than not, even if they don't support it. Even so, Republican members of Congress seized on Hudson's ruling to caution states against moving forward.

Central provisions of the law including the exchanges and the requirement for everyone to be insured don't take effect until 2014 anyway. By then the Supreme Court will likely have weighed in with the final verdict on the health law.

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, a Republican, urged the Obama administration Tuesday to join him in seeking to take the cases straight to the Supreme Court, bypassing the appeals process, in order to provide certainty for states and businesses. Such a course is highly unusual, and the Justice Department weighed in against it.

"The department believes this case should follow the ordinary course of allowing the courts of appeals to hear it first so the issues and arguments can be fully developed before the Supreme Court decides whether to consider it," Schmaler said.

Bailey: The above article shows you just how much our Washington politicians have heard our votes. It is pretty bad when they force a law on the majority of people who has voted against! This law was created by a bunch of deadbeat, lazy people who want everything for free and are to sorry to work for it!