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(continued)

A look inside Imperial Beach border patrol

Being out in the field is dangerous. Illegal aliens rarely act individually, but in concert. There is a purpose to their movement, and every action is aimed at getting them to their destination in the interior of the United States.

One of the ploys is called “rockings.” A group will hurl rocks at agents as a means of distracting them from flanking action.

“They’ll get something going on the fence,” stated Brown. “The agents will go in that area and see what’s going on. Activity will draw the agent, usually. And then they will start throwing rocks at the agents. And so, your attention is diverted to address that situation. And, in the meantime, the aliens—the smugglers—will try to skirt you and get people around you.”

Agent Rosberg noted that assaults are up 89 percent in San Diego sector. When asked why the figure had risen so dramatically, Brown suggested it was because of the pressure border patrol was putting on the aliens. With agents so close to the fence, smugglers are having a hard time outflanking their counterparts.

Holding cell, Imperial Beach Station

There are far more smugglers and illegal aliens than agents. To make up for the disparity, the border patrol uses high tech equipment such as seismic sensors and infrared cameras. Thousands of seismic sensors—buried except for a tiny antenna—line the border east of Imperial Beach. When a person walks near the sensor, a signal is sent back to border patrol.

Infrared cameras become indispensable at night. The border near San Ysidro is washed in lights erected by border patrol. Farther west, though, between San Ysidro and the Pacific Ocean, the mesas and canyons are cloaked in darkness. At nighttime in this area, an agent in an SUV will position themselves a few hundred yards off the border, erect a telescopic infrared camera eight to ten feet above the vehicle, and watch for activity on a monitor.

The exact positioning of agents depends on how many agents a Field Operations Supervisor (FOS) has, what time of day it is, and what activity reports are indicating.

“It falls more to the shifts, themselves, where they want to deploy people,” stated Brown. “People may be deployed close to the border. That’s a requirement of our sector management, of my management. How they’re spread out is addressed by the shifts.”

“They look at their shift reports and activity reports, evaluating their success, and they deploy them properly. Obviously, if we’re getting a lot of get-always, something’s not right.”

Life at Imperial Beach Station

Assistant Patrol Agent in Charge Mike Apple is an 18-year veteran of the border patrol. Originally from Oklahoma, he has spent his entire career in San Diego sector and knows the inner working of Imperial Beach well.

“Here, you work as a team,” he emphasized. “Everybody comes in here every night and they work together. We have permanent shifts to where I know exactly how this guy acts. If I hear him on the radio, I can tell exactly if something’s wrong. You know, little things like that you can pick up on. But, there are a lot of hard-chargers here, and they enjoy their work.”

While agents Brown and Rosberg indicated that morale was high at Imperial Beach, they agreed that two issues affect it adversely: the high cost of living in San Diego, and a negative perception of the border patrol among the public.

Most agents are paid GS-11, which comes out to about $54,000 per year. With the median price of a home in San Diego County at $560,000, and homes appreciating at up to 23 percent, the possibility of younger agents ever being able to afford a house becomes bleak.

Public perception, though, appears to cut deeper into the psyche of the agents at Imperial Beach. They feel under appreciated by the public.

Patrol Agent in Charge, David Brown

(All images: Larry Knowles)

“We’re the front line for the country,” Brown stated, “and I think people don’t realize what agents are experiencing out there. I think sometimes they feel a little under appreciated; because if they’re not there, there’s a lot of stuff that can come across the border. People and contraband, all sorts of other things that enter the country.”

Border patrol agents carry side arms and occasionally must use force, a fact that many in the public haven’t reconciled.

But according to Agent Rosberg, having the means to defend yourself provides a measure of comfort when an agent works in isolation on a shift. “You work out in some of these canyons at night,” he said. “It gets dark. It’s spooky. Sometimes, it’s dangerous. People don’t see that angle of it.”

When asked what improves morale, Agent Brown chuckled and said, “A raise.”

“When we can prosecute some of these criminals,” Agent Rosberg added, “when we do get a real criminal off the street—it always makes us feel great.”

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Larry Knowles is the editor of Vyuz San Diego. He can be reached at lgkiii@vyuz.com.

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