Border Patrol Host Dangers of Crossing the Border Illegally

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

El Paso (News Release) - U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector conducted a border safety media event Tuesday at the border to highlight the dangers illegal migrants face when entrusting themselves to transnational criminal organizations to illegally smuggle them across the border.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents in the El Paso Sector continue to see illegal migrants attempting to cross the border illegally, unaware of the substantial dangers and consequences involved.

The U.S.-Mexico Border is filled with a myriad of challenges and dangers, and when encounters rise, so does the possibility of rescues and deaths of migrants who choose to make the dangerous journey. Fiscal year to date (FY2023), the El Paso Sector has performed more than 149 migrant rescues and unfortunately have recorded more than 29 migrant deaths.

Throughout the years the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso Sector has seen different human smuggling tactics used by transnational criminal organizations that endanger migrants. These include abandoning migrants in the mountains or desert, compelling migrants to scale 30ft border barriers and removing makeshift ladders from underneath them, or encouraging migrants to cross rivers or canals that have dangerous currents. Criminal organizations exploit vulnerable individuals for monetary gain. They do not care about the migrant’s safety or wellbeing.

Many migrants who fall victim to the criminal organizations are later utilized as smugglers or sex workers themselves to pay off their debt to that organization. They often find themselves in debt bondage for their illegal crossing fee. This past year, migrants who were awaiting their asylum or immigration hearings, were intercepted as smuggling load drivers, and thus charged with the federal crime for the smuggling scheme. A recent stash house in Socorro was found to have young women being forced into sex trafficking.

In addition, transnational criminal organizations also recruit and exploit juvenile drivers to further the smuggling of migrants into the United States.  At times, these drivers are told to fail to yield and disobey law enforcement unaware of the consequences and the risks of doing so. They are told by criminal organizations to drive away at a high rate of speed that often end up in serious or deadly accidents, thus endangering themselves, the migrants in the vehicle and other innocent people in our border communities and highways.

FY23 year to date, El Paso Sector Anti-Smuggling Units have intercepted more than 169 stash houses with over 2,501 smuggled migrants from deplorable conditions.  FY22 resulted in 237 stash house busts with 2,592 migrants intercepted. Transnational Criminal Organizations consistently place profit over the health and welfare of the smuggled migrants.

The summer and winter months also present inherent dangers due to exposure during the hot or cold weather of those seasons. Many migrants have died from dehydration or hyperthermia as they callously get left behind in remote areas by smugglers.

To counter the ruthless actions of smugglers, El Paso Sector has installed 17 rescue beacons and more than 520 “911 placards” throughout the Sector in an effort to provide lifesaving rescues to migrants. In addition, the El Paso Sector continues place humanitarian efforts at the forefront with more than150 EMT and Paramedic certified Border Patrol Agent to provide care to migrants in physical distress.

“Attempting to enter the United States illegally comes with inherent dangers” said El Paso Sector Chief Anthony Scott Good. “Transnational Criminal Organizations continue to exploit migrants for financial gain without any regard for their safety. The inhumane and deplorable treatment of migrants by criminal human smugglers and squalid conditions found in stash houses are testaments to the disregard these criminals have for lives of people they attempt to smuggle.”