President Donald Trump pushed his Mexico wall plans after one border agent was killed and another injured while on patrol in Texas on Sunday.
Authorities said Agent Rogelio Martinez and his Big Bend Sector partner were responding to activity while on patrol near Interstate 10, in the Van Horn Station area when they were both injured.
‘Border Patrol Officer killed at Southern Border, another badly hurt. We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible. We will, and must, build the Wall!’ Trump said in a tweet.
President Donald Trump pushed his Mexico wall plans after one border agent was killed and another injured while on patrol in Texas on Sunday
Authorities said Agent Rogelio Martinez and his Big Bend Sector partner were responding to activity while on patrol near Interstate 10, in the Van Horn Station area when they were both injured. Trump tweeted this statement following the incident
Martinez’s partner reported that they were both injured and in need of assistance.
Responding agents provided immediate medical care, and transported both agents to a local hospital.
Officials said they are now searching Texas’ Big Bend area for potential suspects and witnesses.
Border Patrol spokesmen said they could not provide any details on what caused the agent’s injuries or what led to them.
Spokesman Carlos Diaz said the FBI has taken over the investigation.
Martinez had been a border agent since August, 2013 and was from El Paso.
Border Patrol records show that Big Bend accounted for about 1 per cent of the more than 61,000 apprehensions its agents made along the Southwest border between October 2016 and May 2017. Pictured is a patrol vehicle outside the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas
‘Our thoughts and prayers are with Agent Martinez and his family, and with the agent who was injured,’ officials from the US Customs and Border Protection said in a statement.
Border Patrol records show that Big Bend accounted for about 1 per cent of the more than 61,000 apprehensions its agents made along the Southwest border between October 2016 and May 2017.
The region’s mountains and the Rio Grande make it a difficult area for people to cross illegally into the US from Mexico.
The Border Patrol website lists 38 agents who have died since late 2003, some attacked while working along the border, and other fatalities in traffic accidents.
It lists one other agent death in the line of duty this year.