Tucson Sector: A conversation with Border Patrol Agent Brent Cagen

 

With frequent trips to the border comes frequent encounters with the Border Patrol. The more that I have dealt with them the more comfortable I have become in roaming around dirt roads in their territory. On my way back from Sasabe, Arizona one evening I slowed down to stop at one of the Border Patrol checkpoints on state road 286, adjacent to Boboquivari Peak. I had been through this check point many times and each time I had not received more than the standard; “Are you a U.S. citizen?” question. This time however it was about 7 p.m. and the agent that stopped me seemed very interested in what I was doing. What surprised me was that he was not suspicious or short with me, he seemed like he legitimately cared about the research and photos I was taking. We talked for about 10 minutes when no other cars came up the road behind us, and he referred me to the public relations department of Border Patrol for further reference. This is a perfect lesson to shed preconceived notions, because as it would be great to get Border Patrol agents as sources in a story, but I had simply dismissed this as impossible because they all were so worried about saying the wrong thing.

I did contact the public relations department and did get a quick and friendly response. The agent I came in contact with was Brent Cagen, and he was a joy to work with. However there were a few regulations that make journalists cringe from the Border Patrol side, i.e. I had to submit questions via email for them to be reviewed before ever being answered and the response from Cagen had to be reviewed and possibly edited by his department head before responding to me officially. Therefore, the answers he provided to my questions were understandably vanilla, and avoided any time of controversy possible, the end result is below.

Brett Haupt >>> Brent Cagen

1) Apprehensions across the board have gone down since 2005, what are
any/all contributing factors to this decline?

A: Within the Tucson Sector, we have made substantial strides in our
success in combating transnational threats. We have better technology at
our disposal, our infrastructure (i.e. all-weather roads, fencing) has
improved and our manpower has almost tripled over the last ten years.
These are just some of the contributing factors to our decrease in
apprehensions. We also have stronger working relationships with not only
local, county, tribal and other federal law enforcement agencies but
with the Government of Mexico in the goal of securing both sides of the
border.

2) Since about 1992 when apprehensions in San Diego were much higher
than the Tucson sector, things have reversed dramatically and since that
time apprehensions in the Tucson sector have often been the most of any
sector. Was this a product of more comprehensive fencing in the San
Diego sector, and migrants moving towards the less secured Tucson
sector? If there were any other factors in this shift of migration other
than the San Diego fence what where they?

A: I cannot speak for San Diego but I can tell you that the Tucson
Sector is the busiest sector in the Border Patrol. Over the past ten
years, our apprehensions have gone from 616,000 apprehensions to
123,000. My answer to your first question highlights some of the
advancements that contribute to our success. Criminal organizations will
always look for the path of least resistance.  The Tucson Sector Border
lacks a natural obstacle along its International Border, such as a
river.

3) Are the amount of border patrol officers going to continue to rise?
Is there an optimal amount that the DHS would like or is it just fluid
at the moment?

A: Tucson Sector currently has over 4,000 agents patrolling the 262
miles of linear border it is responsible for.  As traffic patterns shift
and apprehensions decline evaluations are made to best determine where
to allocate resources and evaluate what is needed.

Crossing the Border Fence in Nogales

This post is the first foray into crossing the border, delving quickly into a border crossing and the infrastructure behind ports of entry. This crossing was through the Mariposa Rd. port of entry, the second and now larger port of entry in Nogales, about one mile west of the downtown port. This port is the preferred port by truckers and frequent travelers because of its lane capacity, however cars and trucks can still wait up to 3 hours at the port on busy days to cross back into America. Part of the problems that these border towns face is the retardation of goods and people back and forth across the border. The CPB or Customs and Border Protection agency is understaffed and often times neglected by legislators in favor of more Border Patrol agents, ignoring that the real plight at hand for these border towns: tourism is the key to the economy.

