A man named Roberto Esquivel from El Paso, Texas, has been sentenced to 19 years in federal prison for the attempted murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a routine immigration stop in New Mexico.
The court documents mentioned that on Jan. 5, 2023, 25-year-old Esquivel was stopped by a Border Patrol agent on New Mexico Highway 146 for a routine immigration check, La Daily Post reported.
The agent saw other people in the car, who he thought might be undocumented immigrants, and asked Esquivel to get out of the vehicle. Instead, Esquivel pulled out a gun and shot the agent twice in the torso.
Esquivel then tried to flee the scene, but lost control of the car, causing it to roll over multiple times. He ran away from the crash site and threw the gun into the desert. However, the officials at the scene caught Esquivel and found the gun he had discarded.
The Border Patrol agent survived the shooting, thanks to his bulletproof vest. One of the passengers needed to be airlifted to a hospital, but has since recovered from the injuries. After serving his prison sentence, Esquivel will have three years of supervised release.
The Department of Homeland Security deals with roughly 4,000 migrants daily. As per a new executive order passed in June, asylum requests have been temporarily shut down at the southern U.S. border.
The government will discontinue this restriction after the daily average of migrants crossing the border falls below 1,500 for a week.
The United States will be facing a massive increase in travelers during the summer months, especially through the South Texas border, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials warned last month.
The Laredo Port of Entry noted that additional pressures on services would be added as more people came into the U.S. through South Texas. Officials advise travelers to get tourist permits online and check Border Wait Times on the CBP website to make things easier.
Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum met a delegation from the United States in June to discuss her plans for security, migration, and trade.
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