Depression in the ranks of the Border Patrol

 Washington Examiner:

The largest law enforcement agency in America has a suicide problem.

Over the past 15 years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has lost 146 employees to suicide. Senior officials became especially concerned this year because deaths spiked early on.

"We were sitting at five suicides, and that was alarming," said acting CBP COO Benjamine “Carry” Huffman in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner.

In the midst of a humanitarian and national security crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, CBP leadership needed to reform its approach to the well-being of its 60,000-strong workforce.

The federal agency became the first government entity to add a "suicidologist" to its ranks in the first half of 2021. Dr. Kent Corso works in the commissioner’s behavioral safety and risk management office and has spent more than a year quietly working on the issue, spurring major changes to the agency's culture.
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Frustration among agents in the Border Patrol has increased over the past 18 months as illegal immigration arrests spiked and agents were forced to release more than 1 million illegal immigrants into the interior of the country rather than remove them. Due to the volume of people illegally entering, Border Patrol redirected half of its agents to transport, process, and watch over people in custody.

While work stress is a significant factor, so, too, were relationship troubles, financial loss, and health issues, problems that it had never helped its workforce deal with before. Corso and Huffman wanted to get to the issue when it was still manageable rather than when people were barely hanging on.

"For years in the federal government, in the military, in the private sector, we’ve played the short game with suicide, and not only has it not worked, but it’s not realistic or sustainable. The long game is changing culture and changing conversation, and that doesn’t happen behind a desk," Corso said.

CBP hired 21 clinicians, as well as 13 psychologists nationwide. The psychologists will serve as initial points of contact for employees to share any kind of concern, then advise what next steps make sense. Support staff also regularly attend daily meetings to be visible and accessible.
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They are also having trouble finding recruits to join the operation since Biden changed the immigration policy and opened the border.  One of the responses we are seeing is wives of border agents are running for Congress to try the change the atmosphere for the agents.