Another Side of the Line: the US Border Patrol, Paso del Norte

in who oh oh oh you're never in the sand that separate another side of the lie in essays were patrol

there he comes back it's very near to mexico oh i've lived my whole life largely on the border and oddly enough of a long river and at the foreign and then an area in new mexico probably make it about the border i would take for granted the farm on that never lived on the border would not

through a very interesting to me to live that close to mexico for long enough ago that that people referred to mexico mexico and the army has a memorial say it was well written the argument more work no they were referred through all my faith though a different view of the plane new mexico or foul and that's a very young age and both interested in and then they're free culture that love their women they're not only in mexico but on much more well thought i have to have that full bore my lap and i feel very clear many of those memories from my childhood and martin an association with abortion i worked of course in the more pro followed dealing directly with another

culture of fatal from a different country and that were them on a daily basis and i know not only is of korea so they through the object of my profession but at end of it goes well and then really developed for your life and fifth with amo people out from my mom from time to time the fire activity illegal alien have heard from later on in later years later and a third of them pride in the amateur ever had a great career in and order law and lead to that mark fuhrman more than my life of wealth this is

his fourth cold mountain gorge they were unarmed dr barry bosworth the immediate border area this book is because in nineteen forty eight they really became my uniform and if i'm mainly for it certainly a bike there is no fourth one and fifty mantra became the informal organization then came the moment to do it then the time went on and then with the first

group from water may also football going on the canadian border and then they end up on the meat for areas phantom point or call backup faith in court for two of the private care what my of that before the first line of this country are going to have some form of immigration laws some control if it will come with a country with a great for this text and also follow the further look cool and killing three or four hours and is now that rick carver lived here for

someone who were to come in for a day would possibly not be exposed to someone or conditions are situation that i was and there but if avian ever knows i'm not going to miss some of you know he comes into a savior from have perspective from a day coming forward and the flow i have totally on the roof that us the mandates that the arduous i could have to find things to read for them for the added all volunteer the states my name is david gorman psalm twenty three years old i was born raised in el paso texas to

name his id and gomez jr and twenty six years old and i was born in el paso texas and in the book hooked approximately nine months i'd turn a book tour because i my brother got interested in the reason why i decided to join the board which was because it i've always wanted to be in some kind of law enforcement on the life issues she's excited by mud is that when i was really worried and she was hasn't turned for me to i guess be alone for sneaking into law enforcement and down the lane again and un intimidated it's very exciting you do you know what the laws are there for an immediately cameron prepares you for percent situations he can only lasted about five months and it really prepares for what to expect on the field of course being on the field they could be a little different at times i do once saw a dead person can now and there's a stigmatizing a little thing and i never thought i'd ever see that

they also encountered a man who drowned they'll pacify department law and that that was not a pretty sight and that can stay with me duties i have so far we have his operation called lying and it's just patrolling the border the first time i mean the rest of my career i was at asarco the call it the morning that one and there was about thirteen and documented immigrants and to me i really got my blood pumping in my heart how i was scared but of course to see eighteen hours with the handle situations almost singlehandedly it i kind of this was in the back you know every day is a different day experience different things can really recall what i was without thinking about alice also a surprise at that there were innocent people and no surprise it in real life lessons i joined this agency it i knew alice i knew what i was getting into saw it i said you know whatever happens is it this is my chosen to deal with it it's what i

have are much my goal is to help you know as much as possible this is going into education now alan gauge kit and more further my education them more likable or cajole them or about situations el paso mrs metzger so for my experiences with the more brittle have been positive i liked the agency of like working for them and come and forty nine for two future i guess over twenty two years my name is a girl aged baby girl and i'm fifty three years old analysts

warn erased presidio texas quite difficult one polling center on the script of what a while not really one of the other not really knowing who they were what they were until of course i grew up some women are going to school and getting into law enforcement and recognizing who they were and what they did more more so than before but i think it had something do with that i see him quite often when i was younger and i guess it crossed my mind a couple of time maybe i could do that someday he was agreeing to the absence of high school i used to see the of work for allegiance and my hometown and economy hinch t m o is supposed to watch on the board or apportion any i didn't get the opportunity until the last thirty seven years old as far as enforcement goes i think you know one of the things it still your mind most of the

