Updated: Tuesday, April 29 2014, 10:04 PM CDT

AN ANTONIO -- The job of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is to catch illegal immigrants and transnational criminal organizations, and they're always on rescue missions.

The agency has a new piece of infrastructure that will help them stay closer to the front line. Just last month a station in Eagle Pass added a new helipad for its choppers, and it has improved their response times significantly.

Day to day, U.S. Customs and Border Protections chopper is out supporting ground operations for South Texas Border Patrol. It's now able to land at the Eagle Pass South Border Patrol station now that a helipad and fuel tank were installed.

Chuck Akeroy of Erin Marine is a pilot. He says before the installation, they were traveling or even waiting an hour or two to refuel.

The equipment improves their response time on any mission, including one last week, where they helped ground agents save ten Hondurans from the Rio Grande.

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