{"id":16170,"date":"2018-01-09T15:30:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T20:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16170"},"modified":"2018-12-28T11:42:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T16:42:49","slug":"border-patrol-agents-facing-increased-incidents-violence-assaults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/01\/09\/border-patrol-agents-facing-increased-incidents-violence-assaults\/","title":{"rendered":"Border Patrol Agents Facing Increased Incidents of Violence, Assaults"},"content":{"rendered":"
The good news coming from border patrol agents is that the number of apprehensions of illegal aliens along the border declined dramatically last year. Unfortunately, the number of assaults on United States Customs and Border Patrol (USCBP) agents has increased significantly.<\/p>\n
While the Trump administration\u2019s \u201csimple promise to enforce the laws\u201d resulted in fewer people entering the country illegally, there was 76 percent increase in violence toward and assaults on border patrol agents in 2017, according to Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not a day that goes by where at least one Agent is not being sent to the hospital,\u201d Judd said at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security.<\/p>\n
A total of 786 agents were assaulted in FY2017, which ended on September 30. In the first two months of FY 2018,\u00a096 Border Patrol agents<\/a>\u00a0were assaulted in the line of duty.<\/p>\n \u201cAs National President, I am typically called when an Agent is seriously assaulted. I have to tell you, when my phone rings in the middle of the night my heart skips a beat,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Judd said the driving force behind the violence is the drug cartels, criminal aliens trying to reenter the United States, and a deficit in manpower.<\/p>\n Over the years cross border crime, including human smuggling, has grown into a multi-billion industry, so cartels and gangs now have the financial resources to evade law enforcement, including building elaborate tunnels and hiding spaces in trucks.<\/p>\n The level of their activity can be seen in two recent reports.<\/p>\n