Migrant deaths have increased for a second year along the U.S.-Mexico border in West Texas and southern New Mexico. The personal and economic impact on migrant families of losing their loved ones, who are often the breadwinners, is immense. There is also a hidden toll on the border agents who find the bodies of migrants or who are unable to save the ones they find barely alive, USA Today reports. Through Friday, 175 migrants have died in Border Patrol's El Paso Sector in the year that ended Monday. That broke last year's record of 149 deaths here, a number many times higher than five years ago, when 10 migrants died in a year. It's one of the contributing factors to a mental health crisis that has led U.S. Customs and Border Protection to drastically expand support for agents over the last 18 months after 15 agents committed suicide in 2022.
As a first line of mental health defense, the Border Patrol has always had access to the chaplaincy program and volunteer "peer support" agents. Peer support agents are now receiving additional training on recognizing the signs of a mental health crisis. CBP has also hired six psychologists with offices in Border Patrol stations, and the agency plans to hire more. Uniformed agents are now assigned as "resilience specialists" to create ties between the psychologists and field agents. Last year, CBP launched a K-9 program specifically designed to support agent mental health. The agency has created ancillary programs to help agents better manage stress, including back-up child care and pet care programs, financial education programs, and "family days" where agency leadership can ensure spouses are aware of the resources available to agents and their families. In the most serious cases, the agency has also made a crucial change to a policy that prevented agents from asking for help, removing the punitive risk they faced in permanently losing their badge and gun. This year, through Sept. 11, seven Border Patrol agents have committed suicide, including one in El Paso. "Even one is too many," Chief Patrol Agent Scott Good said.
Comentarios