instances when you intercept drones on the border at night either by herself with a partner the emotional highs that you go through it's scary but you have to do it how we remember i remember every one of those other things that are the opposite side emotionally are are seeing the public that the poor people are really desperately poor people are to come to this country that but you have to address concerns that theres instances that i've seen young seventeen eighteen nineteen year old guys' nails certainly nothing desperate for something their clothes were ragged ahead no no future no expectations know hopes around on them and there's nothing that they could do to better themselves because of the situation in front of them that said

you know when you're seventeen eighteen nineteen years old your ear full of life here you're out there looking for a girlfriend or a boyfriend or to have good times and in twenty seventeen and eighteen year olds some of instances from people at rest of all other parts of the world and the rest of the world especially the one that we see up close and personal and they can't afford it because i know it's not in their future and that combined with her name and an address fighting for the next meal much less than we think that that's that's that's that's not even stayed with the forest there so many so many things that could happen to you you know or your work in a suborbital mission some are funny some are so a very scary other swimmers can think of i guess

probably try to apprehend out maybe forty years by yourself at night long time that happened to me and you know what cell phone stores one house and control of the discontent so it and you know scary dr levison new and not just in the house and also the minimal or about ten miles away from anybody else but that was solely on stations were you know you were very self reliant and that night and then so used to be a negative thing this whole thing is that is the job really annoy you believe in it and you do and that is to a job a way to make a living and we have to work to make a living we work you mean people just like anybody album along with the general public may see it as something different but we have emotions problem

what are just like anybody else but for some reason we are so part of the rest of the public or early tomorrow i've just been able to get where i am one of them or warning i mean i grew up in a little place little mexican village where question amidst the high with an expectation that they were going to school was cruz gradually merge but back in those days i never thought that one day and find myself in a position like i have no i mean i feel very good with my career and i feel that i have actually had some input into the book is very german and i hope i am i i'm at a mark in maybe in the way that that hispanics have gone through the patrol and i've been able to get to a certain level of management eunice

chapman a short period of time and at the same time be unable to manage people the way i do that i think it's to me it's unique to work you get the most out of people without having to actually know what you can be for building over had any negative feedback from my family or my family though i think nowadays people are more aware of what's going on and why there is a need for immigration more virtual image of that we do there are more tolerant of that the law would be a few people who don't understand reviewed understand and like and that's understandable because you know maybe they've had some bad experiences or their family has been arrested and sent back to wherever but i think the majority of people now they understand the reasons and my friend and that never been

negative about the immigration situation of all i understand that it is the career i chose and now they've always supported me they're used to it now after so many years of work in the cruise ships and so forth one of details at the beginning is the video but there was a very hard but it is a spin in it that seventy years for joy and sitting there was an incident occurred many many years ago in that because for human beings and neil however have we all took an oath

to perform august the best of our abilities but every so often we have become situations in which that in hindsight might have done things different in the situation occurred and as fourteen fifteen years ago in which some of the tragic situation occurred in that we we came upon an individual who was illegally in the united states and we were charged with the responsibility of arresting and removing the person but as it turned out this particular person was employed in a home as a caregiver to an individual who is suffering from wrong with terminal disease and then we had to you know we were supposed to rest and low and that's what we did in hindsight i guess cause i was fairly new lending in the agency and unaware of perhaps procedures that we could've

used to to make the outcome somewhat different but that's something that's been that's been with me for a long time and something that i always remember there was an instant that it becomes a mind quite readily there was an individual that we arrest that we detained there in our normal process and more railings there comes a point in the process and that we have to pass the background parents this particular individual indicated to me that his father was an american cities and of course me being somewhat jaded dealing with so many people have the tendency at times tom bowman i am a listen to what he said but not quite believing what he said but i

inquired further and it gave me some information that made me think that perhaps i knew the czech over the book in it the puzzle a mordant wit which is downtown el paso they all records of individuals american citizens who were at one point i'm required to register with the immigration service and the thirties forties fifties whenever he left the country to live elsewhere and pummeling sales were on his swat so i say well the middle bit which at the departure of the quantum orchard so i went out and checked the porch records and i found a photograph of an individual that was a spitting image of the individual that had detained and and so pulled up a little corner walk that back to where the individuals and i had there was some bottles on it's

