CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – Three suspects were arrested on Monday in the death of a Mexican immigration agent who was found earlier in the day with no signs of life, Mexican state security and immigration officials said.
The agent's death represents a rare case of fatal violence against agents, weeks before an expected crackdown on immigration once US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
State investigators confirmed that the immigration agent suffered a head injury and was found without any vital signs. His body also showed “traces of violence,” according to a statement issued by public security officials in the northern state of Chihuahua.
The statement said that two Venezuelan men were detained.
The Mexican Immigration Agency said in a separate statement that a third suspect, a Colombian citizen, was also arrested.
The killed agent was attacked at a checkpoint south of Ciudad Juarez, which is located across the border from the US city of El Paso, Texas, when he asked an unspecified number of foreign nationals for their identity documents, according to the National Institute of Migration.
The death of the immigration official comes as would-be immigrants await an expected tightening of entry into the United States once Trump takes office on January 20.
Hundreds of U.S.-bound migrants waited in long lines outside an immigration office in southern Mexico on Monday, hoping to secure safe passage north and enter the United States legally before Trump returns to power.
