by Marlys Hersey
Editor
To be around Border Patrol agents is to hear the phrase “bad guys” fairly often. Until last week, I don’t think I have heard that more than a handful of times since I was a kid playing cops and robbers, which perhaps reveals more about me and my possible naïveté than is germane to this story.
It definitely reveals a lot about the core work of the Border Patrol, which is, as Agent Jeff Johnson notes “what all cops do: figure out what the bad guys are doing and try to put a buffer between them and the public.”
In this case, of course, the “cops” happen to be dealing with a lot of people who are not necessarily bad, but coming here from another country, trying to find a better income than in their homeland, albeit they are certainly breaking the law by entering the country illegally.
Our cops in question, BP agents, are also dealing with a small proportion of people, who are really really bad guys – the narcotrafficantes (drug traffickers); because the monetary stakes are so high, they will stop at nothing, even murder, to get their products to their consumers.
This April, the State Department issued a travel alert for Mexico, warning of increased risk to travelers, citing “violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade…along the U.S.-Mexico border. Attacks are aimed primarily at members of drug trafficking organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials, and journalists. However, foreign visitors and residents, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region. In its effort to combat violence, the government of Mexico has deployed military troops in various parts of the country. Recent Mexican army and police force conflicts with heavily-armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades.”
“It would be nice if we lived in a world where we don’t have that [violence],” said John Smietana, Chief of the Marfa Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, “but we don’t….The bad guys don’t have any rules they have to follow. We do.... Our number one priority is to protect the people of this country.”
Regardless of any of our personal sentiments on these complex and highly-charged matters, the reality is that under current laws mandated by our Congress, the Border Patrol has a job to do – and a growing budget and much brighter spotlight under which to do it.
In the post-9/11-created Department of Homeland Security, of which BP is now a part, there are a whole lot more BP agents than there were five years ago – and more are on the way. Particularly this close to the border and in such a relatively unpopulated area as West Texas, an increase of several hundred more people in the region is really striking.
Here in the Marfa Sector of BP alone, there are currently about 400 agents, an increase of just over 50% since 5 years ago, and, as Public Affairs Officer Bill Brooks says, “If funding levels are maintained and our recruiters are able to meet their goals, we anticipate we will be at 700 agents by the end of [fiscal year] 2009.”
Not only does this mean more agents on patrol in the area and all that implies, but also, there are more agents and their families living next door, so to speak; several times while out in the field and in the office, I was reminded by BP agents and staff that “We’re part of this community, too.”
Agreed. However, for a lot of us, the only regular encounters some of us have with BP – at the checkpoints in the region – are sometimes less than neighborly, to say the least. (I wrote an article about this very issue last summer: “Summer Fun: Exercising My Civil Rights,” July 2007. Available on our website.)
In an interview in his office at Sector headquarters in Marfa, I asked Chief Smietana, a 25-year veteran of the BP with a B.A. in history, why some of the agents with whom we deal at checkpoints are harassing, rude, even hostile. “They shouldn’t be,” he responded.
So why are they? “They all have individual personalities,” posited Smietana. “Human nature. Maybe the agent is having a bad day…. Are they all instructed to be polite, professional, courteous? Yes…. If you run into agents that are not courteous and professional, let us know.”
Until recently, I thought the checkpoints were sole-ly to determine that each person is in the country legally – probably because the agents usually greet us with “U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Immigration Check.…” Perhaps a little more education is in order, for all of us “Our job is not just to stop illegal immigration, it’s to secure the border,” Smietana told attendees to the Border Wall Conference held in Alpine this May, adding that drug enforcement and criminal apprehension are other crucial parts of their mission.
In essence, the checkpoints greatly increase the likelihood that the BP will come into contact with its targets. With 510 miles of border under its jurisdiction – one quarter of the United States’ border with Mexico – the Marfa Sector has its work cut out for it, particularly given the rugged, dry, and remote nature of most of its territory.
