Fiscal year 2022 was the deadliest year on the southern border recorded in U.S. history, with over 800 illegal immigrants dying in their attempts to cross the border, and a record-breaking number of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents dying by suicide or in the line of duty.
President Joe Biden has yet to visit the border under his administration. In 2021, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the last time Biden was near the border was when he drove by it as vice president in 2008.
On Tuesday, Biden told reporters he would not be visiting the border while traveling to Arizona, a border state, because “there are more important things going on.” The White House told the Daily Caller that Biden’s top priority is the economy, and that “anyone [who] believes that shouldn’t be” Biden’s number-one priority “should say that out loud.” (RELATED: ‘Give Me A F***ing Break’: Border Agents Rip Biden For Saying ‘There Are More Important Things’ Than Visiting Border)
The dire situation at the border led to four CBP agents committing suicide within two weeks in November, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.
The spike in CBP suicides under the Biden administration comes amid the record-breaking number of 2.3 million illegal immigrant encounters in fiscal year 2022, as well as the increasing policy of having to release migrants border agents previously “tracked and arrested,” a CBP agent told the DCNF.
“Since the Biden administration came into office, we lost our purpose,” the agent told the DCNF. “We know the long term effects that this surge of illegal immigration will have on the country. The country will be a larger scale of what sanctuary states have given a glimpse of. The lawlessness created by government-funded support programs will destroy our education and medical structures,” the agent said.
“No support program will fix this. We need our purpose back,” the agent added.
The White House did not respond to an inquiry from the Daily Caller asking if the administration thought the number of CBP suicides was normal.
CBP has also seen a record-breaking surge in the number of officials losing their lives in the line of duty, with 41 deaths so far under the Biden administration. The yearly total of CBP official deaths increased in 2020, with 21 deaths, after four in 2019, one in 2018 and two in 2017.
The latest CBP victim died Wednesday in an ATV accident while tracking a group of illegal immigrants, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.
At least 853 illegal immigrants died attempting to cross the southern border in fiscal year 2022 – the deadliest year recorded on record — CBS News reported, citing Border Patrol data. The previous record was 546 illegal immigrant deaths in fiscal year 2021, according to the outlet.
This is new normal in Eagle Pass, TX. I’ve witnessed numerous of migrants swept away from the strong currents of the Rio Grande River resulting in many drowning here , making it the deadliest crossing point on the southern border.Our team witnessed drowning this week @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/8T9SvsHMpw
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) September 30, 2022
In June, 53 illegal immigrants were found dead in a tractor-trailer after suffering inhospitable temperatures — the deadliest smuggling incident on record in U.S. history.
BREAKING GRAPHIC : As I was reporting on the Mexican side we noticed BP agents looking for a migrant body in the Rio Grande River, our cameraman @TCoop1800 captured the moment agents pulled and recovered the deceased body. The humanitarian crisis everyday at the southern border pic.twitter.com/yq2Ivu1ao7
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) September 28, 2022
The total number of migrant deaths is likely higher, with many dying in attempts to swim across the Rio Grande, and no records of how many people die in their journey before reaching the border.