So What Is It That Curtis Does on the Border (and what about that fence the government said it will build)?

Right now, I am being trained as an agent. I've been to the Border Patrol Academy, a nearly three month experience, for the last month I and 2 fellow trainees have been with a training officer in the field and will be with him for two-and-a-half more months, and then I will be assigned to a journeyman agent for at least a couple of months. By then, I should be given my own assignments and will work without accompaniment.

What will I do unaccompanied? Well, before I reach two years worth of employment, at which point I can apply for assignments called details, I will essentially do what is called line watch. Line watch consists of several tasks:

First, I will patrol the border. This means driving mostly, but also hiking the area within 25 miles of the international border, utilizing smart border technology and my own training and experience to detect and then apprehend aliens and contraband that crossed our borders by subverting the ports of entry (it is illegal to enter our country outside the POE).

Next, we man an immigration checkpoint within about 75 miles of the border. At this checkpoint, we momentarily detain everyone ensuring that they are US citizens or that they are otherwise here legally.

Also, we patrol the local highways near the border as a back-up to patrolling the actual border and the immigration checkpoint.

After apprehending all of these aliens we must fill out all sorts of paper work. This processing can involve sending the aliens back to Mexico or sending them to a judge to determine whether they can remain here and/or be sent to jail.

Before 9/11 Border Patrol almost exclusively focused on deterring and catching aliens. Since 9/11 our mission has changed. Our #1 priority is to prevent the entry of terrorists and terror weapons. This includes cash and other contraband used to aide in terrorism. Now, we still apprehend a lot of aliens, but in this line of duty we come across and seize an awful lot of dope.

In fact, the southeastern border patrol sector, named Tucson, is on pace to seize over 1 million pounds of marijuana this fiscal year. Tucson sector last year seized over half of all the marijuana seized by the entire US Border Patrol.

We apprehend all sorts of aliens, but due to increased enforcement, but mostly the economy, apprehensions of aliens are down. The places where aliens cross goes in cycles as well. For example, in some parts of Texas and Yuma there are almost zero apprehensions, while the apprehensions in Tucson are up in some parts of the sector. Years ago, San Diego was a flood gate for illegal entry. But a fence was put up there, along with the increased enforcement and so the entries moved east, to Yuma. And so the story goes...

Well, as you move east of Yuma, you get into very rugged but beautiful country. Country that has few border cities, but lots of desert. BP has decided that putting border fences in places a great distance from border cities is impractical; in these remote areas, aliens must travel for hours, and sometimes days to reach a city or a smuggler. Conversely, a fence deters an aliens for minutes realistically. These minutes near a city can be critical, but in the desert mean little--if we don't catch them as soon as they cross the border we've got several hours at the least before they reach their intended destination.

And those details I mentioned earlier. The details range from riding horses and ATVs to catch aliens, to being an instructor at the academy, to undercover work, intelligence, prosecutions, and more. In fact, there is a detail to build vehicle barriers.

Finally, the lie that 95% of guns in Mexico come from the US--only 17% actually come from the US. It's 95% of traceable guns, i.e. a serial number, come from the US.