Posted on 08/16/2010 9:52:14 AM PDT by markomalley
After a bad day on the job as a Border Patrol agent, Eddie DeLaCruz went home and began discussing with his wife how to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Then he casually pressed his government-issued handgun under his chin and pulled the trigger.
"It was the ugliest sound I ever heard in my life," his widow, Toni DeLaCruz, recalled of that day last November. "He just collapsed."
A month later, one of DeLaCruz's colleagues at the Fort Hancock border post put a bullet through his head, too.
Suicides including these have set off alarm bells throughout the agency responsible for policing the nation's borders. After nearly four years without a single suicide in their ranks, border agents are killing themselves in greater numbers. Records obtained by The Associated Press show that at least 15 agents have taken their own lives since February 2008 — the largest spike in suicides the agency has seen in at least 20 years.
It's unclear exactly why the men ended their lives. Few of them left notes. And the Border Patrol seems somewhat at odds with itself over the issue.
Federal officials insist the deaths have nothing to do with the agency, which has doubled in size since 2004, or the increasingly volatile U.S.-Mexico border. But administrators have quietly undertaken urgent suicide-prevention initiatives, including special training for supervisors, videos about warning signs and educational programs for 22,000 agents nationwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
What a horrible thing to do to someone who loves you. I think these guys have big problems other than their jobs.
The story rang familiar to Mark Monsivais, whose daughter, Julia, committed suicide in July 2009. He said people hurled chunks of concrete at the 24-year-old agent during her three years in Yuma, Ariz.
Other times, he said, his daughter complained of lagging backup patrolling a dangerous and barren stretch known as “Devil’s Corridor.” She worried about running into drug traffickers but more often stumbled on dehydrated migrants collapsed in the sand, their legs twitching.
“It’s transparent to us, the people that are here, that the job is a definite factor. They’re under an enormous amount of stress,” Monsivais said.
“If they do something wrong,” he added, “it’s an international incident.”
The job was so dangerous the family has doubts about whether it was suicide. Relatives wonder whether Julia could have been killed by shady characters she met on patrol.
These guys wouldn’t last the first hour in special forces training.
Tragic....and this does not have to happen if our leaders would stop being pro-illegal/anti-American
And it is beyond Obama. George W Bush had Ramos and Compean (2 BP officers from the same region) convicted for assault and weapons violations in a kangaroo court....based on the word of an Illegal Alien drug dealer. Just before he left office, Bush commuted their sentences....after they spent 2 yrs rotting in prison.
It is time to get tough on Illegal Aliens, and tougher on those who allow Illegal Aliens to get away with breaking our laws:
- Anyone who does not support 100% Deportation of Illegal Aliens....Supports Amnesty
- Anyone who votes for a politician that does not want to deport illegals....you support Amnesty
Another take on the suicide bump; many are Hispanic and there is also some speculation that they are not necessarily suicides; foul play could be part of the bump. Not in the case of this guy, perhaps, but who knows? AP had a similar story and it appears that at least 3 of the 4 were Hispanic surnames.
You're almost certainly going to be stationed out in the middle of nowhere. Your kids are going to go to a school where nearly every other kid is an illegal alien. The hours are long, management unsupportive (if not downright combative) and you're tasked with an impossible mission.
Couple that with the fact that somewhere between 20-30% of your fellow Agents are working for the other side, and it's an absolute misery.
The folks I know tell me it's not at all uncommon to sit out in the middle of the desert at night watching DVDs in your patrol car because if you find a problem, you are a problem. Further, the incidents of one car fatal accidents are attributable to guys chasing rabbits in their vehicles.
I'm not attempting to be critical of the vast majority of good, dedicated agents. These are good men and women who honestly wished to serve their country in a capacity that's desperately needed. However, BP, CBP, DHS and the entire Federal Government has succeeded in creating such a horrible situation that the high turnover, low standards for Background Investigations, and now suicide is to be expected.
These guys wouldn’t last the first hour in special forces training.
An arsehole comment. You probably support Illegal Alien Amnesty...and think John McCain is really a hero
These BP agents have seen more crap than a Special Forces soldier will ever see. A BP agent along the border these days is like a Special Forces person...only without a weapon
Seems that someone should just change jobs if it’s going to make you suicidal.
Just awful. I still say the military needs to go in an build a training base right there where it’s the worst. Let them train with real bullets and rockets and whatever else goes “boom”. And then when the cartels move to another area, put up another training base there too.
Enough is enough.
Oh yeah, I forgot - that would be too politically incorrect. Better to stand out there and hand the illegals water instead.
You stay classy, stuartcr.
Maybe someone is looking into this?
You sure have some interesting views, such as what would some old battle scarred Green Beret know about violence and war compared to a chick working an eight hour shift on the American border.
What a horrible thing to do to someone who loves you. I think these guys have big problems other than their jobs.
Yes, there is no excuse and I don’t care who you are or what you have been through to do something like that. My brother committed suicide a few years ago. At least he did it privately.
Rest in peace bro
He came home drunk and blew a hole the size of a coffee cup in his head.
...
If he is out drinking, getting wasted, he has serious issues to begin with.
On my fathers side, his step dad, who wasn’t really ever considered my grandfather, since he was dead a year before I was born, committed suicide. He too was a drunkard.
I’ve never heard of a well adjusted person who has a job, goes to church and is active in their community pulling the trigger.
It’s always someone disconnected from life, involved with drugs or alcohol, and usually not religious.
I feel sorrow for them, but little sympathy.
“And it is beyond Obama. George W Bush had Ramos and Compean (2 BP officers from the same region) convicted for assault and weapons violations in a kangaroo court....based on the word of an Illegal Alien drug dealer. Just before he left office, Bush commuted their sentences....after they spent 2 yrs rotting in prison.
It is time to get tough on Illegal Aliens, and tougher on those who allow Illegal Aliens to get away with breaking our laws:
- Anyone who does not support 100% Deportation of Illegal Aliens....Supports Amnesty
- Anyone who votes for a politician that does not want to deport illegals....you support Amnesty”
It’s hard to believe, I know, but there are freepers still insisting that Ramos and Compean deserved what they got and don’t want any border enforcement.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2570171/posts?page=38#38
I hate people who fudge numbers.
1) After nearly four years without a single suicide in their ranks, border agents are killing themselves in greater numbers.
Really? Some are greater than none? That is pretty definitive.
2) ...at least 15 agents have taken their own lives since February 2008 — the largest spike in suicides the agency has seen in at least 20 years.
"At least 15" (in an unknown sample size) in about 2 1/2 years is "the largest spike" in "at least 20 years". This tells me next to nothing. A spike? Is that a high value, or a rapid increase?
Sorry for your loss.
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