Assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents fell by 44 percent during the first five months of the current fiscal year. At the same time, the Department of Justice announced prosecutors would be more aggressive in prosecuting illegal immigrants who assault federal agents.

Between October 1, 2017, and February 28, 2018, 230 Border Patrol agents were assaulted in the performance of their duties. The number fell from FY 2017 when illegal immigrants assaulted 413 during the same period, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed.

This represents a 44 percent decrease in assaults, officials stated.

The 230 assaults on Border Patrol agents compares to only 48 on other CBP law enforcement officers.

The agency saw a spike in assaults during the last fiscal year. During FY 2017, illegal immigrants assaulted a total of 786 Border Patrol agents in 324 incidents, Breitbart Texas reported. During FY 2017 assaults on agents increased by 73 percent. That year represents the highest total for at least the past six years.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised swift and sure prosecution for any illegal immigrant assaulting an agent during an April 2017 speech to agents and CBP officers in Arizona, Breitbart Texas reported.

Under Sessions’ memorandum issued that same day, the AG promised, “Prosecution to the extent practicable cases of assault, resisting, or impeding officers engaged in the performance of their duties in administrative and criminal immigration enforcement.”

In January, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses sentenced Elias de Jesus Gregorio de Paz, a 21-year-old Guatemalan national, to five years in prison for assaulting a Border Patrol agent during an attempt to arrest him near Uvalde, Texas.

De Paz began fighting with one of the agents. De Paz slammed the agent’s head, neck, and body into the train causing the agent to lose consciousness, according to court documents.

The illegal immigrant fled the scene and disappeared for a few days. Border Patrol agents encountered de Paz on November 22, 2016, and placed him in custody.

Another Guatemalan national faces jail time as prosecutors in Arizona filed charges of assaulting a federal agent for an incident in December 2017. Two agents patrolling the border on off-road motorcycles tracked down a pair of illegal immigrants who had just crossed the border from Mexico into Arizona. One of the agents located one of the illegal aliens, a 34-year-old Mexican national, while the second agent continued tracking the other man. When the agent tracked down the second illegal alien, the 20-year-old Guatemalan national pulled the agent from his motorcycle and began assaulting him, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials by Breitbart Texas.The assaulted agent’s partner quickly joined him and helped restrain the man until they could place him under arrest. The illegal alien continued fighting both agents until they achieved control of the suspect, officials stated.