“I don’t have enough staff to put an agent every quarter mile [along the border], three shifts every day,” explained Smietana. The checkpoints represent “chokepoints” where geography, topography, and highways funnel most vehicle traffic heading north from the border, giving agents “maximum ability” to encounter as much traffic in the area as possible. Individual agents roving in vehicles could only stop so many cars, yet the checkpoints on Highways 67, 118, and 385 and I-10 near Sierra Blanca allow agents to scan nearly every vehicle that comes through the area.
“Everybody gets stopped at the checkpoint as a general rule,” noted Smietana, “and everybody gets spoken to” – unless they have to “flush out” traffic, as frequently happens at the I-10 checkpoint. The few vehicles or persons on foot who don’t come through the checkpoints are then easier to find on surrounding ranches and other lands, by roving agents. Sometimes ranchers and other citizens call the BP to report an unfamiliar vehicle or something out of the ordinary. “We have gotten really good tips,” noted Smietana, “from people seeing something and saying, ‘That ain’t right.’”
“The checkpoints are part of our defense in depth,” Smietana explained. “It’s like a football game. You have lines you try to protect. You don’t want someone to get over the line and score.”
Agents with whom I spoke at the Alpine checkpoint and Chief Smietana emphasized that every encounter with every person there is individual-specific. Agency alerts (“BOLOs” or Be On the Lookout For) or a driver’s demeanor may elicit further questioning by an agent. “It’s not like taking a ticket at a toll booth,” said Smietana.
Common tip-offs to agents are: drivers or passengers who seem nervous, out of date registration or inspection stickers, where a vehicle is coming from/what route the driver has taken, any of which may give an agent reasonable suspicion to further his/her questioning or investigation. If evidence is found for illegal entry into the U.S. or other criminal activity, an agent then has probable cause to make an arrest. BP has the capacity then to detain suspects until they can be transported to the jail.
Due to the sheer number of Mexican nationals entering the US illegally, the law allows that so long as they are not wanted for other criminal activity, they may be “voluntarily deported” and returned to Mexico via the nearest port of entry (a.k.a. “taken to the bridge”), without first going through the court system – to prevent flooding the system.
It’s important to note that while, as Smietana has iterated many times, “agents can ask any questions they want to” in order to do their job, under the U.S. Bill of Rights, we are not obligated to answer the questions. (For more information, read “Know Your Rights,” available on www.ACLU.org.)
Even if you have a passport proving citizenship or other documentation to prove you’re legally in this country, an agent may still continue questioning, since he/she’s looking for aberrancies that might alert him/her to other criminal activity – human or drug smuggling, for example.
Specially trained dogs help the BP detect both. The agency employs several breeds of canines (mostly Belgian malinois and German shepherds) trained to detect things they can smell but cannot see: concealed humans, and several illegal drugs (marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and all their derivatives). Each dog is paired with an agent, and the two are trained together as a team, spending 24 hours a day together for nearly all of the dog’s working life.
The Marfa Sector has 18 canines in its employ. Though the canines are not always present at each checkpoint, they clearly aid in the mission. Within a couple of minutes of my arrival at the Alpine checkpoint to talk to Marfa Sector Canine Coordinator Steven Crump, a dog on duty alerted to something in a vehicle, leading to a secondary inspection by dog and agents. (“I’m just from across the street,” implored the driver, standing to the side of his vehicle. “I’m not from Mexico or nothing.” No contraband was found, and the driver was allowed to leave.)
While showing me around inside the checkpoint station, Brooks and Crump mused over the “most devious” ways the sector has encountered for people to hide drugs – marijuana inside sealed cans of jalapeños, and in a propane tank inside a larger propane tank. These tales prompted Crump to show me some of the BP’s finer detection technologies: a tiny fiber optics camera which helps agents see into gas tanks and other tight spaces, and the “buster,” a “glorified stud finder” which detects densities of anything and everything. A tire’s density, for example, usually registers around 36; when the buster reads 100, BP agents have reasonable suspicion that something is concealed in there.
