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Border Patrol: On the lookout for advanced tactics
By Bill Brangin
GLYNCO, Georgia — On the cracked tarmac of an old naval air station, the U.S. Border Patrol Academy is putting recruits and instructors alike through its latest rite of passage.
First each one is hit in the face with pepper spray, without warning, while doing jumping jacks. Next, the trainee must draw a service weapon — a Beretta modified to fire plastic dye-filled bullets — and shoot a Border Patrol instructor posing as an “assailant.” The attacker is shielded by a visored helmet and black full-body armor that makes him look like RoboCop's evil twin; the trainee is unprotected and fights as if his life is on the line.
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What might be called “Pepper Spray 101” is the newest ordeal for Border Patrol recruits, who are subjected to some of the toughest training in federal law enforcement. But they are not the only ones facing a stiff test these days.
“We're determined not to reduce our hiring or training standards,” said Charles L. Huffman, the chief patrol agent in charge of the academy. He said the agency is well aware of problems encountered by the District and other cities that expanded their police forces too rapidly and inadvertently recruited criminals and incompetents.
The Border Patrol fields about 8,000 agents. A University of Texas study estimates that the force needs more than 16,000 agents to gain control of the 2,000-mile southwestern border alone. However, the study also concludes that “the Border Patrol cannot increase the number of new agents fielded each year without creating serious problems related to seniority and supervision.”
Gustavo De La Vina, chief of the Border Patrol, has acknowledged that with the nation's economy running strong and unemployment low, the Border Patrol is losing potential recruits to other job opportunities.
To better compete for employees, the Border Patrol has hired an advertising agency, stepped up recruiting at colleges and military bases, joined job fairs and begun to pitch its careers on the Internet, De La Vina said.
The Border Patrol Academy 's course is the longest of the 71 agencies that use the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center . Nestled in this corner of southeastern Georgia amid pines and live oaks, the center occupies a 1,500-acre base formerly used by blimps to scour the Atlantic coast for German U-boats during World War II.
Of the Border Patrol recruits, about 30 percent have military experience and 30 percent have served in law enforcement. Their average age is about 26. For more than a decade, about a third of those joining have been Hispanics, giving the Border Patrol the highest proportion of Hispanic employees of any federal agency. By contrast, blacks make up only about 1 percent.
“We would like to see more diversity candidates coming in,” Huffman said, “but we train what we get.”
Wearing their green Border Patrol uniforms and carrying replicas of their sidearms, the trainees march together in formation to and from classes, chanting cadences. From other parts of the vast complex come the sound of explosions as recruits of such agencies as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms practice blowing things up.
To graduate from the Border Patrol Academy , trainees must pass 744 hours of courses that include intensive Spanish, law, Border Patrol operations, driving, firearms and physical conditioning. A “behavioral science” course offers lessons in stress management and “cross-cultural communications.”
Trainees typically attend classes 8 1/2 hours a day and do about four hours of homework a night. “All of our agents have to speak Spanish,” Huffman said. “We're the only federal agency that has a language requirement as part of the entry-level process.”
And it is one of the few that train their agents to fight through pepper spray. “I wouldn't want to be exposed out in the field and not know what to expect,” said Rey Abrego, a senior patrol agent serving temporarily as an instructor here.
The pepper spray exercise and thorough firearms training reflect what instructors say is the increased danger on the southwestern border, where most new agents are deployed. Not only does the Border Patrol make more arrests than any other U.S. law enforcement agency, catching 1.5 million illegal border crossers a year, but it also annually seizes more than $1 billion worth of smuggled drugs.
Physical training at the academy includes grueling workouts, boxing, “survival swimming,” arrest techniques and other requirements culminating in an arduous fitness test. Failure in any part of the test means failure for the entire course—and trainees must pass every course to graduate.
What's the toughest part?
For two recruits—Herman Arnold, 33, of Corpus Christi , Tex. , and Charles Adams, 36, of Queens, N.Y.—there was no doubt. “Spanish,” they answered in unison as they took a break from handcuffing each other during a physical training class. It is a common response among non-Hispanics who must struggle to become fluent enough to take sworn statements in Spanish on the job.
Like many trainees, Arnold, a Texas state probation officer for seven years, said he signed up because he “wanted to get into federal law enforcement.” Adams, a military policeman for the last 12 years, said he sees the Border Patrol as offering “a better opportunity to protect our country” than the military because it often serves as the first line of defense against drug smuggling, as well as illegal border-crossings.
For Patrick Flynn, a 33-year-old former naval intelligence officer from Wyoming , a turning point came during his first week at the academy. A software company had just offered him a job that paid far better than the Border Patrol, and he considered dropping out.
“I did a lot of soul-searching,” he said. But he opted to stick with the academy. “I'll get a lot more job satisfaction with the Border Patrol than sitting in a room analyzing software.”
The United States Border Patrol, the uniformed law-enforcement arm that patrols 8,000 miles of land and coastal border of the country, was officially established on July 1, 1924. Its goal is to detect and prevent the illegal entry of contraband and undocumented immigrants. In May 2006, President Bush called for an additional 6,000 Border Patrol agents by the end of December 2008.
