Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Third in a series
Unprecedented increases in the numbers of migrant deaths and rescues have contributed to equally unprecedented levels of stress for Border Patrol agents, officials say.
Acting Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Juan Bernal spoke to the
830 Times recently about how historic levels of illegal immigration seen over the past few years have affected the migrants, their families and his agents and their families.
Bernal said in Fiscal Year 2022, which ran from Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022, the Del Rio Sector of the Border Patrol, which encompasses 47 counties in south and central Texas, recorded 256 migrant deaths and its agents rescued 2,696 migrants who found themselves in life-threatening danger during or after crossing into the country illegally.
So far in Fiscal Year 2023, from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023, Del Rio Sector agents have recovered the bodies of 110 migrants and rescued 1,059 migrants.
“That’s a very tragic situation to be in, and it’s impacting our agents. . . the mental health of the first responders. Speaking for the federal agents, because that’s who I’m responsible for here at the Del Rio Sector, we have seen an increase in the number of employees who need some type of therapy, clinician assistance,” Bernal said.
One of the ways the Del Rio Sector is countering the increasing levels of stress is through the use of a therapy dog, Bernal said.
“Our therapy dog is primarily here for federal employees and their families, however through our community outreach and our community liaison, we’ll send her to the schools and we’ll send her to other situations where there’s a family in need, and we think we can help,” the chief said.
Del Rio Sector agents have encountered other unique stressors over the past few years, Bernal said.
“What I worry about as the chief of the Del Rio Sector, is that this is the sector that has been heavily impacted by the school shooter situation in Uvalde. The Del Rio Sector employees were heavily impacted, as were the family members there. The Haitian migration incident under the bridge (in 2021) was extremely stressful. That was unprecedented, the numbers we had to deal with there,” Bernal said.
“For us to make it through that (situation), not alone, but with the assistance of our partners in the community, we made it through that without a single life being lost. In fact, we delivered several babies there,” he added.
Adding to the stress of the Haitian immigration incident was the fact that Border Patrol agents were criticized for using members of its horse patrol on-site. Despite several findings regarding the incident, an internal Customs and Border Protection investigation later determined that no member of the Border Patrol’s horse patrol here struck any migrant with whips or horse reins, as was widely – and inaccurately – reported in some media outlets.
Those negative media reports, Bernal said, also had corresponding negative impacts on agents’ morale.
“The agents don’t do what they do for accolades and recognition, however, they also don’t do what they do to be slammed. And instead of gratitude, all you heard from everybody, the media, politicians and everybody else, was about the ‘whipping’ incident.
“We treated everyone with dignity and respect. Was it chaotic? Was it difficult? Was it hot? Did tempers flare on occasion? All things considered, we handled that situation as well as it could have been handled, and it was a huge success,” Bernal said.
“But to consistently be attacked in the media because of the ‘horse incident,’ that just added to the morale impacts and the compounding effects of all the tragedy we’re seeing, the dead bodies in the field, the drownings, the shooting in Uvalde,” Bernal said.
Another facet of the unprecedented increases in illegal immigration is a rise in the number of sexual assaults of migrants being reported to Border Patrol agents.
“That’s concerning to us. I don’t know if there are more of them or if they’re just being reported more frequently. We’re at about 30 (reported sexual assaults) for the year, to Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents from migrants, 30 different instances of rape or sexual abuse that have been reported. I don’t know how many there have been that are not reported, but 30 have been reported to us,” Bernal said.
“Most of those, just about all of them, are reported to have happened somewhere in their journey, south of the border, in a foreign country, so that makes it even more complicated, because typically we’d call the local sheriff’s office or the police, and they come, they respond, do a rape kit, conduct a rape investigation, and they try to identify the subject responsible.
“If this is happening in some foreign country, that just make it even more challenging. We are working with our foreign partners, we are collecting as much evidence as possible, and we’re trying to identify who’s responsible for this because 23 of those 30 have happened in the last 90 days, so is there a serial rapist out there somewhere? Or are there just more of them being reported?
“Some of them are happening as they’re coming up through the Darien Gap (in Panama), some of them are happening in the Northern Triangle countries, and some of them are happening farther along on their journey, so we are keeping an eye on that, but that is also having an impact, since it’s my agents that are having to interview these women and men, and there are some men who have reported being raped as well, and that’s traumatic. Having to listen to that, having to hear that, and some of them have been pretty tragic. We’re talking young girls and their mothers, at the same time, things like that.
“So nothing that anybody wants to hear, and again, it’s just continuously impacting the mental health of our agents and what they’re having to deal with,” Bernal said.
The chief said one method the Border Patrol is making it easier for agents to assist migrants who get into trouble in the remote and dangerous parts of the sector is the placement of rescue beacons.
“We’re putting rescue beacons in locations we feel would be beneficial for migrants who are about to take a long trek or who may find themselves in need of assistance. The rescue beacons have some signage on them. They have some information on them, like GPS coordinates, a description of where you are, in case you want to take a picture of it, and they also have a switch that the migrant can hit, so the signage is in foreign languages, so it tells them where to push the button, and we tried to make the signage as universal as possible,” Bernal said
“It sends a signal to our sector dispatch. We know exactly where they’re at and what they need. There’s cameras set up so we can know who pushed the button. There’s also phone chargers on the beacon, so even if you choose not to seek help, and you just need to charge your phone, then you can charge your phone, and what they may result in is that 15 miles later, you may need help and now you don’t have a dead phone.
Border Patrol agents on search and rescue teams responding to migrants who get into trouble, the agency also has emergency medical technician-trained agents, Bernal said.
“They receive a little bit more advanced training. We have basics all the way up to paramedics in the field, so they’re there not only for the safety and the medical needs of the migrants, but our own employees who may find themselves in emergency distress, medical distress, and for U.S. citizens, such as people involved in traffic accidents or ranchers in distress. We’re usually there before EMS because we’re already out there. We’re there for everyone, whoever needs us,” Bernal said.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
NEWS – Part 1 Record number of crossings, record numbers of deaths – 830Times
NEWS – Part 2 Border Patrol agents rescue migrants on deadly journey – 830Times
