Assaults on Border Patrol Agents Increase 73 Percent in 2017

A year-end report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials reveals a 73 percent increase in the number of Border Patrol agents assaulted by illegal immigrants. A total of 786 agents were assaulted in 324 incidents over the period ending September 30, 2017.

Border Patrol agents are reported to be the most assaulted of all federal law enforcement agents and officers. During FY 2017, 786 agents were assaulted in the line of duty. This is up from 454 the previous year and represents an increase of 73 percent. In comparison, officers and agents in CBPs Office of Field Operations and Air and Marine Units were assaulted 47 and 17 times respectively. Both of those categories saw a significant decrease compared to the previous year. Assaults against AMO were down 80 percent while assaults against OFO were down 23 percent.

In the month of June alone, 25 Border Patrol agents were assaulted in the line of duty by illegal immigrants, Breitbart Texas reported.

On June 10, Breitbart Texas reported on a particularly disturbing assault where an off-duty agent was found along a roadway with serious injuries to his head, chest, and hands. That agent is assigned to the Deming, New Mexico, station in the El Paso Sector.

Assaults against all CBP law enforcement personnel have risen in each of the past four fiscal years. From a low point in FY 2014, the number of assaults has escalated from 373 to 847 — a 127 percent increase.

The number of assaults continues to pile up in the new fiscal year. Breitbart Texas reported on December 1 that three agents in Arizona were assaulted in less than one week. Shortly before that, a Border Patrol agent in southern California had to be hospitalized for a concussion following an assault at a checkpoint. With no explanation, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California have yet to file assault charges in this case.

On Monday, CBP official reported yet another assault on an Arizona agent. Prosecutors charged a 25-year-old Mexican national with assaulting an agent by allegedly kicking him in the head repeatedly as the agent attempted to pull him off a border fence. The agent arrested the fleeing suspect and was then transported to a hospital for evaluation.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised swift and sure prosecution for any migrant assaulting an agent during an April speech to agents and CBP officers 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.”