KOB4 Investigates: The southern border needs the National Guard’s help

Photo credit: CNN

Albuquerque’s KOB4 noticed that Governor Lujan Grisham repeatedly ignored calls to deploy the national guard to help solve the border “crisis” in New Mexico, unlike thegovernors of Texas & Arizona. So KOB4 spent a day with border patrol agents and investigated the need.

The findings of the investigation? Border patrol agents barely able to go on patrols because they are so busy processing illegal immigrants, pleas for help from the national guard, and testimony that agents are exhausted from having to apprehend the same migrants “nine or ten times.”

WATCH

The highlights of the report:

RAMIREZ (CLIP): Lit only by flashlights… the terrain is rugged, the bushes are thick… Everyone’s eyes are partially looking for the crossers, partially watching the uneven steps below… After a 15 minute search– the agents discovered three young men. One from Honduras, two from Mexico.

…

AGENT (CLIP): The gentleman in the far end– this is his 5th time, these 2 gentlemen, this is their third time. this is nothing new. this is a common thing that we see as agents, a lot of times when i work the midnight shift, i recognize them. as far as how they feel? Sad. But this is nothing new.

…

RAMIREZ (CLIP): Minutes later — agents were back on the chase… The search is both from air and ground… and everyone is on guard…

AGENT (CLIP): A lot of people don’t consider this a weapon, but this…as you were able to see this morning before dawn how dark it gets this can do a lot of damage.

RAMIREZ (CLIP):After a search in the desert, agents get intel that a man and woman have been spotted on a road…

AGENT (CLIP): So, she’s been traveling for about two months. this is her 9th or 10th apprehension. she’s from Chiapas.

RAMIREZ (CLIP): But here– where hope dead ends… it’s the end of this journey for these two.. the agents say these scenes play out all day and all night. in many ways– the job for border patrol agents is tougher today.

…

AGENT (CLIP): Transcontinental criminal organizations are constantly putting migrants’ lives at risk. They are the ones who are making false promises and lying to these people saying its safe to come, when it’s really not. This terrain is treacherous.

RAMIREZ (CLIP): Data from u.s. customs and border protection shows– we’re embarking on a record year. the entire New Mexico border with Mexico falls in the El Paso sector. In this sector alone… border patrol agents encountered: 31 thousand migrants in 2018, 182 thousand in 2019, 46 thousand in 2020. And the year isn’t over yet, but agents have already encountered more than 176 thousand people in 2021. Across the entire southwest border, encounters are up by nearly 400 percent from last year. And border patrol agents are the first to admit– they don’t catch all of the migrants. we asked how they could be more successful…

AGENT (CLIP): Any help we can get is greatly appreciated. more boots on the ground, more technology. we can line this entire border with cameras, but i’ve never seen a camera climb down the pole and make an apprehension.

RAMIREZ (CLIP): In the past, the New Mexico national guard has assisted the border patrol. we asked what that looked like…

AGENT (CLIP): Instead of putting an agent behind the camera, we put one of them. of course, an agent is going to know the trends and the area a lot better, but usually they’ll just describe to us where they are going an agent can figure it out and we’ll go make the apprehension.