Assaults on Border Patrol Agents Up 64 Percent in July

Assaults by criminal aliens against Border Patrol agents increased 64 percent in July over the previous month. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reported 41 agents as victims of assault for the month.

The July cases bring the total number of agents assaulted during Fiscal Year 2017 to 624. The report indicates an increase of 80 percent over the same period in the previous year, CBP officials reported on Friday afternoon.

With two months to go in the fiscal year beginning on October 1, 2016, the total number of assaults against CBP officers and Border Patrol agents (668) has already exceeded the 585 assaulted in FY 2016. This is the largest amount covered in the 6-year report and is the fourth straight year of increasing assaults.

During the FY 2017, assaults on CBP Office of Field Operations officers rose to 36 while only eight Air and Marine Operations officers were attacked. Both of these statistics represent dramatic drops over the previous year, officials reported.

During the Obama Administration, Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors frequently would not prosecute assaults on Border Patrol agents unless the case required medical attention. This reluctance to prosecute has changed under President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised swift and sure prosecution for any illegal alien assaulting an agent during an April before CBP personnel in Arizona, Breitbart Texas reported.

Under Sessions’ memorandum issued that same day, the AG promised, “Prosecution to the extent practicable cases of assault, resisting, or impeding officers engaged in the performance of their duties in administrative and criminal immigration enforcement.”

It does not currently appear the threat of prosecution is having the desired deterrent effect.