A Macabre Game of Cat-and-Mouse Plays Out Across the US-Mexico Border Jairo Mejia - Agencia EFE
go to original September 8, 2015

Even if the 3,000 Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande sector stood 100 meters (109 yards) from each other along the border, the gangs profiting from human trafficking would find a way to get through.

But the agency has to work in shifts, distribute tasks and control hard-to-reach areas along the meandering Rio Grande, Border Patrol spokesman Oscar Saldaña told EFE.

Since Oct. 1, Border Patrol agents in this sector of southeastern Texas have detained more than 132,000 people, an average of 400 a day, surpassing the number of residents in McAllen, Texas.

To enhance surveillance, the Border Patrol uses helicopters, motion sensors, portable turrets and even several balloons that hover over the U.S.-Mexican border with their "eyes" scanning the land day and night.

"Those are some of the most useful tools," Saldaña said at Anzalduas Park, a wetland baked by a relentless sun during most of the day with temperatures in excess of 40 C (104 F).

The main difficulty for Border Patrol agents, many of them of Hispanic descent or who have strong connections to Mexico, is to discern who is an immigrant in distress or a "coyote," as migrant smugglers are known, or a drug trafficker.

"The hardest part in patrolling the border is that you can find yourself confronting dangerous and armed drug smugglers, or you might have to detain children who come through without parents or relatives, and they surrender voluntarily," Saldaña said. "Obviously, the responses are different."

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

Related: Is It Legal For Border Patrol Agents to Shoot and Kill Unarmed Mexican Kids - So Long as They Fire Across the Border? (Houston Press)

Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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