Thread: Following footprints: Protecting our border

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stor ... fb6f4.html

By Carey Peña / 3TV reporter

Priority number one is protecting our Nation's borders, trying to find out who is in the country. But it's a massive job.


Border Patrol agents actually follow footprints.


That's what the agents do. They follow footprints in the desert. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it takes days. But they say it's crucial to follow those footprints and find out who they belong to.


"We're at war. It's a war on terror and people try not to think about it," said Border Patrol agent Robert Kiernan. "But we've been attacked. We have to be on the lookout for anything that's going on."


At 9 a.m. on Aug. 15, there's not a lot of activity going on. At least, not that we can see.


The desert seems incredibly calm.


The mission is to find footprints. Figure out if they are fresh and then follow them.


"And you can see a footprint, but this is a lizard dragging his tail," Kiernan said.


A false alarm, so the search continues.


"We have so many people coming across," Kiernan said. "The only way to know who these people are is by apprehending them."


Kiernan is part of a highly trained team called Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue (BORSTAR). Their job is to track down illegal border crossers.


But these guys are also trained to help if there's a medical emergency.


"They're for the most part decent people," Kiernan said. "We are human beings. We're going to provide them with whatever kind of aid we can."


By now it's past noon.


We've been searching for more than three hours.


"Standing out here you get more perspective," Kiernan said. "I think a lot of people feel they come across and you guys are there to meet up with them. A lot of people don't understand that you get a group and they don't just jump into a car and head to Phoenix," Kiernan said. "They have to walk three, five and seven days to get to a point to get picked up."


And where they walk the agents follow.


Finally, fresh footprints. Agents coordinate on the ground and in the air. A K9 unit is also on scene.


"He should be about a hundred yards from me somewhere in this brush," Kiernan said.


Six hours after we started following footprints, agents catch up to a group of about a dozen men.


Who are they?


While they could be immigrants simply searching for the American Dream, Border Patrol agents say they could also be criminals, even terrorists, looking to do us harm.


"It's incumbent on us to maintain order," Kiernan said. "To find out who they are, what their background is and what their intention is here."


Agents will tell you, for the most part, the people they encounter in the desert are decent people just trying to find a better life.


But then, there's the X-factor, the criminal element. These are the people they are most worried about.


Our cameras are rolling as a group of about a dozen suspected illegal immigrants are apprehended in the southern desert near Tucson.


They are handcuffed and walked out about a mile and a half to the highway where vans are waiting.


"We just enforce the law of the land," said agent Juan Alonso. "And to enter the country you have to come through legally."


But what happens after the apprehension? Agents say it's crucial to figure out the identity of each and every person.


Are they migrant workers simply searching for a better life? Or, are they criminals, even terrorists?


"A terrorist is always going to look for ways to get through the system," Alonso said. "Our job is to do everything we can to keep them from doing it."


Just recently, a man was brought in who was thought to be from Mexico. It turns out he was Middle Eastern and on the terror watch list. The point is you never know until you get fingerprints.


"We can find out who the person is in a matter of seconds if not minutes," Alonso said.


Alonso shows us how it works. They get 10 prints then run them through all of the connected state and federal databases. On a busy day, they process about a thousand people in this location alone.


"We get digital fingerprints and a photograph right here," Alonso said.


Alonso says about 20 percent of everyone they process has a violent criminal history.


"We've seen murderers, bank robbers, rapists, you name it. We've come across them," Alonso said.


The criminals are brought to see a deportation judge. Everyone else is bused back to Mexico.


"There are some people who say every person needs to be put through formal hearing," Alonso said. "Formally deported, is that even possible? It is impossible to prosecute or jail every single person?"


As for the group of men apprehended in the desert as our cameras were rolling, they were all printed and photographed.


It turns out they are migrant workers who walked three days through the desert in search of the American dream -- a dream that continues to elude them.


Their journey ended on that bus back to Mexico.


Now all of those men have a record in the system. If they try to cross again and they are caught, agents will know who they are and at that time they could face formal deportation.


Agents will tell you most of the people they come across are peaceful, but it's the criminal element they really worry about.

Alonso says about 20 percent of everyone they process has a violent criminal history.

So that would interpret to over 3-5 million VIOLENT criminals in this country and these La Raza people want to protect them. Just how long before this country becomes a crime-infested rathole like Mexico?