Search and Rescue on the Border

In late December a seriously injured man was found on the side of a 7,000-foot cliff in a treacherous mountain range south of Tucson. Hovering above the victim was a Black Hawk helicopter with agents from the elite U.S. Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) team. After the rescuers fast-roped in to render aid, high winds and low visibility forced the chopper to return to base.

With no choice but to wait until the morning to evacuate him, agents stayed overnight with the now-stabilized patient, who was later identified as a scout for drug smugglers. In the morning he and the agents were hoisted onto a Black Hawk, and the patient was eventually transported to Tucson Medical Center.

Typically the sound of the U.S. Border Patrol arriving sends illegal immigrants and drug smugglers scurrying to avoid being detained and returned to their country of origin, but on this particular mission, like thousands of times before, the helicopter carrying BORSTAR agents arrived with the primary mission of saving a life, regardless of its motive in entering the U.S.

BORSTAR was created in 1998 in response to two things: 1) a need to provide emergency care and evacuation to injured Border Patrol agents in remote areas along the border, and 2) increasing deaths among migrants crossing into the U.S. from the elements and violence at the hands of fellow migrants and traffickers (human and drug).

The need for a unit such as BORSTAR is at least partially a consequence of U.S. border security policy. In 1993 Operation Hold the Line in El Paso, followed by Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego, created a funnel effect where individuals hoping to cross the border illegally were forced from the urban areas into more rural and inhospitable deserts and mountains. This was exacerbated by the construction of some 700 miles of border fence, pushing migrants further into remote areas.

In 1998 the Border Patrol reported 263 migrant deaths. This number jumped significantly to 492 in 2005. At the end of fiscal year 2014, there had been 307 deaths reported along the southwestern border. The majority of these were due to exposure to the elements, but violence among narcotic and human smugglers is always a factor.

BORSTAR works to stay ahead of these daunting numbers. Its teams were called out 1,079 times in 2014; 1,793 times in 2013; and 1,431 times in 2012. For rapid response along the border, there are 9 special detachments with an average of 20 BORSTAR agents found in each sector from San Diego to Brownsville, TX, with the Special Operations Group working out of the El Paso headquarters. In recent years the BORSTAR team from the Brownsville Sector in South Texas has been the busiest, especially with the recent flood of immigrants coming to the U.S. from Central America.

Violence against Border Patrol agents has been a regular tactic used by drug smugglers desperate to get their products into the U.S. This further validates the need for BORSTAR to be able to treat its own.

Assaults against Border Patrol agents have decreased over the last four years, from 666 in 2011 to 366 in 2014, but are no less serious. A common tactic is for migrants and smugglers to pelt agents with rocks, which are readily available weapons in the desert. Many of these rock incidents have resulted in serious injuries. The majority of serious injuries and deaths to Border Patrol agents, however, are from vehicular accidents, to which treacherous terrain, weather and poor lighting have all been contributing factors. Then there is the ever-present threat of attack with weapons. In October 2012 Agent Nicholas Ivie was shot to death by drug smugglers, as was Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

“I initially joined BORSTAR in 2004 to help injured Border Patrol agents,” says Cdr. Jesse Munoz, from the unit’s El Paso headquarters at Fort Bliss, TX. “But regardless of your political views or views on immigration, people should not be dying in the desert.”

Munoz says the training and organization of BORSTAR have changed over the years to meet the austere and challenging environments of most of its calls and potential tactical incidents.

Unlike civilian EMS crews, who are instructed to stand by until a scene is safe, BORSTAR agents enter scenes with the expectation they’re unsafe. There are numerous unknowns when arriving at a scene, and often agents respond with an M4 rifle at the ready. Munoz says there have been no known attacks on BORSTAR agents responding to emergencies, but many agents have been fired upon or attacked on patrol.

“We need to hone our skills in tactical medicine because of attacks on agents,” Munoz says.

The mission extends beyond the border. Agents have been used for domestic emergencies such as hurricane and tornado search and rescue as well as providing standby medical assistance at the Super Bowl and training foreign agencies in search and rescue and tactical combat casualty care. Training operations, most of which average 4–6 weeks, have been conducted for border-patrol agencies in Africa, Belize, Costa Rica and Iraq.

Becoming an Agent

Becoming a BORSTAR agent is not easy. The qualification and training curriculum resembles that of military special forces units.

BORSTAR consists of experienced Border Patrol agents who must have at least two years’ experience patrolling the “line.” They must pass a prequalification physical fitness and swim test at their referring sector to attend and successfully complete the five-week BORSTAR selection and training course (STC). The STC is a physically and mentally demanding course in which candidates are evaluated and trained in various search and rescue techniques, tactical medicine, technical rescue, land navigation, communication, swiftwater rescue, air operations and the ability to work in a cohesive unit. Course days last as long as 16 hours, with sleep deprivation and stress factors playing key roles in determining if a candidate can handle providing care under pressure situations.

