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.
From an official standpoint, obviously the Border Patrol does not endorse or condone "vigilante" style groups like the Minutemen. That being said, I don't mind them. We were required to report them and confront them if we found them operating in our AOR. This was rare though, as our sector was far too busy. We had a lot of people who would call in and help us (even had a lady who erected a watchtower in her backyard).
I never viewed the Minutemen as a "lunatic fringe" group. Most of the people are farmers/landowners or friends/relatives of them...people who are suffering at the hands of the border problem.
The stories of American citizens being forced to leave or sell their homes and land because of the flow of illegals/cartel members etc. is heartbreaking. So, officialy -no we don't support them, but on a personal level none of us really cared. We never had any citizens arrests etc.
Not at all. Stolen vehicles are cheap and disposable. We used to capture dozens of stolen vehicles per week. It's also why car insurance is incredibly high in the South West compared to other parts of the country (especially if you own a full size pickup truck). They are also very fond of using rental cars (obviously with no intention to return them).
If they get chased, they'll just get away if they can and then bail out. It's far too expensive/time consuming to use properly purchased vehicles. The vehicles we're talking about are used for delivering large amounts of weed being shipped to local stash houses. When they are talking about dispersal, they're not talking about normal street dealers. These vehicles would be loaded with 1500-2000 lbs. of weed each.
Sometimes they even drive these vehicles in pairs or trios. There are tons of small-time cartel lackeys in Phoenix, Tucson etc. who's job is solely to steal vehicles and bring them down to the border, stash them in the desert for use by drivers.
Never worked with the US Marshals. You could apply direct to the Marshals though, unless you don't believe you have the resume to do so.
You can try, but don't bother. This will come up in your application process, and you'll be disqualified.
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The U.S./Mexico international border is extremely porous. While on paper the entire border is monitored, the reality is that our capacity to deter/intercept all of the illegal traffic is mediocre at best. Judging by the traffic patterns I saw, I would estimate my station/sector's capability at perhaps 30% of the overall traffic is intercepted effectively.
Yes.
Not sure, I have no experience in status applications. That would be a question better addressed to the officers you're dealing with during the application process.
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