A couple weeks ago it was great to see Congressman Raul Grijalva lead a team of four congressmen to Nogales to hear from local officials as to the nature of true border issues. The most obvious issue is that while these border towns have become safer, the towns have also become poorer, due mostly to the tightening of border ports and the slowing of the movement of goods and people that cross back and forth. These towns depend on this movement back and forth and the United States has slowed this movement to a crawl.

Now to the pictures:

We wisely decided to park on the U.S. side and walk across the border, it likely saved us about an hour or so coming back, and the kino border initiative house was just across the border in Nogales so it was only about a half a mile walk. Walking into Mexico was as simple as stepping through an unattended turnstyle, simply amazing. It was that easy to get into Mexico. Looking back across the border was a great shot of the wall…

Once across large street signs provided some iconic photos of the border area… below the sign was the house that helped feed and clothe deported immigrants.

And here are some photos from the immigrants and interviews…

 

 

Sasabe Border Fence

As I move west along border fencing areas, the next attraction is Sasabe, Arizona. A town of no more than a couple hundred people located just southeast of the Tohono O’odham reservation. The drive from Tucson takes approximately an hour and a half and involves one short stop on your way back at a Border Patrol checkpoint. As a quick side note, I usually enjoy Border Patrol checkpoints. I’m not exactly sure why but I have a guess that I like knowing that I have nothing to hide. At this particular stop I had an actual conversation with the agent who was at the checkpoint, he asked me the regular questions like, where are yo coming from and what was your business down in Sasabe, and I told him I was working for the borderbeat.net website. He seemed genuinely interested and started talking about sources within Border Patrol that I should contact to get more color for my story. Spending evenings in the middle of the desert, I’m sure agents get a little starved for action, so I could tell he was glad to have someone to talk to, as he helped me with my story I was happy to oblige.

The road to Sasabe is a road I enjoyed very much with many twists and dips that keep driving exciting, at least for me. Right before the border there is a gully to the right of the road where a dirt trail appears, lucky for me, my small little Yaris could handle a little off-roading. It was very rocky and full of deep divits that loomed to mess up my alignment, but the sun was setting and pictures were fading so I had to push it up to the fence.

This is what I saw…

This spot I had been to before, again curtesy of Karl W. Hoffman, and it offers one of the best uninterrupted views of the border fence as it dips up and over a plethora of hills before terminating on the hills in the distance. It is also a fantastic time to grab pictures at sunset which is exactly what I came for…

 

Here are many of the photos I took at the border on this evening…

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Different Border Fences

For this post I am going to show some of the different types of border fence that exist as it will be useful in reference to future border fence sites I will visit. There are certainly pros and cons to border fencing and I’m not sure I can get to them all in detail but the most apparently direct consequences of border fencing are of course the impact on immigrants, legal or illegal. The tightening of border security has increased border patrol agents by a factor of six over the past two decades, additionally border walls and fences have been stretching across vast swathes of land previously empty. Has this curbed illegal immigration? I think it is fair to say that these efforts have provided a mixed bag of results and some unintended consequences have certainly arisen also. Militarization of the border and tightening of border areas has led illegal immigrants to greater lengths to get around these measures, as a result deaths around the border have increased, political groups have been spawned to take matters into their own hands with further cost to human life and the most glaring problem is that border towns who relied on tourism as their chief economic help have slowed to a crawl as movement back and forth between countries is no longer a short process.

What many people don’t think about is how these walls have affected wildlife migration, here is a nice article describing this problem.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12001/1200330-140.stm

Regardless of outcome here are the different walls and fences that stand between the United States and Mexico, starting with the most menacing.