The grueling course leaves many candidates on the sidelines. Munoz estimates some 75 candidates will pass the preselection criteria at their sector and start the STC course in El Paso, but fewer than 20 will ultimately complete it and earn the coveted BORSTAR tab worn on the right BDU sleeve above the circular Border Patrol patch.

Upon completion of the STC, eligible agents receive additional specialized training in numerous areas: emergency medical; tactical medicine; technical rope rescue; paramedic; austere medic; load planner; helicopter rope suspension training; rescue watercraft/boat operator; cold-weather operations; personnel recovery; small unit tactics; tactical combat casualty care; operations management and planning; and advanced dive, swiftwater and technical rope rescue operations.

Care for All

BORSTAR enhances the level of compassion toward border crossers. That can escape the media’s and public’s perception of the Border Patrol, which is often criticized by both supporters of greater border security and advocates for those caught crossing. This criticism doesn’t affect the agents or the job they do, because they see the reality.

“One of the toughest cases I’ve responded to,” says Munoz, “was two men, one naked and the other in his underwear, in distress so severe they made a pact: If nobody found them that night, they were going to kill themselves. We were able to resuscitate them and get them evacuated.”

While providing medical care to the people they’ll be apprehending may seem to pose a moral dilemma, the humanitarian mission comes first. Law enforcement issues can wait until the patient has recovered.

“It doesn’t matter who the person is, we will provide care for them,” says Supervisory Agent Thomas Hermosillo, a technical rope specialist with BORSTAR for nine years. “A lot of the people we treat crossing the border are really bad guys.”

Hermosillo is referring to drug traffickers. Agents will treat their wounds and evacuate them for definitive care.

Supervisory Agent Patrick Limbaugh has no problem with his combined role as an emergency care provider and law enforcement agent.

“You know you’re doing the right thing by providing care, but you still have to do the job of apprehending people who enter the country illegally,” Limbaugh says.

In these cases, Munoz says, an agent will stay with the patient throughout their recovery in the hospital. When they are medically cleared, the deportation or incarceration process will begin.

The agents take particular issue with the coyotes who abuse and manipulate vulnerable migrants who may pay as much as $5,000 to cross into the U.S.

“The smugglers are notorious for lying to groups of migrants,” Munoz said. “They may point them in a direction and say the road is only a mile away while it really is 20.”

That’s when migrants can get into trouble. But since word got around the migrant camps south of the border that BORSTAR is available if they get into trouble, many coyotes, and even drug smugglers, now carry cell phones in case of medical emergency.

Munoz has confronted groups as large as 85 by himself and 150 with other agents.

Tales of the Border

Hermosillo says it’s not uncommon to be called out for a drug smuggler who is unresponsive because of heat exhaustion. When agents arrive on scene, they will find the smuggler in one spot and the drugs often concealed not far away.

“It’s kind of amusing that after we treat them with an IV and they come to, they tell us everything, even where the drugs are,” Hermosillo says. “We then have to take the individual into custody.”

What agents find most challenging is locating people who call for help but have no idea where they are along the nearly 2,000-mile border. Munoz says when 9-1-1 calls come in, there are skilled operators who have perfected triangulation and area description techniques to better lead BORSTAR to the patient.

Aiding in finding patients are emergency beacons that have been placed throughout high border-crossing traffic areas. Essentially these are panic buttons people can activate for BORSTAR to respond. Munoz says they’ve been a double-edged sword.

“We may get a call that winds up being a diversion to pull agents from another area to respond,” Munoz says. “It gets frustrating that people will take advantage of our compassion for criminal purposes.”

Arizona Rescue

One recent example of a BORSTAR operation occurred in December in the Baboquivari mountain range in Arizona, where an undocumented male was discovered at the bottom of a deep ravine after falling off one of the range’s treacherous cliffs.

Agents from the Tucson Sector responded in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter equipped with a hoist. “When agents arrived on scene, they discovered the victim at the bottom of a deep ravine on very treacherous terrain,” says Air Enforcement Agent Rafael Madrigal, who was among the Black Hawk’s crew. “The victim needed to be brought up and treated quickly.” 

Emergency responders consider mountain rescues high-risk given the altitude—6,000 feet in this case—and rugged terrain.

An onboard hoist operator lowered an Office of Air and Marine EMT and a BORSTAR paramedic onto the mountain. The duo climbed down the ravine to reach the victim while the hoist operator lowered a litter near him. Agents then carried the man to the litter. Once he was secured, the hoist operator lifted the EMT, paramedic and patient up to the helicopter for transport to Ryan Airfield for advanced medical care.

The victim was stable but complained of injuries to his head and legs and said he had lost consciousness.

Joseph J. Kolb, MA, is a member of the New Mexico Task Force 1 FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team and founder and instructor of the undergraduate and graduate Border Security Studies Program at Western New Mexico University.