Yet for all the manpower, dog power, and new technology, it turns out that, contrary to popular belief, the BP does not have the capacity to automatically “run” every plate of every vehicle approaching to determine its registered owner. If suspicious, an agent can call in to headquarters to request that information be retrieved. The same goes for whether a vehicle has recently come through a port of entry into the U.S.
According to Smietana, information gleaned about one U.S. citizen who went through a BP checkpoint in Big Bend led to the 2003 FBI arrest of the person (in Houston) who was wanted for aiding and abetting Al Qaeda.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., the Border Patrol has a changed mission. Explained Bill Brooks, “[9/11] brought to the forefront the importance of us knowing who is crossing our border and what their purpose is…. The assumption we were making before that was that most were economic immigrants and… they were not a threat. Now, we know the [9/11] terrorists came in legally or via false documentation and we know they weren’t from Mexico, but that doesn’t change the importance of us knowing” who’s coming in and why.
Figuring that out at checkpoints is one thing. Then there’s doing so in Bend National Park. Agent Jeff Johnson, stationed in the park for four years now, cited the “size and scale” of the park as the “most daunting” aspect of his job. Johnson and his co-worker, Agent Sam Acosta, are responsible for patrolling the entire park, requiring a lot of travel in vehicles, on horseback and foot to “cut sign,” or find indications of recent activity from possible illegal aliens.
Illegal immigrants are either, says Johnson, smuggling drugs, or they’re coming to find work farther north and they’ve heard it’s easier to cross through here. Because the desert is so harsh, most illegal immigrants stick to routes where there are known sources of water – up Tornillo Creek and then along one of three paths, or through the Castolon corridor.
Routinely, Johnson and Acosta check various points along these corridors for footprints and for other signs of recent activity at “lay-up spots.” Sometimes they get calls from the public to tip them off.
It’s not uncommon for the economic immigrants to get in such a desperate bind that they actually call 911 for help or make their way to a main road and wait for BP to show up. “I don’t know how many packages of bread and bologna I’ve bought” for hungry illegal immigrants, said Johnson.
“To be effective down here,” with such limited manpower and vast space, “you’ve go to know the area and the people,” said Johnson, who had the benefit of being able to talk to retired BP Agent Davies who held the position for close to 20 years.
Johnson arrived after the closure of three border crossings from the park to Mexico (though officially closed in 1996, the closures weren’t staunchly enforced until spring 2002) – and he’s relieved at this, saying those closures allow him to better focus on drug smuggling and illegal entries rather than the “miscellaneous crimes” he heard about which used to spill over at the crossings.
The two BP agents work in concert with National Park Service law enforcement rangers in the park in what Johnson calls, “a prime example of interagency cooperation… I know if I have to respond to something late at night, I can call any of the LE’s here. And vice versa.”
Along those lines, Johnson is also an Emergency Medical Technician [EMT} under the BP’s relatively new Safe Border Initiative, a program instigated to, as Brooks put it, “stop people from dying in the desert.” Now the BP trains many agents as EMT’s, and has created Search & Rescue teams. Soon, the Marfa Sector will have ambulance “drop-ins” fitted to the beds of a few of its pickup trucks, transforming them into medical response vehicles.
While Johnson, who worked for nine years in the San Diego Sector, is emphatic that they need more agents and technology here “to intercept immigrants sooner, closer to the border,” to prevent damage to the park (plans call for up to 8 agents to be stationed there in the near future), he noted that in urban areas along the border in which immigrants can mingle/disappear into the population quickly, “you only have 5 minutes. Here, we have 4-5 days to catch them. We have the luxury of time… which is why you’re not going to see a fence here.”
And speaking of border fences… at the Border Wall Conference in Alpine this May, Deputy Chief Carry Huffman pointed out that “these barriers were asked for prior to the Secure Fence Act (see sidebar). I don’t want to give the impression that someone’s telling us to build a fence.”
Of the 510 miles of border under the Marfa Sector’s patrol, it has asked for 4.63 miles of wall/fence/barrier at Neely’s Crossing (just down river from Fort Hancock, TX) and 6.1 miles at the Port of Entry at Presidio, TX (3.05 miles on either side).
