25 Border Patrol Agents Assaulted in June

Undocumented immigrants remove items of clothing while being searched by U.S. Border Patro
File Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Criminal aliens assaulted Border Patrol agents 25 times in the month of June, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials reported. Since the beginning of this fiscal year, 583 have faced violence.

Assaults on Border Patrol agents continue at an alarming rate. Year-to-date numbers for Fiscal Year 2017 show an 84 percent increase over the first eight months of the previous year. The report comes at a time where the number of CBP officers being assaulted dropped dramatically over the prior year. Attacks on CBP officers assigned to the Office of Field Operations fell by 31 percent (29 assaults) while Air and Marine Operations officers went down by 47 percent (8 assaults).

On June 10, Breitbart Texas reported on a particularly disturbing assault where an off-duty agent was found along a roadway with serious injuries to his head, chest, and hands. That agent is assigned to the Deming, New Mexico, station in the El Paso Sector.

While the agent appeared to have been kidnapped from his home and brutally assaulted, investigators believe the assault is “related to the agent’s employment as a law enforcement officer.” CBP officials initially avoided mentioning the kidnapping aspect of the case, Breitbart Texas reported. Breitbart Texas learned the FBI suspected Sergio Ivan Quinonez-Venegas, an illegal alien previously deported three times, to be behind the kidnapping.

On June 19, Breitbart Texas reported the suspects in the kidnapping and assault of the agent were captured. Officials disclosed the suspects attacked the agent with a machete. Officials identified the second suspect as Fernando Puga, a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The suspects allegedly struck the agent multiple times about the head and arms with the machete. One of the suspects was also armed with a gun.

A few days later, Breitbart Texas reported on the assault of another agent in the El Centro Sector near Calexico, California. During an attempt to apprehend an illegal alien who just crossed the border, a fight broke out, and the suspect kicked the agent in the face several times, officials stated. The agent received first aid in the field and was transported to an area hospital for treatment of his injuries.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised swift and sure prosecution for any migrant assaulting an agent during an April speech to agents and CBP officers in Arizona, Breitbart Texas reported.

Under Sessions’ memorandum issued that same day, the AG promised, “Prosecution to the extent practicable cases of assault, resisting, or impeding officers engaged in the performance of their duties in administrative and criminal immigration enforcement.”

“There will be legal consequences anytime a person assaults or attempts to assault a Border Patrol agent,” El Centro Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David S. Kim said in a written statement.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

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