A View From the Border (Day 3): “These are the same folks you seen down at the Home Depot every day”

Here is the latest in a series of blog entries this week from UC Davis law students visiting the U.S./Mexican border in southern Arizona.  Yesterday, they rode with a Border Patrol officer.

March 19, 2007

Day Three Today

we went on a “ride-along” with border patrol agent King. First, he gave us a brief explanation of the Tucson sector Border Patrol structure. There are eight stations that cover 262 miles of border, 80% of which he said was protected only by three strand barbed wire. The wall separating Mexico from the US at Nogales is only two and a half miles long. Nogales is the busiest station in the sector, with 500 agents. Besides immigration, Border Patrol is also concerned with stemming the flow of drugs into the US. They seized 616,000 pounds of marijuana last year. King states that the main mission of border patrol is to stop terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from coming into the US. To that end Border Patrol has also tripled the number of agents on the Canadian border. Moreover, agents are concerned with preventing criminals from entering the US. King cited a Border Patrol statistic that 10% of the people apprehended have criminal records. Border patrol agents go through a five month long training program which involves studying criminal law, statutory law and immigration law taught by a senior agent. In addition, every agent is required to speak Spanish and King explained that the agents must master 2 1/2 years of college Spanish during this five month period in order to qualify as an agent. The Four Star unit is responsible for “search, trauma, and rescue.” Because of the extreme heat – often a month of weather that exceeds 110 degrees – according to King, Border Patrol is transformed into a “Search and Rescue” team during the months of May to September. In 2005, the Four Star unit rescued 950 people and in 2006 there were 660 rescues. He cites that last year 164 people died and in 2005, 216 people died. (These figures are lower than those of the humanitarian groups such as No More Deaths.) King explained reasons that an agent might be suspicious that someone is an “illegal.” For example, if they see someone with brush on their back or leaves in their hair this might give rise to reasonable suspicion. As he stated, “there’s no one reason for someone to be dirty when they come into the United States.” Also, if someone has water lines on their legs, this might indicate that they’ve been wading through the tunnels. The Border Patrol uses different types of technology to track immigrants, including seismic, infrared, and magnetic sensors in the ground, various types of mobile and stationary cameras located throughout the border region, and one unmanned aircraft that patrols the border from several miles up but can focus in at ground level. King suggests a tighter border with more cameras, one every five miles, to allow the agents to see where migrants are crossing and be able to quickly respond to them. We drove with King from Tucson to the Nogales processing station where migrants who have been apprehended by Border Patrol are held anywhere from two hours to not more than 24 hours while they are processed for voluntary departure or deportation. We walked through an area where the men, women and unaccompanied minors were separated and contained in metal chain link cages. This was particularly difficult. There were immigrants sitting on benches or lying on the floor. Their clothes were ripped and disheveled and they had dejected expressions on their faces. There were about 50-75 men, 10-15 women and 8 minors. I felt ashamed that my country’s immigration policies result in such a zoo. We saw several young children and a woman with a baby who was about six months old. Despite the desperate circumstances, she was smiling and cooing at her child. Each holding area had a port-a-potty and one area smelled particularly foul. An officer nearby was wearing a mask, presumably to cover the stench. On our way into the holding area, one of the officers joked, “these are the same folks you seen down at the Home Depot every day.” We also visited the surveillance room where there were about 20-25 televisions set up with transmitting inferences of the surveillance cameras, some of which were infrared cameras. On our way out there was a group of 10-15 older Caucasian women who were also on a tour of the facility. When one of our group inquired where they were from, they told her that they were new comers to the area. King told us that in the winter months sometimes tourists are interested in seeing the facility. Overall King was fairly candid about his opinions and views. We stiffened up a bit at the mention of the Minute Men as espousing “hatred.” He mentioned that people who cross with children and babies are committing “child abuse.” He was particulary concerned with keeping out the ten percent of immigrants who have committed crimes, especially the “murderors, rapists and child abusers.” Interestingly, he acknowledged the futility of the proposal to build the wall along the border. Overall, he seemed to think that most politicians haven’t the slightest idea about the realities of the US/Mexico border. He also seemed ill informed about Mexicans themselves. Although he’s spent time with his wife’s family in Zacatecas, he stated that most people from Chiapas “haven’t walked five miles in their lives” and therefore are totally unprepared for the several day walk across the border.

We were exhausted after our meeting with King!

KJ