ROMA — Despite the decrease in border apprehensions reported last month, U.S. Border Patrol hosted a mock rescue event Thursday to stress the dangerous trek migrants face during their journey north.
ROMA — Despite the decrease in border apprehensions reported last month, U.S. Border Patrol hosted a mock rescue event Thursday to stress the dangerous trek migrants face during their journey north.
“Our current stats show that smugglers are becoming more brazen as their profits are beginning to dwindle,” said Marlene Castro, supervisory Border Patrol agent with the public affairs office.
“More and more these ruthless criminals are endangering immigrants’ lives by exposing them to harsh terrain … and leaving them behind when profit margins are being threatened.”
The demonstration of the mock search and rescue is part of their Border Safety Initiative.
Last year, the event was held in Falfurrias but Sector Chief Manuel Padilla said the agency has seen an increase in the number of deaths happening in the water.
During the simulation, agents from the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue, or BORSTAR unit, portrayed how agents would respond if migrants, traveling along the river, were to fall into the water.
The agents instructed the distressed individuals to swim toward them, which is safer than having the agents jump in after them.
If the individual cannot reach the riverbank, an agent swims in after the person and brings him or her to land where the agents provide medical attention.
In a second scenario, the agents responded to a migrant discovered among the brush who had fallen unconscious from the heat.
The first priority is to help them cool down which they do so by delivering fluids via an IV.
The next step is to get the individual to an ambulance to transport them to a hospital as soon as possible.
“The preservation of life supersedes any law enforcement action so when the agents come across a situation where somebody is in the danger of losing their life, that is our primary focus,” Padilla said.
“It is the right human thing to do and it is just plainly the right thing to do.”
For the 2016 fiscal year, Padilla said there were about 14,000 rescues but unfortunately still had 130 deaths.
So far for 2017, there were 573 rescues and 56 deaths.
In response to the deaths, Padilla said they began the Missing Migrant Initiative.
The initiative, which began in the Arizona sector and was later expanded to other border regions, is meant to help reunite missing migrants with their families.
The initiative has four objectives: prevention, locate, identification and reunification, said Officer Hugo Vega, who was brought on to lead the initiative in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector last July.
“The way we see it is we don’t believe that the price for crossing the border illegally should be death,” Vega said.
“So that’s our responsibility as public servants to address that and bring an expedited response to those in need.”
