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I went on a Border Patrol ride along in one of the most heavily crossed areas on the Mexico border - here's what happened
I went on a Border Patrol ride along in one of the most heavily crossed areas on the Mexico border - here's what happened
Daniel BrownJul 2, 2018, 23:01 IST
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Daniel Brown/Business Insider
MCALLEN, TEXAS - I was in Southern Texas covering the immigration and separation of families crisis for nearly a day when I got word that I had secured a Border Patrol ride along.
"The Rio Grande sector accounts for about 40% of the apprehensions in the United States," Border Patrol agent Chris Seiler, told me as we drove away from the station a few days later. "The McAllen station specifically is about 20% of the entire nation, and we catch about 300 individuals a day just in this 50-mile span of border."
For nearly five hours last Monday morning, I followed Seiler and agent Rene Quintanilla around as they patroled in and around the Rio Grande River, which separates the US and Mexico.
Seiler and Quintanilla first took me on a boat where I met a few more agents.
For a couple hours, we drove up and down the Rio Grande River, periodically getting off to walk along the trails. The agents said that the boats, which are loud and fast, act as a deterrent against illegal crossings.
Cartels and smuggling organizations often have spotters posted along the river to make sure the coast is clear before they send people across.
Sometimes the spotters even post up in abandoned houses or other structures like the one seen below.
While some people try to walk or swim across, most people take boats or rafts across — and we saw multiple deflated rafts on the US shore from previous crossings.
I asked Quintanilla why some asylum seekers cross illegally, and he said that while every case varies, some are forced to cross illegally by smugglers and cartels.
We next got off at a trail along a large field of sugar cane.
And we found more deflated rafts at the trailhead.
The agents said that one difficulty of their job is switching back and forth between a humanitarian mission and self-defense.
Some Border Patrol agents have been accused of using mistreating migrants and using excessive force. Agents who follow the rules still encounter dangers and difficulties on the job, which takes a toll on them.
Agents are killed, shot at, regularly find dead bodies, and experience a lot of trauma.
Syer even said when they spot a boat trying to cross, that it's not uncommon for the crossers to throw a child off because they know the agents will go for the child first.
Quintanilla also said he (and other agents) do a lot of outreach work with local schools and the low-income housing areas known as colonias, and that several students he's spoken with later credited him with turning their lives around.
The agents later drove me to a run-down town called Los Ebanos, where many undocumented immigrants hide out in abandoned houses. There were also many stray dogs walking around that Quintanilla said they use sometimes to tell if someone is in the area.
We last drove around under the bridges at the main port of entry in McAllen. Despite their sector being one of the most heavily crossed in the US, they didn't apprehend anyone, admitting that it was a slow morning.
