In a somber ceremony, the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol unveiled its El Paso Sector Fallen Agent Memorial in honor of the 27 agents and one support staff member who have died in the line of duty.
The memorial, a series of plaques adorned with the names of the fallen across the El Paso Sector, was inaugurated Wednesday, Jan. 24, at the El Paso Sector headquarters on Montana Avenue.
Among the sea of green uniforms, Inez Vasquez was there to remember her husband, Freddie Vasquez, who died in the line of duty in May 2021.
“It still feels surreal that he’s gone,” Inez Vasquez said, noting the milestones she’s seen their two children, who were 8 and 10 years old at the time of Freddie Vasquez’s death, clear in their father’s absence.
She remembered her husband as an amazing agent, but even more so as an amazing husband, father and a “very selfless human being.”
“He was very proud of being an agent,” she said. “He’s greatly, greatly missed.”
Whose names are on the memorial?
The names on the plaques at the new Fallen Agent Memorial date back as early as 1919 and stretch well beyond El Paso, as the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector covers all of El Paso and Hudspeth counties, as well as the entire state of New Mexico.