Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORSTAR) agents rescued a Honduran migrant who suffered a gunshot wound while traveling through Mexico. The man managed to survive the injury long enough to struggle across the border where agents found him in the Arizona desert.
A Border Patrol agent assigned to the Casa Grande Station in the Tucson Sector discovered the 24-year-old Honduran national lying next to the road running parallel to the Mexican border. The agent learned the man had been shot and called BORSTAR paramedics to assist the wounded migrant, according to information provided to Breitbart Texas by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.
The agent learned the Honduran was shot three days earlier while traveling through Mexico. The wounded man applied two tourniquets en route. BORSTAR agents arrived via a CBP Air and Marine Operations helicopter. The agents, trained in emergency medical treatment, stabilized the migrant and transported him to a Tucson area hospital for evaluation and medical care.
Police officers from the Tohono O-odham Police Department are investigating the incident.
BORSTAR is an elite group of Border Patrol agents with specialized training in search and rescue, emergency medicine, and tactical law enforcement actions, according to the unit’s website. The agency created the group in 1998 in response to the growing number of injuries to Border Patrol agents in the field and the frequency of migrants requiring emergency medicine after becoming lost in the desert. The team is comprised of experienced Border Patrol agents selected from all sectors of the agency. Advanced training for the BORSTAR candidates receive training in emergency medical; tactical medicine; technical rope rescue; paramedic; austere medic; load planner; helicopter rope suspension training; rescue watercraft/boat operator; cold-weather operations; personnel recovery; small unit tactics; tactical combat casualty care; operations management and planning; and advanced dive, swift-water, and technical rope rescue operations.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.