By Steve Neavling
CBP opened a new facility for El Centro Sector’s Horse Patrol Unit and dedicated it in honor of a Border Patrol agent who died in a car crash.
The Calexico Stable Facility is dedicated in honor of Agent Alejandro Flores Bañuelos, who was fatally struck by a vehicle on March 15, 2021. At the time, he was responding to a car crash on State Route 86 during a dust storm that caused low visibility.
His family and friends, along with Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the new facility.
In 2003, El Centro’s HPU began with four agents and five horses. Today, it has 13 riders and 17 horses, whose primary duty is to patrol the Jacumba Wilderness region and Yuha Desert, where the terrain makes it impossible for vehicles to operate.
The facility, located next to the Calexico Border Patrol Station, has an 18-stall mare motel, a large and small arena, a 50-foot round pen, a one-acre turnout, multiple storage shelters, and three wash racks with multiple hitching posts.
