EDINBURG, Texas – With the brutally hot and humid summer months approaching, Customs and Border Protection’s South Texas Campaign has launched its South Texas Safety Initiative (STSI).
The STSI is a comprehensive, proactive corridor strategy that uses risk-based analysis to enhance search-and-rescue efforts in an attempt to reduce life-threatening injuries and prevent deaths. CBP not only strives to protect the American people from all threats, but to prevent deaths and to stop unscrupulous smugglers who put migrants’ lives at risk.
BORSTAR agent administers first-aid to a distressed migrant within RGV Sector.
STSI continues long-standing public safety and humanitarian measures, practiced by all components of CBP. Some of the efforts under the initiative involve strategically deploying the Border Patrol’s Search Trauma and Rescue team to areas where the greatest need has been identified as well as including EMT-certified agents on Office of Air and Marine helicopters. Additionally, RGV Sector has eight rescue beacons, and plans to deploy four more in the near future. Furthermore, the sector has placed placards on more than 900 landmarks. This includes: windmills, gates, gas wells, turbines and other landmarks. In an emergency, a distressed individual can provide a 9-1-1 dispatcher with the number on the placard, enabling agents to rapidly respond to the area and provided first aid.
No other organization working along the border does more to assist illegal aliens and secure the border community than CBP, dedicating myriad resources to ensure that the federal, state and local law enforcement communities and stakeholders are amply equipped to mitigate severe, life-threatening injuries and fatalities within the South Texas Corridor. The intent of STSI is to assess the South Texas Corridor for areas identified as high-risk for illegal aliens, agents, officers and border residents.
Media representatives are invited to pick up a video highlighting the extreme risk immigrants face when attempting to illegally enter the United States. The video can be picked up at RGV Sector Headquarters, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday at 4400 S. Expressway 281, Edinburg, TX 78504.
The Rio Grande Valley Sector is part of the South Texas Campaign, which leverages federal, state and local resources to combat transnational criminal organizations. To report suspicious activity, call the sector’s toll-free telephone number at 800-863-9382.