After years of decline, the number of violent attacks against U.S. Border Patrol agents is on the rise as the U.S./Mexico border grows more violent.
There were 856 violent assaults on agents in 2017, a marked increase from the 381 recorded in 2014.
But both numbers are lower than the 1,089 assaults recorded in 2010. The low number in 2014 correlates to an explosion in the number of women and children who that year flooded the U.S. border from Central America seeking asylum, which tied up agents.
The Washington Times reports:
The new numbers, reported by Homeland Security’s inspector general, could even be underselling the problem, investigators said, because the government doesn’t do a good job of tracking incidents, and agents and officers don’t always report them properly.
But the report does signal renewed danger particularly on the southwest border, where agents say a surge in illegal immigration in recent years generally correlates with growing violence.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, often refuse to bring charges or win cases against the perpetrators, the audit found.
At the border, the most frequent method of attack was projectiles — usually large rocks — which accounted for half ofassaults. But bombs, clubs, knives, guns and even laser pointers to blind agents have all been used.
In all, there were 5,077 assaults on Customs and Border Protection officers reported between 2010 and 2017.
Ninety-four percent of the assaults were against Border Patrol agents, “who wear green uniforms and work between ports, and the remainder were against Customs and Border Protection officers, who wear blue uniforms and work at ports of entry,” USA Today reports.
216 of the assaults were with firearms, accounting for about four percent. Half were carried out with a thrown object, often a rock, and another 30 percent were committed without a weapon.
Surprisingly, only 35 attacks, about 0.7 percent involved a knife.
AAN Staff
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