Big Bend Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Marco Cervantes talks to state, local, federal, Government of Guatemala and Government of Mexico officials at the Border Safety Event in Marfa on June 28. USCBP Image
Texas Border Business
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U.S. Border Patrol Big Bend Sector conducted its border safety event June 28 in Marfa, Texas. The event highlighted how binational cooperation between the United States and Mexico and new rescue beacon technology is increasing humanitarian rescues and reducing the deaths of migrants who are often abandoned to die by criminal smugglers in the mountains and deserts of West Texas.
Government of Mexico Consul Gamaliel Bustillos Munoz from Presidio addresses the audience talking about cooperation between the Mexico and the United States regarding humanitarian mission to save the lives of migrants and messaging to deter them from making the dangerous and illegal crossing of the border. USCBP Image  U.S. Border Patrol demonstrates the operation of a portable rescue beacon that migrants in distress can activate providing the exact GPS location to the operations center to send agents to make a humanitarian rescue. The beacons are deployed in remote locations where migrants deaths have occurred in Big Bend Sector. Currently 25 beacon are deployed in sector with five more on the way. USCBP ImageU.S. Border Patrol Agents trained as Emergency Medical Technicians demonstrate medical and rescue equipment to show how they provide care to migrants found in distress in the deserts and mountains of West Texas.  USCBP Image
Migrant deaths, which previous numbered 30 to 40 per year in the deserts and mountains of the West Texas, have been reduced to six in FY2023 and five so far in FY2024. Fifty six migrants were rescued in FY2023 and 22 so far in FY2024.