Some Photos Curtesy of the American Border Patrol

18 Foot Steel Beam Fence- With Top Siding

13 Foot Steel Mesh

10-13 Foot Steel Siding

18 Foot Steel Post

Double Fence

Triple Fence

16 Foot Floating Steel Beam 

Vehicle Barrier/ Normandy Fence

For a map of all the different fences and their locations check out this site:

http://americanpatrol.com/ABP/SURVEYS/BORDER-2009/Border-Main-20009.html

Border Fence Six Miles East of Sasabe, Arizona

Of first note apologies for sideways pictures, all attempts to rotate the images have been met with staunch resistance on this wordpress blog, but I promise you won’t hurt your neck craning it just ever so slightly to the left for our purposes.

Here you can see the border fence as it is just six miles outside of Sasabe, Arizona. In my continuing effort to show you all facets of border fences this installment shows what actually a majority of the fence looks like, e.g. a barbed wire fence with old railroad tracks serving as a vehicle guard.

This section of the border is one of the largest corridors for immigrants coming into the United States illegally, and what is most striking is how innocuous and calm it seems during the day. This particular section was eye opening to me as it was the first place that I had seen the border in which there was not a grand 15 foot fence. This is one of the common misconceptions about the border, that it is entirely secured with the large fence that we have all seen. This section east of Sasabe is the largest section in Arizona without a wall over 10 feet in height. In fact this area is near the end of the vehicle barrier, further to the west is about a 20 mile section where there is nothing but a short 3 foot barbed wire fence and in some places nothing at all.

What is most curious about this area of the border is indeed the vehicle stoppers, otherwise known as hedgehogs or Normandy fences. In this spot so seemingly benign we see something that is most famously known in archival footage and pictures of D-Day from World War II. This time we are on the beach and whether wrong or not we are fighting to keep the enemy out, if they are even our enemy.

Above you can see a closer look at the fence and at this particular spot where the barbed wire has been bent upward for people to slide through underneath it. For some reason I cannot fathom in my mind, this picture was the most powerful indicator of the border and all of its ramifications at this spot. I wonder how many people have stood right where I did with very different circumstances looming over them. Such a place of benign geographical sights and hardened political agendas was peaceful that afternoon.

I should be so lucky to have spent time in such a spot where futility and heartbreak are the name of the game and come away unscathed.

To see exactly where and what the fence is in various locations, the American Border Patrol has put up a map. Check Here:

http://americanpatrol.com/ABP/SURVEYS/BORDER-2009/Border-Main-20009.html

Also the continuing Google Map of my location at each border fence stop down below:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209353296181109833783.0004b72bcef3ef076b948&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=31.423317,-111.357465&spn=0,0&t=h&output=embed
View BorderBeat Fence Locations in a larger map

The Nogales Border Fence

The drive to Nogales takes only an hour from my house in Tucson, a veritable blink in time for seasoned drivers. Yet no other short drive can transform worlds so quickly as the jaunt down to Nogales. The countryside is the same, there is still no sign of anything green and there remains a sort of dusty feel to the whole scene, although something feels different. I come back to the magnitude of which the border is consequential, there is something profound about a giant steel wall slicing right through the heart of a city and it makes the entirety of Nogales feel foreign, even on the American side. This by no means is a black mark against the city, in fact it brings a level of intrigue to the scene.

When first approaching Nogales and in fact as far north as Sahuarita the distances posted on Interstate-17 signs change to kilometers, a much more practical unit of distance, however a unit that I have never-the-less have little comprehension of without a few seconds of thought. Kilometers unfortunately isn’t the natural function within many American-born children but it is significant because it is the first sign you are approaching something different.

The freeway terminates about a couple hundred meters from the border fence in downtown Nogales and as you come around the last bend an amazing sight beholds you. Rather than continue to describe this, why don’t you see for yourself…

Everything on the hillsides is in Mexico, and the first thing that strikes you is the colorful buildings on the Mexican side of the wall.

Having looked at a map before coming I drove through the American side of Nogales towards the fence, but I had to stop along the way for one of the most beautiful courthouses I have ever seen. Pictured below is the Santa Cruz County Courthouse, which stuck out like a diamond in the desert.

