Border Patrol Rescues 5 Gunshot Migrants After Crossing into Texas

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents provided life-saving medical treatments to five migrants who had been shot in Mexico during the process of being smuggled to the United States. The group crossed the border with six other migrants.

McAllen Station agents responded to an illegal border crossing near Hidalgo, Texas, shortly after midnight on October 4, according to information obtained by Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials. Agents arrived and found a group of 11 migrants.

Officials say five of the migrants sustained gunshot wounds while being smuggled in Mexico and before entering the United States. The agents went to work immediately by providing life-saving medical treatments.

Sometime later, Hidalgo Police Department officers and local emergency medical teams arrived to transport the migrants to a local hospital.

Officials report that an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shootings is underway.

“This encounter serves as yet another reminder of the dangers migrants face when they place their well-being in the hands of smugglers who are only interested in turning a profit,” Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings said in a written statement. “Smugglers routinely place migrants in dangerous situations where they are at risk of drowning, exposure to the elements, and assault.”

In a separate incident, Kingsville Station agents found an abandoned migrant with severe injuries on a ranch near Kingsville, Texas. The agents reported the migrant had a black eye, swollen neck, numerous ant bites, and was suffering from severe hydration.

The severity of the migrant’s injuries required he be airlifted to a regional hospital, Chief Hastings tweeted.