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Rotting human remains and children raped: Why US Border Patrol suicides have skyrocketed under Biden

By
Social Links for Emily Crane
Published May 22, 2024, 10:55 a.m. ET

Multiple US Border Patrol agents have described how the horrors they encounter doing their job — including rotting human remains and children who have been raped — while being overwhelmed by waves of migrants during the Biden administration are driving up suicide rates among the ranks.

Frustrated agents working the US-Mexico border opened up about their grim encounters in wide-ranging interviews with the Free Press on Wednesday, detailing how conditions are leading to a spiraling mental health crisis.

“We regularly see things that people should never see, like rotting human remains, abuse of every kind, babies and kids dying or dead,” said one veteran Border Patrol agent, who didn’t want to be named.

Multiple US Border Patrol agents have claimed that the rotting human remains, raped children and other horrors they're forced to encounter at the US-Mexico border are driving up suicide rates among the ranks.
Multiple US Border Patrol agents have claimed that the horrors they’re forced to encounter at the US-Mexico border are driving up suicide rates among the ranks. Getty Images

“Do you know what that does to you over time? You have to shut down a part of yourself to keep going.”

Another agent, identified only as Juan, said he has encountered stories of rape on a near-daily basis ever since he joined the Border Patrol ranks in Rio Grande, Texas, just before President Biden was elected.

“I had to sit there and listen to a 13-year-old girl from El Salvador tell me how she’d been raped twice by her smuggler,” he said.

“She was traveling with her 9-year-old brother, and the smuggler said he would hurt the boy if she didn’t cooperate. So she let him do what he wanted.”

Asylum-seeking migrants gather when a U.S. Border Patrol agent told them to line up after crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, U.S. April 27, 2024.
“We regularly see things that people should never see, like rotting human remains, abuse of every kind, babies and kids dying or dead,” one veteran Border Patrol agent said. REUTERS
Another agent, identified only as Juan, said he has encountered stories of rape on a near-daily basis ever since he joined the Border Patrol ranks in Rio Grande, Texas.
Another agent, identified only as Juan, said he has encountered stories of rape on a near-daily basis ever since he joined the Border Patrol ranks in Rio Grande, Texas. Omar Ornelas / USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

The sheer number of migrants flooding to the southern border — over 7.6 million since Biden took office in January 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics — has turned agents’ jobs into an exhausting and never-ending stream of capture, process, interview and paperwork, agents have previously told The Post.

There were 14 suicides among the agency’s 25,000 agents in 2022 — nearly double the amount from 2020 before Biden took office and three times the amount recorded in 2014.

The suicide rate is double that of US law enforcement agencies overall.

Gov. Greg Abbott greets National Guard troops at a press conference about border policies at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on Sunday February 4, 2024.
There were 14 suicides among the agency’s 25,000 agents in 2022. Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK
President Joe Biden delivers remarks about immigration and border security on February 29, 2024 in Olmito, Texas.
The number of suicides nearly double the amount from 2020 before Biden took office. Getty Images

Suicides are not publicly reported by Border Patrol, and the number who took their lives in 2023 was not available.

Chris Clem, who retired as chief border agent of the Yuma, Arizona, sector last year, said many agents are just getting “kind of numb” due to the horrific encounters, as well as overall feelings of abandonment by the Biden administration.

“A lot of agents are just trying to go to work and survive,” Clem said. “And that’s not where you want to be when you’re in law enforcement.”

The frustrated agents opened up about their grim encounters at the border -- as they detailed how the conditions are leading to a spiraling mental health crisis.
The frustrated agents opened up about their grim encounters at the border — as they detailed how the conditions are leading to a spiraling mental health crisis. James Breeden for New York Post
African migrants sleep next to a fire in order to keep warm in the early hours of the morning on the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas on March 21, 2024.
In April this year, an average of 6,000 migrants were encountered along the southern border daily. Omar Ornelas / El Paso Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Others, meanwhile, accused the Biden admin of forcing them to make impossible moral choices in very little time as tens of thousands of migrants are allowed to stream across the border.

“How would you feel when you have a guy in front of you, demanding asylum, holding his young daughter’s hand, smiling at you, and lying to your face, using the same line he’s been coached what to say to get into the country, even though his rap sheet shows he was arrested for sexual abuse of minors, including the young girl?” said one ex-agent, identified only as Mark.

“If you separate the child, she’ll scream and be traumatized. If you keep them together, then you run the very high risk that she’ll be sexually traumatized again. You tell me, which trauma is the lesser evil?”

U.S. President Joe Biden greets members of the U.S. Border Patrol at the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., February 29, 2024.
Others have accused the Biden administration of forcing them to make impossible moral choices as thousands of migrants are allowed to cross the border. REUTERS
Asylum-seeking migrants line up near the border while waiting to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, U.S. April 29, 2024. REUTERS
“If you separate the child, she’ll scream and be traumatized. If you keep them together, then you run the very high risk that she’ll be sexually traumatized again. You tell me, which trauma is the lesser evil,” a former agent said. REUTERS

In April this year, an average of 6,000 migrants were encountered along the southern border daily. In December 2023, the average was just under 10,000 per day, per CBP figures.

At least seven agents who spoke anonymously with the outlet said they and their colleagues won’t tell superiors about their depression or possible suicidal thoughts because it’ll likely damage their careers.

The president of the National Border Patrol Council, Brandon Judd, added that those who do seek help are usually reassigned to desk duty — a move that results in a huge pay cut because they no longer get overtime.

 “Why would you?” he said when asked why more agents don’t seek help with their mental health.

A Border Patrol spokesman, however, said in a statement that “maintaining morale supporting frontline personnel, and ensuring our resilient workforce has the resources available to maintain a healthy work-life balance is a top priority for CBP leadership.”