Border Patrol has a busy day Tuesday in Luna County.

 

Mark Winder, who lives just outside the village of Columbus about 2 1/2 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, thought the Mexican army had invaded Tuesday night.

A helicopter churned overhead and a fleet of official vehicles converged on his home between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Tuesday, the Deming Headlight reported on its Web site.

But it was just the U.S. Border Patrol on what spokesman Doug Mosier told the Headlight was "a routine border operation" that nabbed four illegal immigrants.

It was an especially busy day for Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector, which covers West Texas and all of New Mexico. Agents apprehended a total of 73 illegals in Luna County alone, Mosier told the paper.

The area around Winder's home has been especially busy, too. Border Patrol agents and State Police have been called twice in recent weeks to investigate property damage presumably caused by illegal border-crossers, the Headlight said.

But the Mexican army?

Given the recent reports of incursions across the border by men wearing what appear to be Mexican military uniforms, it may make folks along the border a little jumpy.

And the last full-scale attack on the United States -- before the terrorist strikes on Sept. 11, 2001 -- occurred right there in the neighborhood, when Mexican irregulars under the command of Pancho Villa stormed through Columbus in 1916.

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