Meeting with Border Patrol, National Guard and ranchers

I attended my first border patrol meeting with my fellow volunteer and director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, Eddie Canales. I had no idea what to expect, but it was a great way to be introduced to the ranchers and to associate names with faces.

We met at the Border Patrol station in Falfurrias. The new Patrol Agent in Charge, Doyle Amidon, led the meeting. In attendance were about 25 supervisors in border patrol uniforms, a few persons from the US Army also in uniform, the staff of the station, and about 30 ranchers and their wives, ranch supervisors or other interested parties.

The group was professional and cordial, and all were invited to share in a potluck buffet before the meeting began. The purpose of this and each monthly meeting was to update the local ranchers on current events and initiatives of the Customs and Border Patrol, to allow for a sharing of ideas and concerns, and to build a working relationship with the ranchers. The atmosphere in the room for me was one of listening, honesty, and openness. Others may have interpreted this as simply the proper Texan decorum for this particular forum.

The ultimate goal for the Border Patrol and the ranchers is to prevent migrant-refugees entry into the United States so as to eliminate the need for search and rescue where migrant-refugees are found alive and put through deportation or detention processes or for search and recovery where the remains of migrant-refugees are found and sent to Webb County for examination particularly as these occur on the private land of ranchers.

Evidence shows no matter the height and breadth of fences, the number of inspection stations, or the multiplication of military personnel, that the driving forces are greater than the deterrents and the migrant-refugees, including record numbers of women and children, keep coming.

The Border Patrol and the coyotes–persons who are paid to smuggle others across the border–are in a constant strategic war game perhaps best described as a modern-day reality show. There are cameras, but they are not rolling for TV, and at the end of the day, the players do not go home to normal lives. Worst of all, the score is tallied in human deaths.

The Border Patrol made every effort to demonstrate to the ranchers that they are out to “catch the bad guys”, and they were being accountable to the ranchers and property owners. The ranchers, in turn, are holding the feet of the Border Patrol to the fire. For example, there was the situation of a migrant-refugee and his brother who had called 911 for help who were not found for 11 hours during which one of the men died. This report was given by The Weather Channel Documentary “Real Death Valley,” which can be viewed at http://stories.weather.com/realdeathvalley. The rancher who raised the question had seen the documentary and could not understand why it had taken 11 hours to find the men, which allowed one of them to die. I was touched by the rancher’s compassion.

No one wants anyone to die.

Good news for the work of the South Texas Human Rights Center and others involved in saving migrant-refugee lives was the announcement that some members of the Texas National Guard to be deployed have specifically volunteered to be part of the search and rescue operations under the direction of the Brooks County Sheriff. Additional manpower along with greater use of cell phones and 911 calls by the migrant-refugees will hopefully result in more rescues and fewer deaths.

There are some things that I would like to see change in future meetings. First, is the use by the Border Patrol of names such as “aliens” and “illegals” and ranchers referring to the migrant-refugees as “wetbacks.” Words do matter.

Secondly, it would show a more balanced collaboration if each person in the room was able to introduce him/herself and not just the military personnel. Thirdly, I would like to raise the level of humanitarian concerns in the discussions from its current fourth place behind prevention, apprehension and property rights.

The elements that I found present in this meeting allowed for conversation about a controversial and complex issue. That some involved in the conversation were personally affected daily in a negative way by the migrant-refugees in the area made their patient participation even more remarkable.