El Paso, Texas – CBP Border Patrol agents from the El Paso Sector traveled today to Georgia to provide search and rescue assistance for communities ravaged yesterday by a devastating tornado.

 A total of 12 Border Patrol Emergency Medical Team members from El Paso provide assistance near Americus, Ga. as part of a national effort to assist in recovery and clean-up in that community. The El Paso Border Patrol team bring resources that include: nine Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORSTAR) Team emergency medical personnel, two search and rescue emergency medical technicians, an EMT coordinator, and two search and rescue canines. The team will remain on-site until they are no longer needed.

 CBP Air and Marine pilots were to have transported the El Paso contingency via three King Air fixed-wing aircraft, based in El Paso, to Georgia today.

 The national BORSTAR team was formulated in 1998 as an emergency medical response operation highly trained in incidents involving medical trauma and are expert in desert and mountain rescue. The team can perform technically challenging high- and low-angle rescues. CBP Border Patrol in El Paso has provided numerous agents with advanced medical training ranging from EMT status to the title of paramedic.

 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 the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

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