about information on it and i asked him some questions and was able to respond to them and showed this picture and said that there was a turnout we had to release him because we had reason to believe that it was possible that he was a bit in the united states is nowadays as recently as a couple of years ago i think the immigration service has changed its point of view in that before we were arresting people concentrate on people that have entered the country illegally but now we're trying to do is to prevent or try to deter and so what we do primarily is trying to keep people from entering the country and that's basically what the operation hold the line is all about there are issues that we need that we needed to come from in terms of safety and we have to

we incorporate in all of our agents that what is and should be paramount is safety when you sit on a specific location for eight or ten hours a day you have to always be vigilant you always have to be aware of your surroundings and we have to emphasize that sort border patrol agents in this particular station because we are indigent population chris christie is from that and sometimes you have a nice he won or fear iran to come home because we do work alone by ourselves in santa teresa our nearest backup maybe twenty thirty minutes away in and you never know what you're going to come up on you might come up on a vigil just was led out of insane asylum or or is drunk or high or you may have a weapon or might be twenty or thirty of them and youre the only officer out there it's something that you have to think about cost and

what is the next traffic stop gonna be like you by yourself and you have to remember at all times you know you just have to remember how to go home and do everything i have to go home tonight and you always have that in the back of your mind for fifty the people's behaviors better so the things that i think about anyone or at night i have dreams

you know i get into a situation where i do have to use force american bat of individual or a group of individuals and the thing now is dura ballot are not quite this is not i pull my gun to protect herself or somebody else and all volunteers to click in my mind as a loaded and that's the thing that really really gets me is that people aren't allowed to take my gun but although in this situation ellison a lot of sound in a gun as people and a backer of ever goes back in the balls in the air right and in that situation i never wanna be and there's a lot of times a year a lot of stuff in the media you know about the negative sides of the border patrol in and although the bad thing that we know about how we we abuse people in and how we we are absent how are

prejudiced and aladdin and when she stepped inside that you know the uniform or you ride around with us you'll see it's it's and so there are a lot of passionate people working in this job a lot of very religious people working in this john also and then there'd been many times i've seen it and i know the public there's a scene very much like as we've given money maybe agents will love will give their clothes and they'll take their old clothes know bring him down to the port of entries or they'll give their old shoes away there's a lot of compassion of people here and the public doesn't see that all they see is all you ever hear in the media lot is today you know we see pictures or a videotape of somebody getting in a fight we don't know what the background circumstances of that you know you don't know what happened on the cheap you hardly ever see agents hoping hoping

that elderly year or going to the schools were or for teaching young kids about drones and i just decided i'll cry which would come out i mean we do a lot of stuff and it's it's not really it's not always related to protecting the border i mean it's it's a human jaw it's a very human job and then suddenly comes to mind readily would be about a year ago when now one of the helicopter pilots and for me that there was two and vigils walking through the desert about twenty five miles west of centuries until we spotted a notice that they work they were disoriented walking real haphazardly in circles he called me out when i responded got joe house to begin talking tillman found out that they'd had had any water for gone on to have three days or what little water they get ahead tom macias come on top of that they've got their water out of an old pickup truck the profound rusting out in the desert

the only food that they had had was a orange peel that they had found inside their pickup truck and so they've been eating an orange peel for the past two or three days and drinking this very nasty water law to the individuals and now you know water that i had and took them down to the local dairy queen at which time the dairy queen manager at the time held me we both were both gave him enough food enough water to sustain them until we get him back to the processing center where they were returned to their country and they were very grateful for that so the things that that really gets me is knowing that we as americans take her advantage our way of life you see many times on a daily basis the people it come across the that that look at you and then see you with the things that you have and down and you start talking to women to find out there no electricity

no world burning tires and i know it's not to help make the clothes they wear usually handed down to review until more than three or four sizes bigger than them what they should have issues many of the medical problems a hello there it's it's not a problem just of mexico alone i you know you see a lot of it from the other country central america people coming from european countries russia or asian countries we do have it very well as americans and we should really stop in and take don't take for granted but never take for granted what we have this is a special country and we've we've got a lot and that's one thing about me is it's how we as americans can take that for granted

