SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (Border Report) – Mexican police have three people in custody following an assault on a U.S. Border Patrol agent on Mount Cristo Rey on Thursday afternoon.

The agent was punched in the face and bitten by an unidentified foreign national who was part of a group of four people the agent spotted coming over the mountain from Mexico. Three of the four in the group managed to run back to Mexico but were apparently apprehended by police in the Anapra neighborhood of Juarez that abuts Sunland Park, New Mexico.

Sunland Park police confirmed that at least one of the injured was taken to The Hospitals of Providence Transmountain Campus; one of the injured was in custody.

A Border Report/KTSM camera crew witnessed as the Border Patrol agents met with Chihuahua state police and a Mexican National Guard unit after the incident. The Chihuahua police had three people in custody inside a pickup truck and brought out one of the suspects for border agents to identify.

It was not clear under what charges the young men were detained for in Mexico.

Officials at the scene did not provide any information to the press. But sources said the injured agent was punched and bitten in the face by the individual now in custody.

The Border Patrol late Thursday issued the following statement regarding the 12:50 p.m. incident:

“A U.S. Border Patrol Agent assigned to the Santa Teresa Station responded to a group of undocumented non-citizens that had crossed the border illegally in the Sunland Park area near the Monument 2 border marker. While taking the undocumented non-citizens into custody, the agent was physically assaulted and bitten by one of the undocumented non-citizens. The agent received non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local medical facility for evaluation. One subject has been arrested for assault and was taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation.”

The Sunland Park-Santa Teresa area is one of the busiest migrant smuggling corridors on the Southwest border. First responders often are called out to Mount Cristo Rey to assist migrants who slip on the rocks or fall off the border wall.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, a total of 413 border officers and agents have been assaulted in fiscal year 2024 (since Oct. 1, 2023). Six-hundred and 10 incidents of assaults against agents or officers were reported in fiscal year 2023 and 716 in fiscal year 2022.