Oscar
Charleston, SC
Male, 31
Spent a bit over four years (2006-2010) serving as a Border Patrol Agent in Tucson Sector, AZ: the busiest sector in the country. Worked numerous positions, and spent the last year and a half operating/instructing ground radar installations. Duties included: field patrols, transport, processing, control room duties, transportation check, checkpoint operations, static watch duties, etc.
I was pretty impressed with the caliber of people in the Border Patrol. The academy, while not extremely tough was tough enough to weed out the idiots. There was a huge range of people in the Patrol. A large portion of ex-military folks (ranging from simple 4-year in/outs up to PJ's, some older SF types, USMC Corpsmen etc.).
A smaller number of prior law enforcement types, and then the rest were normal people like myself with no particularly advantageous background (college grads and non-college grads).
The overwhelming amount of political correctness and red tape means that in most cases the Border Patrol is a bit "too fair". Sometimes you need to cut the nonsense and get the job done, something that the agency itself hinders very often. It's a very politcal job as you can imagine. You'd be amazed how often we were subtly told to do our job...less well.
Like any job, and profession you do have a small number of idiots. There seems to be a flawed public perception that all law enforcement agents/officers should be angellic beings of good who dole out divine justice etc. Nope. Agents were normal people too. With overy 16,000 agents you definitely would have some bad apples.
There was a website active when I was serving called "Trust Betrayed" or something to that effect. It was a website run by the agency highlighting agents and customs folks who had become criminals or had been caught breaking the law etc. It happens. Not often, but it's simple reality. So, on the off chance that you run into that one dirtbag, your experience may be different than most.
As a whole, yes, the agency is competent and fair.
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It depends on where you are. I'd say our area was easily 80% Mexican, 15% OTM's from central and South America, and perhaps 5% from other countries. In California though you can run into large groups of orientals. I'm not sure what the overall percentages are. I believe this would probably be published somewhere - perhaps simply google it.
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It's quite easy actually. During the interview/processing, it is very easy to establish whether someone is a citizen or not. This is also why we process everyone we catch. Once you're caught crossing the border (which, by the way, is illegal for U.S. citizens as well - you're required to cross at a designated Port of Entry, through customs etc.) you're processed into the immigration database.
O.T.M's frequently would travel with no documents, trying to masquerade as Mexicans (because it was easier to pretend to be a Mexican, and be returned to the border...as opposed to being flown back to their native country). A simple interview would reveal their false claims very simply. This is part of your training, basic interrogration techniques.
There was never a case during my time in the Patrol where we had an issue revealing someone's true origin/identity. Proper names etc. were another story. I'd say perhaps 50-70% of illegals had a number of aliases/false names/identities, stolen or forged social security numbers etc. In this instance, a person's identity in the U.S. legal system is that name/identity under which they originally were processed.
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Not unless they have re-introduced the OR or "Own recognizance" statute. This was the ridiculously flawed and useless process used in the late 80's and early 90's whereby an illegal immigrant would sign a document stating he would return at a specific date to be processed and deported (due to lack of holding facilities). Needless to say...NONE of these people ever showed back up to be deported, and the immigration services had no way of tracking them down. So, back in the day? Yes. Currently? Not that I've heard of. Now, perhaps local police departments or Sheriff's offices do something like this - but normally they simply call up the local ICE or CBP office and turn them over.
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School Bus Driver
Why don't school buses have seat belts?
Social Network Security Manager
How has Facebook remained mostly immune to hacks?
iPhone & iPad Technician
What brand do you think has the poorest quality / workmanship?
Not sure, as I have never worked a proper Port of Entry (POE). Perhaps you can find a customs guy on Jobstr who will have more experience with passport information.
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Contact your consulate and have them contact CBP.
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We could do with a lot more Sheriff Joes in this world. He is a dying breed. For someone that people complain about a lot, he's been in office now for what 15-20 years and keeps getting re-elected? He's doing his job (a difficult one at that). The modern world seems to hate people with real work ethic or real opinions/values.
I applaud the guy. He has way too many enemies...that, if anyting, proves he's doing a hell of a job.
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