Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
This is the first in a 3-Part Series. Parts 2 and 3 will run Friday and Sunday.
Record numbers of illegal border crossings are resulting in hundreds of migrant deaths, Border Patrol officials say.
Acting Del Rio Sector Border Patrol Chief Juan Bernal spoke to the 830 Times recently about the dangers waiting for migrants attempting to cross the border illegally, saying the Border Patrol urges migrants not to make the trip.
The Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector includes 47 counties in south and central Texas, and its agents are responsible for patrolling 245 miles of the Texas-Mexico border along the Rio Grande and Lake Amistad, according to the Customs and Border Protection web site.
Bernal said the high number of migrant deaths stems from the record numbers of migrants illegally crossing the border.
“In Fiscal Year 2021 (Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021), we had 259,000 apprehensions in the Del Rio Sector, which was more than the nine previous years combined. That was a record-setting year for us. That included the Haitian migration incident under the (Del Rio International) Bridge. It was unprecedented. We thought this would never happen again. It was crazy. Del Rio had never seen these kinds of numbers before,” Bernal said.
“Then Fiscal Year 2022 (Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022) came around, and blew Fiscal Year 2021 out of the water. In Fiscal Year 2022, we had 480,000 apprehensions, almost double what we saw in Fiscal Year 2021,” he said.
Bernal said he believes the Del Rio Sector will end Fiscal Year 2023 with close to 400,000 encounters with migrants.
“We’re at a pace right now to get within 70,000 or so of where we ended last year, so I’m guessing we’ll be close to 400,000, but I don’t think we’ll get near the 480,000 (in) Fiscal Year 2022; at least I’m hoping we don’t,” the chief said.
Along with the record numbers of illegal border crossers come higher numbers of deaths, Bernal said.
“The volume of traffic has led to the deaths. We (had) 256 deaths in Fiscal Year 2022. If you think about it, about 100 more and we would have had a dead body every day. That’s just crazy for a small community like the one that we live in.
“You might expect to see those numbers in huge urban areas like Los Angeles or New York City, somewhere like that, and the 256 deaths are just the ones that Border Patrol recovered. There may be additional numbers out there that our state and local partners encountered that we were not involved in,” Bernal said.
Bernal said he has no doubt the number of migrant deaths is significantly higher, as the Border Patrol also does not tally the number of dead migrants recovered by authorities in Mexico.
“The numbers of deaths related to illegal border crossings in the Del Rio Sector Area of Responsibility are significantly higher than what I’m reporting. I’m just reporting the ones that we recovered ourselves, and 256 deaths is unacceptable. It’s not something that we should be dealing with, and we would have so many more if it weren’t for our rescue efforts,” Bernal said.
The chief said migrants face a terrifying number of hazards as they cross into the United States.
“They’re traveling from South or Central America, maybe European countries, overseas somewhere. They’re not sleeping well. They’re not eating well. They’re staying in unhealthy conditions before they even get to the border,” he said.
“And now you get to the border. You’re already in a reduced state of healthiness and hydration and rest, and you’re going to be asked to not only swim across a dangerous river, in some cases, and then if you make that, you may have to walk through 105º, 110º weather, very humid sometimes, depending on the rainfall, and you may have to walk five, 10, 20, 30 miles, in some cases more than that,” Bernal said.
Such a journey would by physically demanding for someone at the peak of health and fitness, Bernal said.
“If your body’s not prepared and ready for that, you’re going to get blisters on your feet, you’re going to be dehydrated. You’re going to succumb to heat-related illness. It’s going to happen, and there’s where we get the 9-1-1 calls, and individuals dying out in the desert,” Bernal said.
He urged migrants to think deeply about the risks associated with trying to enter the country illegally.
“The fact that you’re going to be potentially exploited. Your family is going to be exploited. Financially, it’s going to have a significant impact, and the exploitation continues. They may tell you that they’re going to charge you $2,000, but then they hold you hostage and they ask for more,” Bernal said.
“You may be abused sexually along the way. Physically, you may be abused along the way. You may experience unhealthy, dangerous conditions throughout your journey: overcrowded transportation mechanisms, riding on trains, riding in hot vehicles, getting told to get into hidden compartments not meant for human transport, and all this is happening throughout your journey before you even get to the border,” he said.
“Then you get here, and you end it with a 40-mile trek through very harsh terrain in 110º weather. It’s very important for that message to make it out to the migrants. I don’t think a lot of them realize what they’re about to expose themselves to, and if they had a better idea, I think they might give it a second thought, and maybe they would chose to go the legal route and present themselves at a port of entry,” Bernal said.
The chief said he and his agents don’t want to see migrants being abused. They don’t want to see any migrants die, and dealing with migrants’ life-threatening emergencies also affects the rest of the agency’s mission, Bernal said.
“If we’re focusing our resources on rescuing people and saving people, hospital watch afterwards, where we have to send migrants to be treated, then there’s nobody out there patrolling the border, and the drugs, the weapons, the potential terrorists that are making it back and forth. There’s nobody out there to interdict that, if we’re tied up dealing with humanitarian needs,” Bernal said.
“Nobody wins where illegal immigration is concerned. The migrants don’t win. Homeland security isn’t better off, and of course the agents themselves, who have to deal with the trauma and the stress and everything that comes with what they see out there, so I think there are multiple reasons for this message, starting with the migrants, but also everyone else,” the chief said.
Finally, Bernal said, even migrants who successfully navigate the dangers of entering the country illegally won’t necessarily be allowed to stay. Migrants who are told U.S. borders are open, that they can cross at will and they will be released into the interior of the country may get a rude awakening, he said.
“We are processing everybody under Title 8 (the Border Patrol’s primary immigration authority for individuals who cross between the ports of entry) right now. We are examining their cases. Right now, if there is any reason why you should not remain in the U.S. legally, we are processing you under Title 8 and working with our partners like ERO to remove you to your home country. People are being removed and repatriated,” Bernal said.
“If you just went through this huge ordeal just to be returned to your country and maybe have to do it all over again, with a five-year ban, because after you’re removed, there will be a five-year ban for you to be able to re-enter the country,” Bernal said.
