Seven CBP employees have taken their own lives already this year, just one short of the eight suicides reported in all of 2023.
So far this year, seven CBP employees have taken their own lives, just one short of the eight suicides reported in 2023. The agency's worst year was in 2022, when 15 employees died by suicide, according to a report from the New York Post citing Dr. Kent Corso, CBP’s former "suicidologist."
Dr. Corso highlighted the unique pressures faced by law enforcement officers, including CBP employees, which put them at a higher risk for suicide. “Law enforcement officers see a ton of death, they experience loss. First responders are exposed to many, many more potentially traumatic events than the general population, which frankly puts them at higher risk for suicide anyway, just all law enforcement,” Corso explained.
“It would be in inaccurate to sort of attribute it to one factor, but certainly a combination of factors, including things like a high operations tempo. We’ve seen migration patterns that have never been seen before in history. So, the whole nature of the world is changing, and that’s certainly part of it,” he continued.
CBP, which employs around 60,000 people, including approximately 19,000 border patrol agents, has been under immense pressure as the immigration crisis on the southern border intensifies. Since the Biden-Harris administration took office, over 8 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border, according to CBP data, though some estimates suggest the number could be even higher.
The ongoing border crisis appears to be taking a significant toll on the mental health and morale of CBP employees. Some agents have spoken out about the psychological impact of their work.
“We find more dead bodies in one night than we used to find in a whole year and nobody talks about it,” one agent told the New York Post. “I know seeing all these dead bodies is taking an effect on the agents. I know this past week there was a suicide in the patrol and I can think of at least two others in the past month.”
“When people ask me if I’m doing okay after finding another body I usually just laugh and say I’m dead inside, just another day on the border. Sad because that is kind of true. I don’t really feel emotion anymore like I used to on stuff like that, which isn’t really healthy,” the agent added.
Former Yuma Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem echoed concerns about the increased stress facing border patrol agents under the current administration. He noted that the demonization of border patrol has contributed to a decline in morale.
“When you’re a service-driven organization or individual, and you join a service and mission-driven agency like the Border Patrol… and when all of a sudden, your value and worth from the highest levels of your agency or the organization like the President, demonize you, vilifies you, removes your sense of purpose, and you combine that with other factors in life… That just opens that demon that you’ve been fighting at home.”
Clem was careful not to directly blame the Biden administration's border policies for the suicides but acknowledged that the lack of purpose felt by many agents has been a "compounding factor" in the crisis.
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