Workforce: 12,349 men and women supported by sophisticated technology, vehicles, aircraft and other related equipment. (Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office)
Illegal entrants arrested by agents last year: 1.4 million
Number of agents killed while on duty since 1924: 81
Hispanics among agents: 38.4 percent
Female agents: 4.5 percent
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
Among others, an applicant must be willing to: Meet with a Border Patrol oral interview panel and successfully pass the oral examination; and,
- Undergo an extensive background investigation.
- Accept appointments at any location on or near the Mexican border.
- Work alone.
- Learn the Spanish language.
- Carry, maintain, and use a firearm.
- Work under hazardous conditions such as inclement weather, rough terrain, heights, moving trains, high-speed chases, and armed encounters.
Immigrants who have become naturalized citizens may apply.
A SOUR IMMIGRATION EXPERIENCE:
When Student Visa, Marriage and Travel Spell Trouble
By Jennifer Wipf
A personal account about a student visa holder married to a U.S. citizen: Their experience when re-entering the country after a trip abroad, and the less fortunate experiences of others in similar situations.
His student visa was no longer valid after marriage
Granted, no line could seem "reasonable" after that 15-hour journey from Switzerland. But having to wait two hours in the small, stuffy Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) Office seemed a cruel and unusual punishment. My husband Peter had been on a student visa in the United States, and that visa would have been valid for another two years had we remained unmarried. As he slumped over that heap of suitcases marking our place in line, I could not help but wonder if he had any regrets.
When we arrived at customs and passport control, the INS officer had drawn a huge and zealous magic marker line through Peter's student visa, indicating that it was no longer valid. Even though he was still attending college in California , he was also the new spouse of an American citizen, and was thus considered an immigrant (or even worse, a pending immigrant.) Despite the fact that we had followed all procedures to the letter of the law, this change in his status was the apparent cause for our delay: we had to be patient while they entered his information into the computer and stamped his advance parole papers. And so we waited... long enough to make some friends.
A long wait for her green card, and to see her husband
One of those friends was Laura, who--incredibly--seemed even more frazzled than we were. She was about to miss her connecting flight and had no way of informing her new husband of the delay. Laura had just flown in from Australia , eager to see him after a nine month separation following their exchange of vows Down Under. It took that long for the green card (permanent resident visa) to be processed and issued. But she and her husband had filed their papers properly; Laura caught the next flight, and I presume they were happily reunited. Finally.
The importance of Advance Parole
Peter and I had filed for his adjustment of status as soon as we were married, and for the travel permission (euphemism for "advanced parole") that allowed him to leave and reenter the country. So, after our paperwork was processed we too were on our way without any consequence greater than mere frustration. Not every couple is this lucky.
One set of newlyweds who sought our guidance had already made an irreversible error. Patrice was an American citizen and her fiancé Michael was Canadian. When Michael unwittingly admitted to border patrol that he was entering the U.S. to marry an American, they naturally turned him away: a foreign national cannot enter the U.S. with the intention to marry, unless the couple has filed for and received a K-1 fiancé visa.
At this point, Patrice decided that it would surely be easier to go to Canada and marry Michael there, so she did. They returned to the United States, inadvertently evading border control (no one asked if they were married, and they never volunteered this information). If they had been found out, Michael may have been arrested for visa fraud because he was entering as a "visitor" instead of under his truthful (marital) status. When I informed Patrice that Michael would have to return to Canada while she filed the appropriate immigration paperwork, the two of them gave up on the States entirely and returned to Canada in favor of Canadian immigration laws. They were fortunate to have that option.
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Deported: Ignorance was no excuse
With no time to consider other options, Baxter Thompson of Alexandria, Louisiana, and his wife Martina Diederich Thompson of Germany, were suddenly separated shortly after their marriage in 1997. (Reporter Anthony Lewis sparked public indignation when he publicized their case in the New York Times.) The Thompsons had married in Louisiana while Martina was visiting Baxter on a tourist visa. Before filing their INS papers, the newlyweds decided to travel to Germany together so that Baxter could meet his in-laws. They planned to file when they returned from their trip, but no such luck. When they arrived back in the U.S., Martina tried to reenter on her travel visa. The INS, however, realized that she was not really a tourist, but the wife of an American. She was detained at the border and deported back to Germany shortly thereafter. She was indefinitely banned from returning to America, even to visit, and at last report the two had remained separated for 15 months. By that time, Baxter was contemplating the sale of his business so he could relocate to Germany.
Educate yourself on immigration matters
There is a moral to these torrid tales: While not all immigration cases are simple, many of them could be, if only the people involved were better informed. When it comes to INS matters, assumption can be disastrous. Anyone who anticipates involvement with the immigration process would do well to stay intricately informed. Having a lawyer can be very helpful, but it does not preclude you from this advice: It may never occur to you to ask your attorney, before breaking the rule that you never knew existed.
(Editor's Note: Jennifer Wipf was a columnist for the Immigration Newsman. She also writes for the popular website About.com on immigration issues.)
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