President Joe Biden and other liberals routinely maligned the U.S. Border Patrol throughout 2021.
The biggest lie, of course, was the left’s claim that agents mounted on horseback were beating illegal immigrants from Haiti with “whips,” which turned out to be the reins controlling the animal.
But as that criticism mounted, liberals failed to acknowledge that the Border Patrol was suffering its deadliest year on record.
Breitbart News, in a piece written by Randy Clark, a retired Border Patrol agent who spent 32 years with the agency, reported on Saturday that 15 Border Patrol agents died in the line of duty last year.
The agency’s previous single-year record for such deaths was six, in 1998.
That 2021 total included 13 deaths related to COVID-19 and two in car crashes.
“Collectively,” Clark noted of the 15 agents who died last year, “they served on the southern border for more than 267 years. They leave behind 13 widows, 34 children, and one grandchild.”
The main factor contributing to the deaths was the policies of the Biden administration, which enticed migrants to come, failed to control the border and neglected to test illegal immigrants for COVID-19 or handle them adequately, Clark maintained.
“The combination of a historic migrant surge during a pandemic resulted in severe overcrowding in detention and processing facilities. Most Border Patrol facilities and processing centers routinely exceeded recommended COVID-19 capacity levels throughout the year. Some were in excess of eight times the recommended COVID-19 detention levels,” he wrote.
“Although testing for COVID-19 was not mandatory for migrants apprehended along the southwest border, thousands transferred from the Border Patrol to ICE and later released were tested and found to be COVID-19 positive. As of October, according to a law enforcement source, more than 16,000 migrants tested positive and were later released into the United States.”
“Despite the risks, Border Patrol agents were required to process and provide humanitarian care for more thousands of migrants illegally entering the United States daily. This further increased the chance of exposure to COVID-19,” Clark added.
Clark noted that former President Donald Trump had in 2020 implemented an emergency order under the authority of the Centers for Disease Control that reduced the risk of exposure to U.S. citizens and border-control officials.
“The order allowed Border Patrol agents to swiftly return migrants to Mexico, many in as little as two hours, to avoid the introduction of the virus into the congregate settings,” Clark noted.
But the Biden administration’s “loosening” of the order meant a smaller ratio of migrants were returned, and contributed to the overcrowding.
For example, in November 2020 the Border Patrol expelled 86 percent of the illegal immigrants it apprehended. In November 2021, and as the number of apprehensions more than doubled, only 51 percent were sent back to Mexico.
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