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MCALLEN, Texas — House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Mike McCaul mentioned he’s “profoundly” alarmed on the influence the continued border crisis is having on Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) brokers’ mental health.
The senior Republican spoke to Fox News Digital within the border metropolis of McAllen, Texas, a bipartisan congressional delegation met with border and immigration officers whereas additionally touring services the place migrants are introduced and their asylum claims processed.
McCaul mentioned the state of the border is “just worse” every time he’s seen it.
“Every time I come down here, it gets worse; the lack of detention space, the human tragedy you see here; what the Border Patrol has to deal with every day, day in and day out, looking at these migrants that are pouring in; this sense of hopelessness, that it won’t stop,” the Texas Republican mentioned.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul spoke with Fox News Digital within the border metropolis of McAllen, Texas, over the weekend. (Elizabeth Elkind)
“Profoundly, I fear concerning the mental health of our border patrol. The suicide fee goes up. They do not have the right assets.”
Seventeen CBP brokers died by suicide in 2022 alone, Chris Cabrera, vp of the National Border Patrol Council, informed Congress in March 2023. That’s the very best quantity since CBP started monitoring it in 2007. There have been 19,357 CPB brokers on the job in 2022.
Since then, the quantity of migrant encounters on the border has continued to see historic highs, most lately this previous December, whereas CBP has struggled considerably to replenish its retiring forces.
A Border Patrol union official mentioned these discarded ladders have been utilized by migrants to scale a 15-foot wall on the border simply ft from the place this picture was taken. (Fox News Digital)
McCaul mentioned the cartels on the opposite facet of the border which might be bringing a relentless circulate of drug and human trafficking are higher geared up, in some methods, than the federal officers patrolling on the U.S. facet.
“For instance, we only have 20 drones here in the Rio Grande Valley sector, and the cartels are way out numbering us. And that’s just eyes and ears on the ground,” McCaul mentioned. “So, we’re not equipping them. But most importantly, more than money, is just the lack of policy.”
Cabrera spoke to the media throughout his latest border go to, describing what he mentioned have been common situations of officers getting overwhelmed.
MEXICAN SOLDIERS FIND FACTORY PRODUCING DRONE BOMBS, GRENADE LAUNCHERS, FAKE MILITARY UNIFORMS
A gap in a fence close to the U.S.-Mexico border is what National Border Patrol Council spokesperson Chris Cabrera mentioned migrants would use after coming into the U.S. illegally. (Elizabeth Elkind)
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“There’s times when you’re out there, two, three agents, and you’ll have 100 people there,” he mentioned.
“But then you also have the medical emergencies: pregnant women, dehydration, kids with illnesses, people that have broken legs along the journey. And then we have people that fall off the wall. So, while we’re dealing with two, three hundred people, or 50 people, you’re also having to deal with medical emergencies and issues like that.”
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