Leaked Reports: Few Border Patrol Agents on Patrol in Arizona

Randy ClarkDecember 15, 2021

Yuma Sector staffing reports leaked to Townhall.com reveal most Border Patrol agents within the sector are performing duties related to processing, migrant transport, and providing humanitarian care versus performing enforcement patrols along the Mexican border.

In an exclusive report by Townhall.com’s Julio Rosas, Border Patrol daily assignment rosters were obtained and examined. The assignment rosters show most Border Patrol agents within the Yuma Sector are performing duties related to processing, migrant transport, and providing humanitarian care versus performing enforcement patrols along the border.

Exclusive: Assignment logs for Border Patrol’s Yuma Station I obtained confirm few agents are actually patrolling the border. Most are processing or transporting.

“Border Patrol no longer does border enforcement. It does border enrollment.”https://t.co/P5Axv7ESUk

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 15, 2021

The documents in the report were obtained exclusively by Townhall reporter Julio Rosas who has spent a considerable amount of time in Yuma observing the ongoing border migrant surge.

On most days covered by the daily schedules, less than three of twenty Border Patrol agents on a single shift are on patrol in the harsh desert environment surrounding Yuma.

According to Townhall, the daily schedules examined for the Yuma Station span several weeks and provide an insight into how the increase in migrant apprehensions crippled the station’s ability to conduct routine enforcement patrols. When Border Patrol agents are assigned to patrol duties, they are required to cover more territory due to the staffing shortages caused by the massive migrant influx.

A source told Townhall “When the “all-hands-on-deck” approach to processing illegal immigrants started in early August, “we were at zero people patrolling. That lasted until that lady and her child died along the river.”

The source referred to the death of two migrants in the desert near Yuma in late August. In that incident, Claudia Marcela Pineda Sarmiento and her ten-year-old child perished due to dehydration and heat exhaustion. Pineda’s two-year-old child survived. A 12news report outlined the details of the tragedy.

Desert temperatures reached 113 degrees when Pineda Sarmiento got lost in the Cocopah Indian Reservation after crossing into the United States with her children. Pineda managed to call 911 hoping to be rescued shortly after the migrants crossed the border. An exhaustive search led authorities to Pineda’s body and the body of her 10-year-old daughter.

As reported by Breitbart Texas, the Border Patrol in Yuma is struggling to deal with thousands of migrants from a multitude of countries crossing through a gap in the existing border wall near the Morelos dam. The migrants, mostly family units and unaccompanied migrant children, have overwhelmed the agency’s resources leading to the staffing challenges resulting in reduced field patrols.

Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls issued an emergency proclamation last week in response to the unprecedented number of migrants entering the city. Nicholls asserts the influx is overwhelming federal authorities and creating a humanitarian crisis.

Yuma is not the only border sector experiencing similar staffing issues. The increased migrant traffic is plaguing the agency across the southwest border as the volume of migrants surrendering has inundated the Border Patrol’s detention facilities causing overcrowding in Border Patrol facilities.

Ranchers and residents are also reeling from the lack of law enforcement presence along the border — becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of federal response to the crisis.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.