An El Paso man is sentenced to 19 years in prison for shooting a Border Patrol agent

SEATTLE - More than a year after he shot at a U.S. Border Patrol agent, a federal judge sentenced Roberto Esquivel to 19 years in prison, the U.S. District Attorney of Ney Mexico announced on July 19. Esquivel was convicted of attempted murder of an officer, aggravated assault of an officer with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm and conspiracy to transport migrants in the U.S. illegally.

On January of 2023, Esquivel agreed to transport five undocumented immigrants from El Paso to Deming, in New Mexico. According to court reports and the district attorney's office, Esquivel was driving on New Mexico State Road 146 when he was pulled over by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. As the agent approached the vehicle, Esquivel removed a gun from the center console and placed it under his right leg. When the agent asked Esquivel to exit the vehicle, the 25-year-old began shooting, hitting the agent twice in the torso area.

Esquivel fled the scene and lost control of the vehicle and rolled it multiple times. Court reports say that he then disposed the gun in the desert, which was later found by law enforcement officers.

Esquivel was indicted on April of last year and, in his plea agreement, he admitted to shooting the agent and of transporting undocumented immigrants.

The Border Patrol agent survived the shooting thanks to his ballistic vest. None of the noncitizens were seriously injured.

According to NewsNationNow, agents along the U.S.-Mexico border are facing a growing number of violent threats and assaults. In Fiscal Year 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported 571 assaults on border agents and between October of 2023 and April of 2024, 207 more assaults on agents took place. The sector with the most violent cases was in El Paso, registering 49 violent incidents.

So far in Fiscal Year 2024, CBP agents have faced nine assaults with a firearm and five with either a knife or another edged weapon.

According to a report by Alex Nowrasteh for the Cato Institute, there have been 58 casualties of Border Patrol agents between January 2003 and December 2023. The deadliest year was 2021, when 15 agents died in the line of duty, although 13 of them died of COVID-19 and two from car or vehicle accidents.