Three migrants have been arrested after they allegedly attacked and killed a Mexican border agent when he asked to see their identification papers, authorities said.
The federal agent, identified as Luis Alberto Olivas García, was ambushed Monday at a checkpoint in the northern state of Chihuahua, across the border from El Paso, Texas, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.
The slain immigration agent suffered an apparent head injury in the assault, with his body also showing “signs of violence,” authorities said.
Two Venezuelan men were taken into custody later Monday, according to state investigators.
The third suspect, a Colombian national, was also detained over the fatal attack, the Mexican migration agency said in a separate statement.
No charges had been filed as of late Monday.
The agent had only just been recognized for his 30 years of service to the federal agency prior to his death, Chihuahua security ministry, Jorge Armendárizm told the New York Times.
Olivas García’s death marked a rare case of deadly violence against agents just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is expected when he takes office on Jan. 20.
The fatality comes, too, as hundreds of migrants waited in long lines outside an immigration office in southern Mexico on Monday in a bid to legally enter the US before Trump returns to power.
With Post wires