James R McFadden

First Line of Defense James R McFadden

Sneak through the pitch blackness of a distant mountain ridge along the border and stop to listen to the sounds of the night, only to hear people breathing all around you in the dark. Hide in a brush covered draw so dark that a group of approaching people do not even know you are there until they run into your outstretched hand. This is the real Border Patrol, the federal law enforcement agency where for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, dedicated men and women are on duty in the most remote hills, mountains and deserts along the international border with Mexico, looking for and apprehending men and women who have illegally snuck into the United States. Border Patrol agents do this because one third of the people they catch have a criminal record. They do this because merciless foot guides or "coyotes" leave their injured or sick countrymen behind to die in the heat or cold of the wilderness. And the agents do this, often on their own and always outnumbered, despite the dangers from armed drug smugglers, border bandits hiding in the shadows, criminal aliens, and the threat of injury from every possible natural obstacle in the untamed borderlands where so many agents skillfully and successfully complete their assigned duties.