see also: in October 2007 News Releases:   Cocaine Smuggler Tries To Trick El Paso CBP Officers by Hiding Drugs in Car Body   Border Patrol Agents in Texas Seize Marijuana Worth $1 Million Hidden Under Watermelons   Fingerprint Check Allows Border Patrol to Arrest Murder Suspect   Border Patrol Texas Task Force Seizes 500 Pounds of Marijuana   CBP Officers at Mail Facility Find Marijuana in Cement Statues, Opium   Tecate, Calif. Cargo Processing Port to Resume Operations Wednesday Morning   CBP at Newark Airport Discovers Man with Fraudulent Documents, False Claim to U.S. Citizenship ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers   ACE: Modernization Information Systems

contacts for this news release

El Paso, TX – U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso today unveiled "Operation Lifeguard", designed to protect the lives of migrants and bring justice to smugglers and guides who exploit them. "Operation Lifeguard" is an extension of OASISS (Operation Against Smugglers Initiative on Safety and Security), which involves a collaborative effort by multiple bi-national agencies that focuses on reducing the smuggling of migrants along the southwest border.

The formal announcement included a media event at Golden Key, followed by a gathering of participants at the American Canal, where El Paso Sector swift water rescue-certified agents and the Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) team demonstrated life-saving techniques that are routinely conducted to assist people in distress in area waterways. The agencies involved include the Border Patrol, CBP Office of Field Operations, Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR), Policia Federal Preventiva (PFP), Centro de Inteligencia Policia (CIPOL), and Instituto Nacional de Migracion (INAMI).

The El Paso Office of the Consulate General of Mexico was also present to participate in the event and observe the swift-water rescue demonstration by BORSTAR. The Office of the Mexican Consulate has produced a series of thirty-second public service announcements for radio that encourage migrants not to trust their lives to smugglers. These announcements will be distributed throughout Mexico in the days and months to come.

The OASISS program, established in August of 2005, demonstrates bilateral cooperation on the border and is carried out in a spirit of shared responsibility as a means of protecting migrants while addressing the phenomenon of migrant smuggling. The program is set up to identify, disrupt, interdict and dismantle alien smuggling organizations through an effective bi-national prosecutorial program by ensuring a higher level of cooperation between both countries, streamlining and expanding current liaison operations, gathering and exchanging data, expediting the timely exchange of information, identifying, interdicting and dismantling criminal organizations and enhancing judicial consequences on both sides of the border.

To date for fiscal year 2007 (through August 31), El Paso Sector registered a decrease in total deaths, down 24% from 33 to 25 deaths in comparison to fiscal year 2006.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.