Border Patrol’s refusal to rescue an injured man by cutting the wall shows a larger “cultural problem,” former CBP commissioner says

The former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Chris Magnus, said he was disturbed by a recent incident in which Border Patrol agents declined to cut through the border wall to rescue a man who had fallen onto the south side of the wall and suffered a badly injured ankle.

The man waited in pain for about 24 hours before the fire chief of the Arivaca Fire District ordered the wall to be cut so he could be pulled over and taken to a Tucson hospital for treatment.

Magnus, who served as commissioner for CBP from 2021 to 2022, and before that as chief of the Tucson Police Department, reached out to Arizona Luminaria after reading about the man’s ordeal.

“It’s disappointing that, in this case, no [Border Patrol] agent or supervisor would make the decision to cut through the wall to save someone whose life was in danger,” Magnus wrote in an email.

The agency has faced criticism for not doing enough to save migrants in distress.

In 2017, the Border Patrol established the Missing Migrant Program which “seeks to prevent the loss of life among the migrant population crossing the border into the United States.” But migrant aid activists have pointed out what they call a conflict of interest because the same agency tasked with chasing down and arresting migrants is also charged with saving them.

According to Magnus, Border Patrol not quickly deciding to rescue the man “speaks to a more significant cultural problem that’s not unique to the Border Patrol but deeply troubling anywhere in law enforcement when those sworn to protect forget that protecting lives must be their top priority regardless of politics, bureaucracy, burn-out, or fear of repercussions.”

Arizona Luminaria reached out to both Border Patrol and the Border Patrol Union for comment, but did not receive a response.

Magnus called out what he said was an “organizational culture that makes it difficult for agents to speak up, act independently, or make decisions consistent with the agency’s values.”

Those values, he said, include integrity. He noted that on the agency’s website , they claim to be “guided by the highest ethical and moral principles.”

But the culture, in the case of border patrol and sometimes other law enforcement agencies, can sometimes be stronger than core values, Magnus said.

“This was evident in the early morning hours of August 28 in Arivaca, when it should have been an easy decision for local Border Patrol leadership, a field supervisor — even an agent, to cut a hole in the wall and rescue a seriously injured man,” Magnus wrote.

The Arivaca fire chief, Tangye Beckham, said the decision she made was exactly that: “easy.”

“I made the right decision,” Beckham told Arizona Luminaria. “I only should have made it sooner.”

Calling for help

An emergency response incident report obtained via public records request from the Arivaca Fire District revealed new information about the urgency of the man’s medical condition.

Emergency responders twice requested that the injured man be evacuated by aircraft to a hospital, according to the incident report.

As rain and lightning bore down, however, the air transport was twice denied: “declining for weather.”

Beckham first requested the air transport at 9:38 p.m. — about 20 hours after the man had first fallen — writing in the notes that because of the man’s “compound fracture to right tibia” he was “losing circulation to the foot” — what can be a sign of serious danger, Beckham said.

Beckham said that despite having Border Patrol agents on scene, “they were being told by their management that they couldn’t make a decision (about cutting the wall).” Beckham said that workers from a construction company contracted to repair breaches in the wall and do remediation work were also on scene.

“They had the tools,” Beckham said, and they could have cut the wall quickly and easily and saved the man hours of suffering.

She added that Border Patrol agents on scene were “just as frustrated as I was.”

Border Patrol agents left the scene some time after Beckham requested the air transport.

And just under three hours after she first requested the air evacuation, fire department personnel again attempted to reach Border Patrol, according to the incident report.

Shortly after midnight, Beckham decided to cut through the wall. It only took a few minutes, and then they extracted the man and transported him to the hospital in Tucson, where they arrived at 1:35 a.m.

Migrant aid workers say they have lost touch with the man. After brief contact shortly after his surgery on Aug. 30, aid workers no longer know where he is. They’re not sure if he remains in Border Patrol custody or if he’s been deported.

If it happens again

A few days after the event, Beckham said she asked around to get in contact with Border Patrol leadership to establish protocols in case something like this happens again. As of Sept. 16, she hasn’t heard back.

Magnus, in his email to Arizona Luminaria, expressed gratitude to Beckham.

“Saving a life or saving a piece of a wall. ​The Fire Chief recognized that it was an easy choice.”

As for moving forward, Magnus says there is a lot of work to be done.

“When the message that you are always expected to do what’s right, especially when it comes to saving a life, doesn’t make it to the line level, leadership needs to realize the problem isn’t with the public; it’s with them. This culture problem will only change when every level of the command structure in the Border Patrol — right up to the Chief ​​— makes addressing it their top priority.”

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