Several US Border Patrol agents have described how the horrors they encounter on the job – including decomposing bodies and raped children – while being overwhelmed by waves of migrants under the Biden administration are driving up suicide rates among their agents.
Disgruntled agents working on the U.S.-Mexico border have described their harrowing encounters in wide-ranging interviews. free press On Wednesday, he detailed how the situation is leading to a spiraling mental health crisis.
“We regularly see things that people should never see – decomposing human remains, abuse of all kinds, dead and dying infants and children,” said one veteran Border Patrol agent, who asked not to be named.
“You know what that does to you over time? You have to shut down parts of yourself in order to keep moving forward.”
Another agent, identified only as Juan, said he has come across rape stories almost every day since becoming a Border Patrol agent in Rio Grande, Texas, just before President Biden was elected.
“I had to sit there and listen to a 13-year-old girl from El Salvador tell how she was raped twice by smugglers,” he said.
“She was traveling with her 9-year-old brother, and the smuggler said he would harm the boy if she didn’t cooperate. So she let him do whatever he wanted.”
The number of migrants arriving at the southern border is staggering, exceeding 7.6 million since Biden took office in January 2021. According to Customs and Border Protection statistics — has turned investigators’ work into an exhausting, never-ending stream of captures, processing, interviews and paperwork, investigators previously told the Post.
In 2022, 14 of the agency’s 25,000 employees will commit suicide, nearly double the number of suicides recorded in 2020, before Biden took office, and triple the number of suicides recorded in 2014. The suicide rate is twice that of all U.S. law enforcement agencies.
The Border Patrol does not release suicide numbers, and it is unclear how many people will commit suicide in 2023.
Chris Klemm, who retired last year as chief border patrol agent in Arizona’s Yuma area, said many agents have become “kind of numb” due to horrific encounters and a general sense of abandonment by the Biden administration. Told.
“A lot of agents are just trying to go to work and survive,” Klem said, “and that’s not where you want to be when you’re in law enforcement.”
Others, however, have accused the Biden administration of forcing impossible moral choices in the short term as tens of thousands of migrants are allowed to cross the border.
“There is someone right in front of you asking for asylum, holding a young girl’s hand, smiling at you, saying to your face the same lines you have been taught to say to get into the country. How would you feel if a man was lying to you, even though his rap sheet showed he had been arrested for sexually abusing minors, including young girls? One of Chino’s former agents said:
“If you separate the child, she will scream and be traumatized. If you leave them together, there is a very high risk that she will be sexually traumatized again. Please tell me, Which trauma is less evil?
In April of this year, an average of 6,000 migrants were encountered each day at the southern border. In December 2023, the number averaged just under 10,000 per day, according to CBP numbers.
At least seven agents who spoke to the media anonymously said they and their colleagues would not tell their superiors about possible depression or suicidal thoughts because it would likely damage their careers.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, added that agents who request help are typically reassigned to desk work, which results in a significant cut in pay because they don’t get overtime pay.
“Why would you do that?” he said when asked why more agents are not seeking help for their mental health.
However, a Border Patrol spokesperson said in a statement: “We are committed to maintaining morale to support our frontline personnel and ensuring that our resilient workforce has the resources available to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Securing this is a top priority for CBP leadership.”
