GOP and Democrats join forces to improve conditions for ‘overworked’ front-line Border Patrol

A bipartisan team of House members came together Wednesday morning to launch an anti-suicide campaign among ‘overworked’ border agents, 14 of whom have taken their own life this year. 

‘When when you’re overworked, I don’t care what your work is. If you’re working at Chick-Fil-A, and you’re overworked to death or doesn’t matter where you’re at, if you’re overworked. There’s no doubt that impacts your life,’ Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents 800 miles of the 2,000-mile long border between U.S. and Mexico, said in a news conference outside the Capitol. 

Between 2007 when Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) began tracking suicides and  2022, 149 agents have died by suicide. 

‘There’s no doubt that the what is happening at the border is impacting our agents,’ he added. ‘If we can’t if we as lawmakers here in DC can’t come together on preventing people from killing themselves. What can we come to?’

‘When when you’re overworked, I don’t care what your work is. If you’re working at Chick-Fil-A, and you’re overworked to death or doesn’t matter where you’re at, if you’re overworked. There’s no doubt that impacts your life,’ said Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales

Gonzales was flanked by seven lawmakers – three Republicans like himself and four Democrats. 

Texas Republican Rep. Mayra Flores, who is married to a Border Patrol agent, said agents tell her they feel ‘abandoned’ by the Biden administration and knocked the president for saying there are more important things to do than visit the southern border. 

‘He’s on record stating that there are other more important things. That’s a ridiculous statement and it’s a disrespect to our border patrol agents. I’m asking him to come to South Texas to come and see what our Border Patrol agents are going through,’ she said. 

Having dealt with a record number of apprehensions in the past year, border agents are prepping for another surge at the U.S.-Mexico border with the end of Title 42 on December 21.  

Gonzales said this week he would be bringing forth a bipartisan bill – Taking Action to Prevent Suicide (TAPS) Act – this week to take action on the matter. 

Rep. Darren Soto, a Democrat from Florida and a co-sponsor of the bill, explained the legislation would create an anti-suicide task force to investigate the high suicide rate among CBP officers and put together a report of recommended departmental changes for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

A bipartisan team of House members came together Wednesday morning to launch an anti-suicide campaign among ‘overworked’ border agents, 14 of whom have taken their own life this year

‘This heightened period of immigration has also taken its toll on our Border Protection officers and that’s why I support the bipartisan TAPS Act,’ Soto said. 

The announcement comes as GOP Sen. Thom Tillis and Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are renewing efforts to push through bipartisan immigration reform. 

The draft framework is a longshot in the Senate and would need to be moved through the House before Republicans take over in January to have any chance at passing.  

Asked about what other bipartisan border issues Republicans and Democrats could come together on, Gonzales said: ‘To have four Republicans and four Democrats willing to stand here in the rain and have a conversation [on border patrol suicides] is lightyears ahead of anything else that is happening in this place.’ 

‘To me, it’s what can we with, where can we start and build out from there. It’s not amnesty, and it’s not, you know, some of these other issues,’ Gonzales added, seemingly taking a shot at a provision in the Sinema-Tillis bill that calls for a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, in exchange for heightened border security, expedited asylum processing and an extension of Title 42. 

Border Patrol union president Brandon Judd explained that his officers do not go to management when they are dealing with mental health struggles because they will immediately have their law enforcement authority revoked. 

‘The thing that we constantly hear is that ‘I don’t want to come to the agency, let them know because I’m one, going to lose pay. I’m going to lose my law enforcement authority and everybody is going to know what’s going on,’ he said. 

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said the Appropriations Committee where he sits as vice chair is now considering an additional $23 million to address behavioral health challenges within CBP next year within the omnibus spending bill lawmakers are currently negotiating, with specific language to ensure those who utilize CBP health resources are not ‘adversely impacted.’ 

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