Assaults on Border Patrol Agents Up 15 Percent in August

Criminal aliens assaulted Border Patrol agents 47 times in August. This represents an increase of 15 percent over the previous month.

Broder Patrol agents remain among the most assaulted federal law enforcement officials, according to Congressional testimony from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Assaults of Border Patrol agents by illegal aliens attempting to evade arrest occurred 671 times this fiscal year, an increase of 67 percent over the same period in the previous year, according to information obtained from CBP by Breitbart Texas.

This is a dramatic number when compared to assaults on other officers under the umbrella of CBP. Officers were assaulted only 39 times this fiscal year and officers in the Air and Marine Operations division only 10. These numbers represent a decrease in assaults of 30 and 63 percent respectively, CBP reports indicate.

The assaults on Border Patrol agents increased despite the fact that border apprehensions are down by 24 percent in year-to-date comparisons.

Fiscal Year 2016 set a record for the total number of CBP law enforcement officers assaulted during the past five years. A total of 585 agents and officers became victims of assault while attempting to secure the borders and ports of the United States. This year dramatically eclipsed that number with a total of 720 officers and agents assaulted. This with one month left to go in Fiscal Year 2017.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised swift and sure prosecution for any illegal alien assaulting an agent during a speech in 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 remains to be seen if that threat will act as a deterrent to protect Border Patrol agents from assault.