U.S. Customs and Border Protection says agents suffered multiple gunshot wounds during the incident that happened around 8 a.m. Thursday. It happened about 144 miles off the coast of Cabo Rojo in Puerto Rico. The agency said the agents were airlifted to the Puerto Rico Trauma Center and an investigation is underway. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the officers were working for the agency’s air and maritime operations unit. He told a congressional hearing that he had been informed of the “tragic loss of one of our frontline personnel” and said “many others were seriously injured.” “These are brave members of our air and sea operations in U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Mayorkas told a Senate panel Thursday in revealing the shooting. “So the difficulty of this job cannot be compared to the difficulty that our frontline staff face every day. Their bravery and selfless service should be recognized.” Air and Marine Operations employs approximately 1,650 people and is one of the smallest units of CBP, the largest law enforcement agency in the United States. It uses aircraft and sea means to stop the illegal movement of people, drugs and other goods. The unit detected 218 “conventional aircraft incursions” on US soil in fiscal year 2021, seized 1.1 million pounds of drugs, $73.1 million in illegal currency, made more than 122,000 arrests and rescued 518 people, according to CBP.
