Excerpt: Desert Duty: On the Line With the U.S. Border Patrol
Introduction: On Edge
If you have traveled or lived near America’s southern border, you have seen the forest green uniform, the white vehicle with a green slash and bold letters, and the agents wearing ball caps. They are the men and women who run highway checkpoints, eye passing cars, and pursue groups of smugglers and undocumented aliens across open country. But have you met the agents themselves, those people behind the sunglasses, the humans at the wheel of the patrol truck, your neighbors down the street who shop at your mall and coach your kids’ peewee teams, the fathers and mothers who live and work near the border and wear the green uniform of the U.S. Border Patrol?
They are the mobile, uniformed arm of the federal government charged with patrolling between the official borderline ports of entry. Their authority to enter private lands to patrol for illegal aliens extends twenty-five miles from the border, and they may legally stop all vehicles to check for aliens as far as one hundred air miles from the border. Based upon reasonable suspicion of the commission of a criminal act or upon procurement of a warrant, they may investigate immigration offenses anywhere in the country.
They are the border police, and like your hometown force, they both protect and serve. In a day’s work they may catch a load of narcotics, apprehend groups of people entering the country without permission, and intercept a potential terrorist. The day undoubtedly will include rescuing aliens from death by thirst or murder by border bandits, preventing neighborhood assaults and burglaries, and administering first-aid to accident victims, and may involve delivering an untimely baby or helping stranded motorists. If you don’t know them, you should.
What follows is a set of interviews documenting the trials and triumphs of U.S. Border Patrol agents who have worked the southwest border between the United States and Mexico. They represent two-thirds of the patrol’s history, which dates back to 1924. It is written as told by those who have "walked the line" and is dedicated to their often unsung achievements. We relay the stories in historical sequence, from the older guard now retired to those still wearing the badge, for one name leads to another, policies progress, and equipment evolves. The common theme is duty to country.
These are self-told stories of working folks doing desert duty here, just as they are at dozens of other Border Patrol stations along America’s borders. Names like Eagle Pass, Laredo, Fort Stockton, Douglas, Ajo, Calexico, and Campo signal stations with proud histories. The agency’s motto is Honor First, and uncommon dedication is required. The work is rigorous and dangerous. Agents must be vigilant, self-sufficient, and honest. As you will read, the stories of these law officers reflect the fact that they are actual people with smiles and frowns.
Whether you are an alien downed by fatigue, battered by heat, or threatened by thirst or border bandits; a fellow agent in hot pursuit of drug smugglers or holding suspects at gunpoint; or a citizen lost in the wild borderlands, these are the people you’d pray were on your trail and on their way. If you are a smuggler evading the law, these are the relentless forces you fear.
In their own words, these are the stories of men and women working the border where, before you had breakfast this morning, someone crossed the line and now someone is looking for them.
The Duty
Since the expansion of our nation into the American Southwest, the unenviable task of policing the nation’s southwest border has fallen on a thin line of hardy individuals dressed in blue or khaki, in denim and chambray, in green or blue wool, or in modern rip-stop nylon. Through the years, the U.S. military and federal law enforcement entities have shared the task of protecting the nation’s borders from foreign enemies, economically motivated migrants, and opportunistic criminals. The working conditions were generally wretched and tasks were rigorous and mostly thankless. On many occasions, however, the men protecting the border were placed into the role of rescuer, delivering innocent citizens and wrongdoers alike from captivity, injury, or death.
The earliest effort at providing security to the borderlands of the Southwest came in 1849, with the establishment of Camp Calhoun at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, near present-day Yuma, Arizona. This military post eventually became Fort Yuma, and served the dual purposes of protecting this important river crossing into California from hostile Native Americans and projecting the influence of the United States into a region that was newly won from Mexico in the Mexican War.
Between the establishment of Camp Calhoun and the surrender of Geronimo in 1886, the U.S. Army was active throughout the Southwest, particularly along the present-day border between Arizona and Mexico. Native Americans, and Apaches in particular, did not recognize national borders. They soon discovered, however, that crossing the imaginary line could give them sanctuary from retribution for their transgressions. The raiding parties of the tribes crossed between the countries on long-established trails, committing depredations in an attempt to drive all whites from the region.