At the same conference, “to give you perspective on why we think this is a good idea,” the chief and deputy chief showed a video and told tales of how overrun and violent things were on the border between San Diego, CA and Tijuana, MX in the mid 1990’s. Johnson corroborated those stories from his first-hand experience.
A crackdown there caused the drug traffic to move to weaker spots to the east (Arizona) where the BP was “unprepared.” Smietana, Huffman, and Johnson all talk optimistically about not being caught off guard here, about preventing the Big Bend from becoming the next Arizona. (For more on this, read our June 2008 article “Big Bend National Park Superintendent Addresses Sierra Club, Emphasizes Border Reinforcement” on our website.)
Plans call for reinforcing the already-existing levee along the Rio Grande on either side of the port of entry. “We think it’s going to increase security, prevent Presidio from becoming an attractive alternative,” said Smietana. “I would love for the apprehensions to stop, for dope smuggling to stop, for our agents to be bored.”
And Smietana drives home the point that the enhanced levee is just one tool to better funnel illegal immigrants to where they can be apprehended – to be used in conjunction with lights, surveillance cameras, more manpower.
In May, BP said it anticipated that bids from building contractors would be back by June and the enhanced barrier to be completed by December. When I asked Chief Smietana in late July about the timetable, he was less certain: “We’re still waiting for Washington, D.C. to make decisions. They’re doing it across the entire Southwest Border. It’ll happen when it happens.”
Just before we went to press, it became public that contractor bids for the six miles of fence were rejected by DHS as they were too high. Commented Brooks, “We’re currently studying alternatives. When we have an alternative design, we’ll put out a request for proposals.”
Last fiscal year (Oct, 2006, to Sept, 2007), noted Brooks, the BP as a whole apprehended 876,000 people (on both borders); of those, 144,000 were wanted for crimes other than illegal entry.
Even with such a vast expanse to patrol, morale seems high. (The Marfa Sector covers 165,000 square miles, “from just down river of Fort Hancock to the Terrell County line on the south or downriver side,” said Brooks, and includes the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma) “We know that the things we’ve done to this point are effective,” said Brooks. “They are physically effective, and they have had a deterrent effect. The more people we prosecute, the fewer that try to come.”
Despite the increasing violence along the Southwest border, the agents I met exude a confidence that they are being effective, that their efforts amount to more than merely putting a finger in the dam, so to speak.
Yet, concedes Brooks, “the dam could burst at any time.”
Smietana noted that while apprehensions are down, drug smuggling is increasing in the Marfa Sector: “That’s a major threat. This area of West Texas has always been involved in smuggling of sort.”
Still, Smietana is buoyed by the rapport he feels BP has with the community. “We’re received very well. We listen to input. We may not be able to do everything they want, but we listen. And they listen to us.”
Johnson took that notion a step further, proclaiming, “You may not understand or agree with what I do, but I’ve taken an oath. That doesn’t mean I am going to do it like a jack-booted thug…. I can do my job compassionately when it’s warranted. I don’t think you have to mistreat people to do your job.”
To contact the Marfa Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, call 432.729.5200. Or call the national toll-free hotline: 866.581.7549.
is a bill passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. Bush October 26, 2006 which:
* Authorizes the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing along our Southern border;
* Authorizes more vehicle barriers, checkpoints, and lighting to help prevent people from entering our country illegally;
* Authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to increase the use of advanced technology like cameras, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles to reinforce our infrastructure at the border.
Source: www.whitehouse.gov
(Note: Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama both voted in favor of this.
Year Apprehensions Other than Mexicans Marijuana (lbs) Cocaine (lbs)
1999 14,952 1,028 56,734 135
2000 13,689 838 67,299 2,851
2001 12,087 980 59,580 466
2002 11,392 1,068 84,714 295
2003 10,319 842 72,043 1,235
2004 10,530 794 64,9285 284
2005 10,536 968 69,847 153
2006 7,520 729 75,200 262
2007 5,536 524 75,347 406
2008
thru June 4,282 459 54,645 20
Note: June, 2008 versus June, 2007 figures are:
Apprehensions: 4,282 versus 4,329 individuals
Other than Mexicans: 459 versus 418 individuals
Marijuana: 54,645 versus 47,303 LBS.
