Border Patrol Station Tour

Border Patrol Station in Weslaco

Entry Room Floor

We took a Winter Ranch Bus Tour to the Border Patrol Station in Weslaco this afternoon  The Weslaco Border Patrol Station is located in the lower Rio Grande Valley between Harlingen, Texas and McAllen.  The agents are responsible for watching 40 miles of river and doing city patrols in the surrounding cities. 

Public Liaison Officer

Sandy and Chuck Trimpe

 
When we arrived, we were escorted to the Agent Briefing Room where the Public Liaison Officer showed us a presentation including a couple of videos and spent quite some time answering tons of questions.  The slide show and the videos were very informative.

Chart of Marijuana Seizures

We learned that the marijuana and drug seizures are up a lot because the manpower was increased, not because there is more traffic. 

This is what the border fence looks like

 Our Agent talked about the fences.  Most of what they are going to put up in this area is up, however, a lot of the gates have not been installed so there are holes in the system where a person could walk through.  We thought we heard the agent say that this station is responsible for 18 river miles and within that 18 miles, there are 10 miles of fence.  The rest is unprotected.  However, we read online that they are responsible for 40 river miles so that didn't make sense.  Don't know what we heard wrong.  She did say that even though there are gaps, it helps them because the traffic is funneled to the gaps.  They do still have illegals climbing the fence but many of them are found because they are lying dead or injured next to the fence.  The US gets to fix them up before they send them back.
 

#1

#2

#3

The Illegals are very creative in finding ways to hide and not to be seen.  In #1 above, the first person was hiding in a bag.  There were others hiding in the middle of a stack of plywood on a trailer.  In #2 the guy had most of his body in the center console of a car and the rest of the body was covered by blankets and coats on the floor.  In #3 you can see his legs.  In #3 you can also see how another illegal had himself sewn into the seat cushions so he looked like he wasn't there at all.

Our Agent also talked about the illegals coming into the country.  She explained that it used to be that the people entering illegally were doing so to go to work, but these days most of the people coming in illegally are involved in some sort of illegal activities, mainly smuggling drugs  or guns.  They do still have pregnant women coming over to give birth in the United States.  They try to time it just right.  Even if they have the baby while in detention, the baby is a US citizen. 

One of the videos was very explicit and showed number of dead bodies and people being executed by the Mexican cartels.  Some of the people who were burned to death were young men who had signed up to join one of the cartels but violated some rule and were killed.  The agent said that kids were being recruited as young as 15 and they even reach out to get interest from 10-year-olds.  The Border Patrol does education classes in the schools to try and keep the kids from getting lured by the money and the drugs.  Kids in grade school are taking what they call "cheese" which is a form of cocaine.  They can buy it for $2 a hit and it is inhaled and does not involve using a needle so the young kids are attracted to it a lot easier.  The agent says after one dose, many are addicted.  There were also a lot of horrific scenes with people who had been kidnapped for ransom.  It was really hard to watch.

There were a lot of questions about how safe Nuevo Progresso is because that is where we all go over the border to shop, go to the dentist, eye doctor or just get dinner.  She said that Progresso has had some incidents but that they happened nearly three years ago.  She didn't want to say that it was safe to go there but all of the real tragic things that have happened have been in the larger cities.  She said really what is happening is that Progresso is a territory that is established and none of the other drug cartels are fighting over it at this time.

After we finished with all the questions and answers, she took us on a tour of the detention center and of the area where all the border patrol vehicles are.

The door on the far wall is where the illegals are brought in to be processed.  There is a room with unarmed officers in front of the door and then glass and a room where we were with officers watching the monitors.

This agent is watching the monitors.  There is only one illegal being detained today.  She isn't in uniform as she is pregnant and they don't have maternity uniforms. /

The doors around the room on the other side of the glass are some of the holding cells.  They look small but they are long and narrow.  They men separated from women and children.  Mothers and children are allowed stay together.  They are only detained in this facility for two days at the most.  Most are processed and in court within a day.  They used to just process them and drive them back to the border and let them out.  Now, however, they take them to court so they are in the system and they can tell how many times they have returned illegally.  The more often they have tried, the longer they stay in jail before being returned.

After we saw the detainment area, our agent took us outside to take at a look at the Border Patrol vehicles.  They have 4 X 4 vehicles, bike patrols, boat patrols and horse patrols but we only saw some of the trucks that bring in captured illegals.

A Transport Vehicle

 I believe she said they have 14 sets of 
seat belts in this transport vehicle.

After the presentation was over, we all headed back to the bus.

About Ready to Head Back To The Bus

We thought this map which was on one of the walls in the Border Patrol Station was enlightening.  This is a map of the Rio Grande River and this is the area that this Border Patrol Station guards!