EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Members of the Border Patrol’s Search Trauma and Rescue unit, or BORSTAR, deployed to Central Texas, where floods killed at least 120 people during the Fourth of July weekend and where nearly 200 are still missing.
These Border Patrol teams from across the United States are taking with them “elite” rescue skills, emergency medical care, and tactical readiness.
They also have lots of experience.
Just last year, BORSTAR and the Border Patrol rescued 5,400 individuals along the Southwest border. Most of the rescues involved finding migrants lost in deserts or mountains, but many involved pulling individuals from rivers and canals along the border. Unfortunately, much of their work also involved recovering bodies.
The BORSTAR Unit was created in 1998 in response to the growing number of injuries to Border Patrol agents in the field. A rise in migration during the past two decades, however, led to BORSTAR agents mostly rescuing migrants in distress.
BORSTAR is part of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Special Operations Group (SOG), headquartered in El Paso, Texas.
Border Report correspondent Julian Resendiz was recently invited to see BORSTAR agents train in the desert of Southern New Mexico. In today’s episode of Border Report Live, he’ll provide a close-up look at some of the challenges they face under the hot July sun.
Border Report correspondent Salvador Rivera also joined specially trained agents and officers this week. He was invited to ride along with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations unit in speedboats in the Pacific Ocean, to see how they battle maritime smuggling.
Smugglers will use almost any kind of water vessel to smuggle people from Mexico to the U.S. That includes small boats, jet skis, and even surfboards.
A Border Patrol official said that although migrant encounters are at record lows along the border, maritime smuggling has been steady and in many cases deadly.
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Since the start of this fiscal year on Oct. 1, there have been just under 400 smuggling events, said Eric LaVergne, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.
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Join the award-winning Border Report team at 2:30 p.m. CDT Monday-Friday at borderreport.com for a weekly, live, in-depth discussion about people living, working and migrating along the U.S.-Mexico border.
You can also watch past episodes of the Border Report Live, highlighting not only immigration and border security, but cartel violence in Mexico, border trade, politics and the U.S. and Mexico’s ongoing water dispute on the border.
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