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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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.
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There was a lot of tension between the local indian tribal police and ourselves. The Tohono O'Odham indian police were often very shady (and caught doing rather suspicious things). The entire reservation was corrupt/dirty so these police often had family members who were into illegal stuff as well.
You'd occasionally catch the police driving at night in the desert, lights out - well beyond their patrol areas. They'd invent some story about what they were doing etc. Likewise they would attempt to pull over BP vehicles when we were tailing suspicious vehicles etc. It was always an interesting time with them.
The only issues we had with local deputies or police was simply due to manpower. They'd get mad at us when we didn't have enough agents to respond to their immigration issues, and we'd get mad when they wouldn't come pick up warrants because we were too far away from them etc. It was never harsh, just frustrating from both ends.
Sheriff Joe (Maricopa County Sheriff) was always a cool cat. I actually liked that he openly berated DHS etc. for not doing our job better. He would bring news cameras etc. with him when he turned over tons of illegal immigrants to the local I.C.E. office who didn't want to process them etc. He really gets stuff done, and doesn't take nonsense from anyone.
There is so much criminal traffic out in AZ that all LEO's pretty much gel together when the proverbial feces hit the wind oscillator. You'd always stop to back up local PD, DPS guys, or Sheriff's Deputies etc. They would likewise stop and check on you.
I was involved in a 120-mile pursuit one time which involved: BP Agents from two stations, indian police, sheriff's deputies, sheriff's drug task force, DPS, and two local police departments. It got downright confusing, but we got the vehicle. In short, we never had the silly TV show drama.
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It's about 95% politics. No party nor politician wants to be responsible for losing the Latin-American vote or ruffling the feathers of Mexico's government. It would actually save us a lot of money in the long-run, given how much we spend on border security.
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Election Inspector
Do most poll staffers agree that the ballots are REALLY confusing?
Hospice Nurse
Ever heard any crazy deathbed confessions or family secrets revealed?
Firefighter
How can you tell if a fire was arson?
Pretty much zero chance. He will likely be flown back to Albania on an ICE flight.
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I don't believe so. The application process has no real steps you can skip or speed up. However, if you contact the agents you work with they would possibly be able to put you in touch with the Sector's recruitment agents who might be able to tell you more.
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Yep, very depressing and stressful. Living in AZ it's more than obvious we're not making much of a difference. From Phoenix to the border the state has been flooded with illegal immigrants. You'd see hundreds daily just on the drive in to work. So, short answer - no I did not feel like we were making much of a difference.
It was also very obvious from the agency perspective that there was no genuine desire to effect real change. The USBP is about 50% just a dog and pony show. But we all knew that. We busted our butts, worked hard - but at the end of the day we knew the government etc. was not genuinely serious about "closing the border".
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