virtually the man is michael b jordan i'm originally from douglas arizona soup or as a marble collegiate other senators the mexican station and unintelligible port fourchon it's been around since the inception of our beginning of the war for itself they have the fourth battalion motor unit all the way up to lie to non believers in the seventies and it was disbanded for some reason or another and it was brought back in the nineteen eighty seven in this area here there's a lot of a childhood he drained her fantasies are fulfilling what they were called warrior right in the range and also for kids to sing on tv

someone comes true riding horses being around him also here in washington from horses and people are on horses literally beer for the breeder people the atom in our more than the human star but also are you also in the same family of the novel predictor don't know the group anonymous the gym is your outlook on life and the end people and animals that impact of that was that as a person as a whole bunch of more joe according to former senator and the baking or yogurt and none of the new owners of nichols canyon or even now well for a for robert of all we use an extensive at night and they're very good at weasel we are you as your instincts like that they can now see people hundred yards away slip

away and also they're very good at their law firm a good night vision depth perception that we use them nearly zero two years will need a lot of very safely and yeah yeah dr they are we have to put forward and has a lot of history you know part of me i used to run an announcer going to el paso and the lawful partner in its logo on quality plans because the old ones and moved to the river and along the endgame right one as far as the newer history up on jewelry on and are your

bootleggers years of coverage you're also there in the prohibition era and now we have the other people are and nana said that the trains them and also you have your drug smugglers would like to use these areas because of the wide range that we have here in the open desert and of course your people seeking entry into an airspace austin's group this week here the close proximity of the of the tracks were low road to the border is a more primal aereo for for bandits

to get the trains and you know it's only hops given job but as you can see right in this area years maybe not lessened twenty yards between the border and the fence itself so it lends itself to be in an area where were all these planets will be a legal self rule quote the political week is both lowe's license and for them to be but other is minnesota's of world leaders have been hurt by other people and not those of most of them are minors i hate to see anybody hurt but more more so a border point and that gets her nose swells of stuck in my mind and i love oh the insulin that really stays on was an agent

most of my wire man and the end result was not very periphery the personnel of violations then the ball being a really bad dancer limits of what the record of it and step forward the thing is a lot of children were delivered well on the bright side of it and i've seen a lot of the things also people and a lot of people both sides legal and illegal so that's all about the upside of a lot of the people here like to say it's a in all the people be another bad side you know down another far as financially and i wanted to commune as days two of our work gets upsets a downside it's makes me a there's sadness to that but

a lot of oil we do a lot of oil a lot of the attacks that we do it goes and what we want to normal on the corner or you know they're having a ball while abuse but what counts is what really is what's inside your heart and that helped us was we want to do it you know in urban even after we do that so that would certainly feel inside and which you know which are morally obligated there's been a lot of things have gone on which to maintain my enthusiasm to stay warm or i've had several opportunities to use my yard well the background of pinon and robin firefighting immersed in madison search and rescue so nineteen eighty seven i was a will start a search rescue teams the first one the board for another tie we had the

cholera for five agents and buy the towers down with weir about thirty agents already him to solve more search rescue are training are high analyst who trained as well and we spent years before he's come a long way now we have search and rescue teams are long and he whispered around san diego normally than arizona based are not a few teams down in the lower end of the rio grande el mccallum and also more public so we we put efforts to promote something that they haven't done before as we often have or drownings and the river the elites don't understand how to convey july kurds we started a program that three years ago with issues like brings to the agents so set up not being helpless and not being able to do something there are agents can go and throw on life brings to the elites and pull them out

and get them to medical support without losing somebody and that come along when we saved many many people and just past couple years just with a life ring a restored we have agents of that are trained paramedics like and why these out of you to have a medical director so there's a lot we can do verses of what we couldn't do years ago getting back to search and rescue there was an incident involving one of our agents on his way back from a checkpoint here horse band tilly the most severe pl crushed him inside the vehicle and where this was located was an area where there was no we amass book i was an emt and received a call and we went down to where the action was and was able to get down till paso city and motor three hours do that and this guy had a broken neck and i had to take care of those three hours or allman traction to like get help to cut another vehicle

that was a catalyst to get the search rescue programs for of course it's still got one up against several walls but we eventually did other residents with drug trafficking gain in the shootings it's enough to look for some great years of people perhaps hi we pursued since i weakened to those in the adrenaline rush and the impacts that can happen in a pursuit an armchair quarterbacking whole thing afterwards we'd on it and also a new deal with the public come to traffic fatalities or she would've been shot and killed on a long boarder elizabeth shaw it's not like we haven't seen any of the swing era and they can they can be on the jet to take the perspective of the unknown is turning things better because it's been most rewarding aspect of our

