The number of CBP worker suicides in 2024 has almost eclipsed 2023 total — with months to go

The number of US Customs and Border Protection workers who have committed suicide so far this year has almost eclipsed the total number who took their own life in 2023 — as exhausted agents say the crisis at the besieged southern border is taking its toll.

At least seven CBP employees have committed suicide this year, just one less than the eight who took their own life last year — with more than four months still remaining in 2024, CBP’s former “suicidologist,” Dr. Kent Corso, told The Post.

There were also eight suicides in 2020 and 11 in 2021, ABC News previously reported . CBP suffered its worst year in 2022, when 15 employees took their own life, Corso, who left the agency in May, said.

There are 60,000 CBP employees, including around 19,000 Border Patrol agents.

The licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst, who joined CBP in 2021, said there isn’t one main reason for the distressing spike — but that extra stress at work doesn’t help.

“Law enforcement officers see a ton of death, they experience loss. First responders are exposed to many, many more potentially traumatic events than the general population, which frankly puts them at higher risk for suicide anyway, just all law enforcement,” Corso, who is also a military veteran, said.

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“It would be in inaccurate to sort of attribute it to one factor, but certainly a combination of factors, including things like a high operations tempo. We’ve seen migration patterns that have never been seen before in history. So the whole nature of the world is changing, and that’s certainly part of it,” he added.

Since January 2021, under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 8 million migrants have crossed the US-Mexico border, according to federal data .

Border Patrol agents, who make up a third of the CBP workforce, told The Post that morale and mental health have tanked under the administration.

“We find more dead bodies in one night than we used to find in a whole year and nobody talks about it,” one agent said.

“I know seeing all these dead bodies is taking an effect on the agents. I know this past week there was a suicide in the patrol and I can think of at least two others in the past month,” the agent added.

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“When people ask me if I’m doing okay after finding another body I usually just laugh and say I’m dead inside, just another day on the border. Sad because that is kind of true. I don’t really feel emotion anymore like I used to on stuff like that, which isn’t really healthy.”

A second agent, who chose to retire recently, said he left because he and his fellow agents “lost” their “purpose.”

A third agent lamented that the “badass” patrol of the past, which was focused on deterring crossings, is now a force of “glorified Uber drivers and babysitters” being forced to let illegal migrants into the country en masse.

“Our jobs are meaningless. Some guys and gals live for this. Taking that identity away from them causes stress,” the agent said.

Former Yuma Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem echoed this sentiment.

“When you’re a service-driven organization or individual, and you join a service and mission-driven agency like the Border Patrol … and when all of a sudden, your value and worth from the highest levels of your agency or the organization like the President, demonize you, vilifies you, removes your sense of purpose, and you combine that with other factors in life … That just opens that demon that you’ve been fighting at home,” Clem, who had worked alongside Corso, said.

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Clem said he was hesitant to solely “blame the Biden border crisis for the suicides,” however, he agreed it has been a “compounding factor” because “they felt a lack of purpose.”

CBP didn’t respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, the agents also bring those stresses home with them, which is “draining” for the families, the wife of a Border Patrol agent said.

“I outright asked my husband, ‘Hey, can you please tell me a little bit more about the suicides? I’m not asking you personally, but can you explain to me how bad is this job that it’s happening a lot?'” she recalled of one of their conversations.

“And he’s always told me, ‘Look, we cannot say that It’s the job itself, right? It’s the fact that everybody has a life and everybody has problems, but then you add this job, and then you add all this craziness and, yeah, it is a lot.'”

While Corso helped implement new programs to “destigmatize” the issue by opening up conversations between agents and their superiors, he said it’s important to continue the work even if things appear to be improving.

“It’s really just the start. We can’t rest on our laurels, and certainly, it’s unrealistic to expect to get to zero, because we’ve never seen any population or organization get to zero … but we can’t get complacent, and that’s, I think, one of the most important things,” he said.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org .

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