The military built forts at strategic locations and employed infantry and cavalry units, as well as Native American scouts, to patrol the border region. They worked to detect the movement of raiders between the countries, vigorously pursued them, and engaged them in combat whenever possible. These pursuits sometimes crossed the international border, with or without the appropriate governmental sanction. The incidents were not always merely about combat, but often involved a humanitarian aspect. Historical accounts record many instances where soldiers were able to intercept war parties and release innocent captives. Eventually, the wayward bands were brought into the reservation system, and many were exiled from the region.
During this time the movement of citizens of both countries across the frontier was virtually unimpeded by governments of the United States or Mexico. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluded in 1848, had made U.S. citizens of approximately 80,000 Mexican residents of the Southwest. Economically and as a matter of national policy, neither Mexico nor the United States had any overriding interest in limiting peaceful cross-border trade or interaction.
The laissez-faire approach to immigration into the United States in this era was not to last. When distinguished jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes commented that "the life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience," he might well have had the Immigration and Nationality Laws of the United States in mind. Throughout the history of the nation, the laws regarding the admission of persons into the United States have at times been non-existent, at other times defied logic, and at other times been outright racist or unenforceable.
Beginning in 1870, isolationism and economic downturns created an anti-immigrant sentiment that resulted in Congress’s enacting laws to protect the country from uncontrolled immigration. The "Exclusion Acts" began in 1875, with a prohibition on the legal entry of convicts and "immoral women." This was followed in 1882 by an act that excluded idiots, lunatics, and paupers, and the more imposing Chinese Exclusion Act. The latter act was prompted by the fear of a glut of cheap labor. Uncontrolled Chinese immigration, brought on as a result of the large numbers of Chinese laborers imported to build the transcontinental railroad, created alarm in organized labor and governmental circles. The act suspended the immigration of all but a few limited professionals from China for a period of ten years. In 1902 the exclusion was made permanent, and some form of bar on immigration based upon Chinese or oriental derivation existed until 1943.
The enactment of legislation alone was not entirely effective. Chinese were able to embark from China and enter into Mexico. From there, they could enter the United States across its southern border. Many individuals residing on the frontier were familiar with the historic routes transecting the border, and many were more than ready to step into the lucrative business of human smuggling. Officers employed by the national government were sorely needed to augment the meager military resources on the border, which were steadily declining with the end of the Indian Wars.
Initially, the role of patrolling the border to curtail Chinese smuggling fell on the Customs Service. One of the earliest civilians to be assigned to patrol the southwest border was professional lawman Jefferson Davis Milton. Formerly a Texas Ranger, he entered on duty on March 11, 1887, as a U.S. Customs Line Rider, or Mounted Inspector, the forerunner of the Immigration Riders. Reporting to the El Paso Collector of Customs, Milton performed the duties of immigration and customs officer. One of only eleven border guards stationed between El Paso and the Pacific Ocean, Milton’s job entailed patrolling alone on horseback. Leading a pack horse, he rode from Nogales, Arizona, along the border to the Colorado River below Yuma. The primary mission of Milton and his fellow officers was the collection of customs duties on goods brought into the country, but they also prevented the smuggling of cheap, untaxed liquor and Chinese aliens into the United States.
For a time, Mounted Inspectors, employed by the Chinese Bureau within the Customs Service, and line riders, employed by the newly established Immigration Bureau, shared enforcement of the Chinese exclusion laws. To eliminate confusion near border cities and reduce the chance of mistaking fellow officers for smugglers, the officers in charge of the respective units would alternate areas of coverage on the border. Sometimes, however, the units would pair up or work together in one area in response to specific intelligence information.
A change in presidential administrations resulted in a wholesale purge of the Customs Service in 1899, costing Milton and others their jobs. Ultimately, Customs relinquished its role on the border, and the Chinese Bureau within Customs was disbanded around 1900.
The Chinese Exclusion Act also created an Office of the Superintendent of Immigration, which was established within the Treasury Department in 1891. The new Bureau of Immigration oversaw the U.S. Immigrant Inspectors stationed at the ports of entry. By 1904 Immigration line riders, often referred to as "mounted guards" or Chinese Inspectors, were hired and assigned to positions along the southern border. Their role would be to provide border security between the ports of entry from El Paso, Texas, to California. Jeff Milton returned to border work as one of the new Mounted Chinese Inspectors in April 1904. Never numbering more than seventy-five men, they were an enforcement presence along the border whenever resources permitted. As an Inspector "at large," Milton primarily worked the border between Nogales and Yuma, Arizona.
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