mike who are startups are drastically with an impact that you can measure the impact on that by statistics by the number of answers you were involved in the number of people you actually saved had legions train to take your situation comes up that was that was important my name is danny hines and supervisor border patrol agent with the historic trial in el paso texas service since nineteen eighty six i started out in california worked other areas of immigration and came back to portugal in nineteen ninety one i'm currently assigned to be a slider station here in el paso texas along with supervisory duties some also the commander for this search trauma and rescue team or start ain't here in el paso and we do that as a community service to el paso texas area as well as new mexico areas

have right now on the starting anytime someone's last tour in the mountainous areas in the surrounding areas of el paso new mexico we respond we did this community service we don't charging money for it as they do with them or patrol i was given up or tuning work foot patrol in this has been a few years ago that and group of agents were selected to work with the el paso pd walking the beats downtown in and found dead there really rewarding because you didn't meet the public face to face and they got a chance to come up and talk to listen ask questions that normally they wouldn't because we would be in vehicles sold it's it's not so personal when you're walking downtown the people feel more comfortable having to give them an opportunity to learn a little bit more about them or patrol agents and realized that we are human beings and we're not always just there trying to stop someone or or you know cause any negative effect on

people's lives didn't they start realizing we're there to help them gave them information assisted them the police officer i walked with we apprehended several see a purse snatchers and shoplifters sin sometimes to wear around people who were attacked you know right there in the downtown area is one of the most rewarding times in my career because i felt like i was really able to help people out in the position now is it in and probably the other marshall warren times was as the starting commander just being on the starting and we've been called out this year alone about ten times anywhere in india texas area as well as new mexico areas that we've gone up and is rescued children that were lost for several days and to return them back to their parents you know this is a really good feeling when you see the parents of the kids filing the depth after two or three days we are separated ourselves right

and there's a lot of times there were others search teams that were called out also but maybe due to them having a lack of equipment or manpower they were unable to go in to the search area as far as we did so it fell very good not only as a nation that is a human being that you can do that will be extra enough find a person bring him back safely and the ones that were injured were extremely happy to see as you know and be able to put them on a stretcher and bring him down to where maybe a few hours before we found and they didn't think they could do and then analysts say the evening in those are probably the two most memorable times you know i was getting up to me as a volunteer to work with her levi wrangler factories and they had about a hundred and twenty people they want to become us citizens in i taught tm us citizenship classes well as the english as a second language to help all these people go through their own naturalization

test and it was done on a volunteer basis but if i didn't have to the training and background in bora patrol and immigration you know i would not have been able to do is get a job and so on they said it and so those were the average is probably three times that they're really maybe glad i was with the borg drone with immigration law was able to help other people out currently in the el paso area we only have approximately thirty females and i'm fortunate enough to have been selected as so one of three female supervisors that the el paso sector has in the el paso sector are twelve stations probably are around a thousand agents now we're doubling up bunning and getting new agency end and when i started out there was even less females i believe that we're told now has about six thousand agents cannot adapt there's only about a hundred and fifty females so when i came into the war of toll was a real challenge

i think in your females can can tell you that sen and they do the same work that any male agent deaths in the same opportunity said there i've never had a problem with anyone that any of the male agents three main any different or special they'll work itself is very rewarding experience that i've had to not only working for a patrol immigration are tremendous them in i think anyone that has said that's in a more troll that male or female that has any future plants are moving up a lot but we're told as presenting it i think a lot of the public lot of people here in the united states the ones that sometime soon or it will be against the chinese state that's just one night agents and see how tough the job is at times and how

dangerous and also see that it's not easy but agents to always stop these people from mexico who believe in your country because they do want a better life and they do need a job to support their family agents understand that and share that passion when they'd sit on this badge very privileged to have this job very honored to do the job that a lot of people wouldn't do for this country and their ally agents that i had seen the person if their sandwiches the flavor by the way gone to the house have called the wise to bring in sweaters for the aliens to help them around christmas time i think they'll be a good thing in toys and bicycles and clothing and parliament inbox is full and then all the aliens that they may catch people mexico

