BORDER AGENT SHOT DAYS BEFORE BIDEN’S VISIT

| FROM THE NEWSROOM | JANUARY 6, 2023 | 8: 05 PM |

Days before President Biden’s, much needed but late, visit to the border, a Border PAtrol agent was shot and injured in nearby South New Mexico close to El Paso where the president said he would visit. The agent was shot multiple times on Thursday after stopping a vehicle around 11:25 am. After the exchange the vehicle sped away on New Mexico 146 north of Hacita and a few miles down the road the vehicle rolled over and crashed. Six people in the car were arrested, with two injured occupants being flown to a hospital in El Paso, just over 100 miles away, for treatment. The agent, assigned to the patrol's Lordsburg, New Mexico station, was examined and released after the incident, which is under investigation by the FBI and the Office of Professional Responsibility with assistance from the New Mexico State Police. Senator Crystal Diamond, whose district includes Hidalgo County, said that New Mexico’s border with Mexico “poses a clear and present danger to our citizens, our law enforcement, and the migrants caught in the criminal enterprise run by the cartel.” Seh went on to say that “while many details are still unknown, what is clear is that today one of our brave Border Patrol agents took a bullet for this country and our community.”