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 News from Around the Americas | December 2006 
A Day in the Life of a Border Patrol Agent
 Tim Gaynor - Reuters
Gerald Viera, 30, is a Border Patrol agent in the small town of Naco on the Arizona-Mexico border.
Puerto Rican by birth and a bilingual English-Spanish speaker, he works five 10-hour shifts a week. He only knows his duties when he turns up at the station each day.
Some shifts he will spend tracking drug or human smugglers along desert trails using an age-old technique known as "sign cutting," other times he may work a vehicle stop on a highway, or process detainees held at the station.
Much of the 33-mile strip of border is watched over by cameras and monitored by ground sensors by operators in a control room, who then direct the agents to areas where needed.
He spoke to Reuters about a typical night shift.
9 p.m.
"I get up around 9 p.m., depending on how late I get home. I normally wake up and get supper, usually whatever my wife has prepared. Last night it was chicken and vegetables, and then I start getting into my routine.
I'll start getting my bullet proof vest ready, getting my uniform ready, meanwhile I'm thinking of what might happen at work. Things like a bad vehicle stop: if someone pulls a gun, what's going to be my best option? How am I going to react?
Before I go out, the last thing I do is kiss my kids and my wife, who is also from Puerto Rico."
12 midnight
"At the station we get a briefing from the supervisor about what traffic has been like. It could be drugs or human traffic, it just depends on the night. I get my keys for my vehicle, collect my rifle from the armory. Then I get my medical gear, flashlight and night vision (equipment) and head out."
12:30 a.m.
"I drive out to the San Pedro River area. I work up on the highway, cutting sign on the different roads the aliens are using. You roll down the window, put your flashlight out looking for footprints in the dirt. If you see shoe prints you call in and see if it has been reported, then you get out and work the trail."
2:30 a.m.
"The camera spotted a group of 15 people and put us in on it. I went up with a partner, getting there 30 seconds after he found them and helped him out. We identify ourselves in Spanish as Border Patrol agents, and work to determine alienage. We ask them what country they are from, and ask them if they have any documents allowing them to cross into country legally. If they are illegal aliens we take them in to custody. It's difficult to carry 15 pairs of handcuffs, so mostly we just ask them to put their hands on their heads, and walk them to the vehicle.
Having Spanish helps as I can communicate with people I apprehend. I try to treat everyone the same. I don't judge the people I arrest, and I honestly couldn't tell you what they expect from me ... I have had a few people ask me if I am Mexican or Puerto Rican, but my policy is not to discuss my personal details with them."
3:30 a.m.
"I stop a car driving down the highway, a station wagon. We run the plate, and it came up with nothing."
6 a.m.
"I grab a cup of chocolate at the gas station on highway 92 and came back out. I continue to cut sign, check vehicles and listen to the radio. Sometimes you get citizen calls telling you of people they see going down the road."
9:30 a.m.
"I get back to the station, wash the vehicle and gas it up, and then I turn it in. I put my rifle back in the armory, and my gear back in my locker. I make sure there is nothing pending. If I have arrested someone who needs to be prosecuted, I make sure that it's taken care of before I leave. On the drive home I listen to music. Today it was Salsa, 'El Gran Combo,' a group from Puerto Rico. When I get home I jump in the shower and I'm back into home mode." |
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