there come here across within a week before christmas given all these voices and bikes and goodies unit to families that we can so they have something to go home with a given a dial to a child who's never owned a diner line or bicycle to literally would probably never ever have his family be able to buy some of the public would see both sides of this point that yes we have a tough job to do and then we weren't here to do it i think that the public would see a lot more problems with in the united states that along with some of the hard things that we have as agents have to face every single day there's a lot of they take home with them and they have health summit of bandits out here to pray on the females well as the moderate him as cia agents then it's probably not so much the philippines and mistreated or they're women be at that including myself this time she wanted to take

that and say you know this is really tough for me to handle that somewhere you muster up the strength in me feel that you know your job what you're doing for this country's what i myself i immigrated here from holland and for me it is to work with the united states and as hard as it is some days to face all the things that you do on a daily basis colin nineteen fifty one hour through the left training academy are available powerful texans the fight for a mouth call a package bring their petty came in the cellar a little bit west of pickup to beat mostly a valley marty are dated in the more pro when the country weren't so sad truly lay didn't like it is now

on like it was later in my career we did spend a lot of time out patrolling the countryside looking for any family led him and course of bob like this where the water dirt track them just like it did to the attack in law mother lived here than a year ago or so your hotel i came to know they've bought and they would be used today you know would really late and if they were traveling cross country and if they made him for slow know this location he would like to come to a foreigner if like the patchy beard and it's like you know i would be would do if we were barefoot a new honor for here in the country did you know and when we're going to pay it's a spot on your coming through

and they're frequently there my career and still typical peaceful and you can think about that if they have to play fear and i'm really interested in history and meyers bateman mr falk they're not known quantity of illinois and they tended to be a little different class of it and then that they were predominantly rural type people might call o'mara of the or probably the pen and plasterwork and field type and a video from rural mexico that if they were used to hard work hard here when they entered a country they were pretty as sacred beer they didn't want to broadcast their prime field they tended to walk through more desolate isolated areas and

as the french aid throughout the year for the less and less severely ill infirm for the rural farm workers and there were more moral it's a tight fit in very well they were not quite used to assign hard pitch to learn here haidian weren't they can go up maybe the highways and the roadways and were not quite so elusive infected we as tickets at and commonly that would enter somewhere west of el paso whale powerful and an adult well and possibly walk two or three weeks to their destination of pounds of coral point north of lockers and walking down into the desert and then our water water they could find like the little time that we looked at down the sign canyon or what or one male like a fireman subsist on water they could the same way if they really care about a lot with the macarena a small our food

but they were tough people are used to hardship and make a wall and walk and walk and walk and wall after great admiration for mcauliffe they are they certainly have made an effort to combat and kale regard the fact that they were only us our law from us remember we were so as they go off inside lawyer phil and every respect for their ability to pay nathalia character i got were from other relationships that there we get there were some of the very people are we arrested and sometimes a good beard of camaraderie with plaintiff in the world often side and fans those they were here today back in the area around the packed you can you know there was a

and i am their name of antonio's about fifty years old we have another radio rocks on wherein whispered that even the farmer in a golden wearing very makeshift camp they brought supplies through from time to time in the event though they are very korean rocco bluff there were slave there are probably are and then you go down the hill and if they could roll it harder for the truck to get hurt on this album or if you have to pick up the rocks and have a delay in milan down their role now my hero of probable or when the dump truck came to pick up the load he picked up they drop individually and put it in the back of that dump truck and there renee i paid five hour followed the hard way to make going to the tough hard and david kilgour a real life guy and

they look winded we have like to say we have pre match for lakers they've been no he was mentally ill at an hourlong out there to arrest them lot more are human said their families a more pro association them there were four who would think a lot of people would come away air and so it's always been an odd days a much different from what you're i would go forward an issue but nonetheless though favor allowing for the walls that were enacted in this country to protect the citizens of this country so the someone up their quarrel with your most fearful it would take a very they carry on for a memory about the other party who were all of the moment when all

the way up and ali g and i can say they are for them and the normal for fiction want to sign up or not but i can fail and clothing for my apartment iowa's always oddly if i'm fairly convinced that my job was important to the world they knew nothing and there i felt that when i started and i felt even more there really is overwhelming

kate hanni kate's bikini and those bills by the companies banks the key piece