Border Patrol officials pulled boots from the busy Laredo Sector to assist San Diego Sector agents with arriving caravan migrants.

Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials announced that 42 agents from this busy sector are being pulled from the line to assist the San Diego Sector as they face the arrival of thousands of Central American caravan migrants. The agents are members of the sector’s Mobile Response Team (MRT), according to Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.

The 42 MRT agents from the Laredo Sector are traveling to San Diego, California, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s border security capabilities are being challenged by the Central American migrant caravans, officials stated. The MRT provides the San Diego Sector with additional resources and flexibility to “counter the emerging, changing, and evolving threats” along the southwest border.

“Laredo Sector Border Patrol has deployed its Mobile Response Team to California to assist and augment CBP’s border security capabilities pending the arrival of multiple migrant caravans bound for the Southern California area,” Laredo Sector Interim Chief Patrol Agent Felix Chavez said in a written statement. “MRT has deployed multiple times to provide law enforcement and search and rescue assistance in hurricanes, natural disasters and is answering the call to provide border security assistance as needed in support of Operation Secure Line.”

Laredo Sector officials said members of the MRT receive rigorous training to provide the agents the ability to handle the physically tasking operations in harsh and austere environments.

“The MRT is ready to provide support in specialties that include medical practical skills, multiple tactical skills, utilization of less lethal equipment/technology, tactical interdictions, mobile field force support, crowd control, and land navigation,” sector officials stated.

With 170 miles of completely unsecured border, the Laredo Sector has its own challenges in providing border security for South Texas. During October, Laredo Sector agents apprehended 3,429 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry, according to the CBP’s Southwest Border Migration Report. Those included 121 family units, 268 unaccompanied minors, and 75 Bangladeshi nationals. These numbers are up from the previous October when Laredo Sector agents apprehended 3,350 illegal aliens.