(Article by Patty McMurray republished from 100PercentFedUp.com)
Only yesterday, a Texas National Guardsman working in Eagle Pass on Biden’s open southern border committed suicide.
The guardsman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Meanwhile, Facebook just shut down the “Proud American Journey” Facebook page (again) with 140,000 followers.
The Facebook page administrator, Sergio Tinoco, is a Federal Agent working for the Department of Homeland Security. Born an only child in the city of Pharr, Texas, to a single mother who still lived in Mexico, Sergio was raised by his maternal grandparents in the United States so that he could obtain an American education. Due to his family’s poor economic means, he had to work since the age of seven in the crop fields of Michigan and those of the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.
Sergio later served in the US Army and is an American veteran. Following his time in the Army Sergio Tinoco then joined the US Department of Homeland Security as a border patrol agent. Sergio has now been serving his government for 20 years.
The purpose of Sergio’s “Proud American Journey” Facebook page was to give border agents a place to go to be inspired and to share positive messages with each other. Thanks to Facebook, they no longer have that ability.
Here are just a few examples of inspirational posts that could be found on the now-defunct Facebook page.
Messages of encouragement for agents who are feeling down or depressed received a lot of attention on the page meant to uplift agents.
And finally, “Get home safe!” a message that all families of border agents can relate to, as they never know if their loved ones will be murdered or harmed by dangerous Mexican drug cartels or criminals who are flowing across our southern border.
This isn’t the first time Facebook shut down the page where border agents can go to read messages of hope and inspiration and share stories with each other. In 2019, Facebook shut down the Proud American Journey page and reinstated it after we were able to help them reach out to our Facebook representative. Facebook no longer responds to our emails or messages asking for help.
Suicide is a very real and serious problem with our border agents, who are left feeling helpless under Biden’s open border policies.
Washington Examiner reports – 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.
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.
Federal data provided to the Washington Examiner goes back to 2007, the lowest year on record for suicides. The number per calendar year peaked at 14 in 2009. As of September, 11 CBP employees have died by suicide this year. In one instance, the victim was not only a Border Patrol agent himself, but his father was also an active agent. Border Patrol agents make up roughly one-third of CBP’s workforce.
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.
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.
They are pushing the workforce to come forward with problems such as trouble communicating with a spouse, feeling tired most of the time, or drinking to excess. By bringing the concerns to psychologists, employees can be sent in the right direction for care, sometimes as simple as going to get vitamins for sleep or talking with a professional once a week about moving through a difficult time in life.
Read more at: 100PercentFedUp.com
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