Cocaine: 20 versus 57 LBS.
Source: Public Affairs Office, Marfa Sector USCBP.
Ever wondered how much agents make and what’s expected of them?
“Starting salary for BP agents is about $35,000. This can vary depending on law enforcement experience, educational experience, etc. After three years, the salary level is about $75,000. That includes a two-year intern program. Base salaries are the same but there is a locality adjustment that applies to all Federal employees i.e. if you are a GS-11 in Washington D.C. you make a little more than a GS11 in Marfa, Texas.
There is a mandatory requirement that Federal law enforcement (not just Border Patrol) retire at age 57. For full retirement they must serve at least 20 years. Therefore they must enter on duty prior to their 37th birthday. Presently there is a temporary waiver in place that applies to the Border Patrol only. We can recruit up to age 40 and for those individuals, the mandatory retirement age is 60. This was put into place to allow us to recruit more from the military and is temporary as we try to reach the goals mandated by Congress.
Agents undergo refresher or re-certification training on a regular basis. For instance, every Border Patrol Agent must re-qualify on his firearms each quarter. There are also a number of different opportunities for Agents to be trained in different subjects i.e., K-9, search, trauma and rescue, EMT, tactical operations. Too numerous to mention.” – Bill Brooks, Public Affairs Officer, Marfa Sector
U.S. Customs & Border Patrol is looking for “candidates interested in preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States; detecting and preventing the smuggling and unlawful entry of undocumented aliens into the United States; and apprehending those people found to be in violation of the immigration laws.”
Applicants must:
* be under age 40
* be a U.S. citizen and resident of the U.S.
* be fluent in Spanish or be able to learn the Spanish language
* possess a valid state driver’s license
* pass a thorough background investigation, medical examination, fitness test, and drug test.
New hires must successfully complete a 55-day paid “Basic Academy” training at the CBP Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, N.M. Training includes such topics as immigration and nationality laws, Spanish, physical training and marksmanship. An additional 40 days will be required, past the 55 day Basic Academy training, for those that need Spanish language instruction. Border Patrol Agents must be willing to work overtime and shift work under arduous conditions, and be proficient in the use of and carry firearms. Border Patrol Agents are subject to random drug testing. They may also be sent on temporary assignments on short notice and on permanent reassignments to any duty location. All Border Patrol Agents start their careers along the Southwest border.
Source: www.cbp.gov
“There are no surprises in immigration law,” said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Jeff Johnson (above, at Fossil Bones Exhibit in Big Bend National Park with Deadhorse Mountains in background). “The only surprise is in how and when…. I’ve never met a person who was surprised that I was enforcing the law.” Johnson is one of two BP agents stationed in the park. (Marlys Hersey, photo)
ABOVE: BP agents at the checkpoint on Hwy 118 put a canine on duty through a test drill. The Marfa Sector employs 18 dogs trained to detect things they cannot see - namely concealed humans and illegal drugs. When a dog detects one of these, it sits down to alert its handler, with whom it spends its whole working life. The dogs must be re-certified monthly. (Marlys Hersey, photo)
ABOVE: Marfa Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Smietana in his office at HQ in Marfa. Chief since December 2006, Smietana says this role is “one of the greatest jobs a person could have. I still have to pinch myself that it’s real that I get to be chief of a sector.” The Marfa Sector is responsible for 510 miles of the U.S. border with Mexico, 1/4 of the southern land border. Smietana has worked for BP for 25 years; his career has taken him, in various capacities, from the El Centro Sector in S. central CA to the Houlton Sector on Maine’s border with Canada, to the Laredo Sector in TX, and as a special agent in Omaha, Nebraska. (Marlys Hersey, photo)
