The Biden border disaster continues, inflicting tragedy not only on migrants and border towns but also the brave men and women tasked with defending the border itself.
Border Patrol agent Raul Gonzalez — 38 and a father of two — just died in an ATV accident chasing border-jumpers near Mission, Texas.
This is the sixth death in the line of duty in 2022, per agency statistics. It comes on the heels of a hideous three suicides of CBP agents in November, bringing the total for 2022 to 14 — the highest figure in a decade.
And according to Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas), who’s married to a CBP agent, they feel “abandoned” by Biden. With justification: In opening our southern border, the president has overwhelmed the CBP and callously left it to deal with the consequences.
Last fiscal year saw 2.4 million migrant encounters, breaking the previous record, as well as hundreds of thousands of “gotaways” (migrants spotted but not stopped by CBP).
Add in the disastrously weak leadership of recently resigned CBP head Chris Magnus, and the recipe for terrible morale is complete.
Remember too that Title 42, a Trump-era rule that automatically turns back massive swathes of incoming migrants, is set to end Dec. 21, supercharging the tide and further slamming CBP’s frontline personnel.
So we must ask: How many more brave men and women have to die before Biden will consider a trip to the border “important” enough to add to his schedule?
Flores and a bipartisan group of legislators, mainly from border states, have put together legislation aimed at curbing the suicide wave. Good for them.
But the real cause of the overall catastrophe comes from the White House. And the forces killing CBP agents (and migrants, don’t forget: a record 853 died in the fiscal year just ended, breaking the prior record of 546 set the year before) won’t abate until Biden, Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas and all the other open-border enablers face the crisis they’ve caused and change course.
