Dennis Michelini is a U.S. Border Patrol pilot.

When flying low in a helicopter or poised atop a deer stand on a hill, the terrain of south Texas sprawls green in abundance. On the clearest of days and in every direction, the swelling undulation of brush carries on farther than the eye can see. The vastness is interrupted only by fence posts, telephone and electric wires, dirt roads, and the occasional town. At night, radio towers blink silently in the distance.

PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...SINGLE PAGE

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

Moving people and drugs through this environment is only half the battle of a smuggler. Eventually the people and the drugs need to be moved into vehicles and transported to cities and towns throughout the country.

The roads leading away from the border are traversed by pickup trucks, vans, rental vehicles, dump trucks, 18-wheelers, school buses, buses, church vans, marked county vehicles, and ambulances … whatever can be imagined, some these are loaded with smuggled people and drugs. Of course it's not all the cars. It's actually a small percentage, but it is of all varieties.

Two things can happen when a Border Patrol agent pulls up behind another car and turns on the emergency takedown lights on the service vehicle; the car in question stops or the car doesn't stop. When it doesn't stop it usually means something's not quite right, and it means the driver is looking for a place along the road to bail. Bailing is when the driver stops the vehicle in the road or on the shoulder and runs into the brush. The problem with simply chasing the driver is that the agent needs to secure the vehicle and what is in the vehicle: smuggled aliens or smuggled drugs. Most of the time it is not only the driver who runs but everyone from the back of the pickup or van, which is rather chaotic. The other way a driver may chose to bail is to run the vehicle he is driving through a fence and into the brush.

In south Texas there is a difference between the smuggling of people and the smuggling of drugs, and it pertains to the driver. Drivers of smuggled groups of aliens may be illegal aliens themselves. The situation may be as simple as that they know how to drive to Dallas or San Antonio and that they have worked out a bargain with those who supplied the vehicle. The deal may be something like, if they drive (there is a certain amount of risk in driving), then they will not have to pay the going rate of being smuggled. On the other hand, the driver may be the owner of the vehicle. It may be the person who rented the vehicle. Whatever the case, after the driver and the passengers bail—and this is important—there is no great financial loss. The vehicle is soon reported stolen, that clears the owner or renter, and there will always be more bodies lining up along the Rio Grande the next day.

Drugs are another matter. Someone paid money for those drugs, and they also paid a driver. When that driver runs and the drugs are confiscated, there is a substantial loss to the financier of those drugs. Smuggling becomes a different animal at this point. How does the driver manage the loss? Does he drive again for no cost? How far is he indebted? And maybe most important for someone in law enforcement, how far will a driver go to not incur this loss?

I feel a need to mention that most of the people I have ever arrested came illegally to this country to work. And that most of them seemed to be decent people. They smile and joke and share water, food, or cigarettes. We, as agents, have more than equally reciprocated—even in an unofficial way. We talk about their lives, our lives, and why they want to come here. They ask us with a smile to just let them go. "Who would know?" they ask. It's not exactly a war, but there is a sense something needs to be resolved. It's an environment wanting more serious thought and not getting it. Not that there is an answer, or one that can be resolved from the north, from where I stand.

PRINTE-MAILRECOMMEND...RSS

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

SPONSORED CONTENT