Driving up steep narrow roads between crammed houses and then a rough dirt road I was able with less trouble than expected in my Toyota Yaris to get to the border fence just east of downtown. I was a little surprised that no border patrol trucks came to check on what I was doing, two were in clear sight on nearby bluffs and I noticed the remote cameras were pointed in my direction so I have no doubt that they were keeping their eyes on me. The place I set up next to the fence looked as thus…

And here you can see the Border Patrol Posted up on a neighboring bluff…

After taking a substantial amount of pictures at this spot I headed back to the other side of downtown where there was a paved road that ran alongside the fence for a couple hundred meters before turning into a dirt road that seemed questionably unnavigable in my small two-wheel-drive car. I gunned it up a steep bank almost to run straight into a Border Patrol truck headed the other way. Genuinely interested in whether I was breaking any laws I stopped to chat with the Border Patrol who much to my surprise was very cordial and told me where to drive up to for the best overlook of the city.

Noticing some birds I had never seen before I asked the agent what they were and I was surprised to hear that they were peacocks. Apparently somebody had peacocks as local pets he told me, but discouraged trying to get closer to them as they are very frightful. Of all the things I intended to see in Nogales this was definitely the most unexpected.

After a short but friendly conversation with the agent, I carefully navigated a steep dirt hill that I am certain should not be attempted without four-wheel-drive, yet my Yaris seems to have another level of competence when pushed so slowly I made my way up to the overlook the agent had spoke of. The vistas were great and it was by far the best picture opportunity of the day. With the sun setting I captured a few pictures that I hope you will enjoy.

Here are the entire clip of pictures I have taken so far of the border. Stay tuned for more!

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Border Fence: 10 miles east of Sasabe, Arizona.

 

1/22/12 — In the past I have had to good fortune to run into people that have a great knowledge of border issues and places of great interest. The picture below was curtesy of my good friend Karl W. Hoffman, a photographer living in Arivaca, Arizona. Karl has lived in Arivaca for about seven years now and leads tours of the border south of Arivaca.  Here you see me behind the border fence about 10 miles east of Sasabe, Arizona. This is directly in the middle of a 15 mile stretch where the only thing that separates the two countries is a small three foot barbed wire fence. On the American side of the fence the land is privately owned by a rancher who was nice enough to let us drive to the back of his property to see the border. I was informed by Karl that undocumented crossing of the border was illegal even just for a moment, but the thin line between cultures was too small to contain my curiosity. I slipped across long enough to get my picture looking through the gate and did what so many people have been detained for; I crossed the border illegally. The magnitude of the border is something that is tough to describe. As Karl would say, “The border is the thinnest line between the lives of people.” Indeed something so benign in appearance, so thin in actuality containing different cultures, different laws and different opportunities is a thing I will not soon forget. Here at the fence on this day there were no lives taken, no families that depended on my crossing and nothing especially dire was at stake. Unfortunately the place where I stand below has been the object of heartbreak, political tension and anger for so many people. Fortunately for me I only wanted a picture, others should be so lucky.

BH

 

Rancher’s Border Gate - Here is the link to the exact spot on the border at which this photo was taken in Google Maps.

 

Welcome to The Wall

Over the next few months I will post pictures and videos of different sections of the border wall and fences. Many Americans have only seen the wall as it is shown on tv; large, grand and absolute. This however is only a portion of the border, most of the border is a small barbed wire fence or nothing at all. From San Diego I will work east, publishing the wall in different towns and spots. The purpose is to better show exactly what is between the United States and Mexico. I hold no bias towards illegal immigration, border security or the politics of the border, it is my hope to show you what is out there and let people draw their own conclusions. Welcome to the wall, now let us cross it together.

Thanks

Sincerely,

Brett Haupt

 

 

Below is a picture I took last spring in Nogales, Arizona. I will have more from the other side of the wall and other wall pictures from Nogales in the coming weeks.