Border agents with the Weslaco Station in Texas were assaulted with rocks from across the Mexican border, marking nearly half a dozen instances of agents being hit with objects while on duty in just the past month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported Monday. The agency reported:
For the fifth time in a month, Border Patrol agents were assaulted by subjects throwing rocks.
This incident occurred Thursday afternoon when Weslaco Station Border Patrol agents assigned to the Riverine unit were patrolling the Rio Grande near Hidalgo, Texas. Agents reported that several subjects on the Mexican side of the river began throwing rocks at them. No force was used against the subjects, who eventually dispersed and departed the area. The agents were unharmed in the incident and no damage to the boats was reported.
The news comes less than a week after Border Patrol Chief Mark A. Morgan told a Senate committee that assaults against border agents were up 200 percent over last year, and that two agents had even been killed while protecting the border in the last four months alone.
Morgan added that more than 7,400 border patrol agents have been assaulted since 2006.
MRCTV reported in October that assaults against border agents have skyrocketed recently amid an increasing wave of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. CBP data reveals that as of August 31, there had already been 489 reported assaults against border agents so far in FY2016.
Incidents of agents being hit with rocks and other debris – even from the other side of the border – are far from uncommon. While apprehending an illegal alien border crossers back in October, an agent with the Calexico border station was hit in the shoulder with a concrete block thrown by an assailant on the other side of the border fence, CBP reported.
A week later, a second agent with the same border station was struck under the eye by an illegal immigrant who’d crossed into the United States unlawfully.