From the few facts being released it sounds as if the agent was purposefully run down by a one of two vehicles that crossed the border illegally from Mexico. From Fox News:

YUMA, Ariz. — A Border Patrol agent trying to stop a vehicle that had illegally entered the U.S. was struck and killed Saturday in southeastern California, agency officials said.

The agent was killed about 20 miles west of Yuma in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a spot along the border that is popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts and frequently used by smugglers.

The agent attempted to impede the vehicle’s progress before he was hit, but the Border Patrol did not immediately have more information, said agent Eric Anderson, a spokesman for the agency’s Yuma sector.

The name of the agent killed was not immediately released because his family had not been notified.

Witnesses told the Yuma Sun newspaper that agents were chasing a Hummer and a Ford pickup on Interstate 8 when the vehicles turned into the dunes and fled toward Mexico. The agent was trying to place spike strips in their path and was struck by the Hummer, they said.

The Imperial Sand Dunes are the largest dunes in California, extending north of the border for 40 miles and averaging five miles wide.

The fact that the vehicle was a Hummer makes me think this was a drug run, as coupled with the Ford pickup it couldn’t have possibly been carrying enough illegal aliens to make it worth the time of the drivers. Added to that the seeming impunity of killing law enforcement officers and I think it’s a sure bet this was a drug run gone bad.

I guess a fence would have prevented this tragedy, and the agent could be home with his family right now. But don’t tell that to ex-Pandagonian Ilyka Damen, she thinks it would interfere with land grants the Spanish crown made to European immigrants and thus is un-American. It’s not as if the Mexican and American people fought wars to drive Spain out of the Americas or anything.

You know Ilyka, the Spanish crown also granted many of the subjects in “New Spain” the power to own slaves. I reckon that means some of your old money friends can keep buying and selling people without the very un-libertarian 14th Amendment interfering with their “civil liberties.”

Don’t get me wrong, the government should have to pay for land use, and I’m not one to dismiss property rights, but illegal immigration has severe consequences, so rational people should be able to agree to securing the border. An unsecured border, policed by an underfunded and outgunned security force, is an invitation to these sorts of tragedies.