Thread: Shadow Wolves dwindle, cite frustration with Border Patrol

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/21073.php

Published: 08.01.2006
Shadow Wolves dwindle, cite frustration with Border Patrol
JENNIFER TALHELM
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Since 1972, the Shadow Wolves, a specially trained unit of American Indian federal agents who patrol 76 miles of the Arizona border in the Tohono O'odham nation, have been celebrated for their ability to track and stop drug smugglers.

The unit, which combines modern law enforcement techniques with tracking skills handed down through generations, once stopped nearly 100,000 pounds of illegal drugs a year from being smuggled through the desert Indian reservation on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But things haven't been the same since 2003, when the unit was moved from the now-defunct U.S. Customs Service to the Border Patrol in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Under the Border Patrol, the Shadow Wolves say, they are confined to seven-mile patrol areas and haven't been able to do the in-depth investigations that made them so successful at catching smugglers.
Their frustration has caught the attention of Congress.

"It's kind of like Border Patrol has kept the Shadow Wolves' hands tied to where they can't do the job they were put out here to do," said Marvin Eleando, who retired in 2004 partly out of frustration after 27 years with the Shadow Wolves. "It seems like they're just trying to discourage officers to retire or quit."

Created by Congress in 1972 to foster relations with the Tohono O'odham nation and help it patrol its borders, the unit has shrunk from 22 agents to 16 since 2003, mostly because of retirements.

House lawmakers say they're concerned for the future of the Shadow Wolves. After hearing complaints, Reps. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., and Mark Souder, R-Ind., who chairs a government reform subcommittee dealing with criminal justice and drug policy, introduced and passed a bill last month that would move the unit to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Under ICE, the Shadow Wolves would be able to focus more on investigations, Shadegg said.

"This is a unit that was phenomenally successful at interdicting drugs and at border security," Shadegg said in an interview. "Man-to-man they were dramatically more effective than any other unit on the border."
But Chuy Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Border Patrol Tucson sector, said it is unclear whether the Shadow Wolves have been less effective in recent years.

The statistics for the amount of drugs confiscated by the unit before 2003 include cases in which other law enforcement agencies helped the Shadow Wolves, Rodriguez said. The unit this year has seized 20,744 pounds of drugs, unassisted, he said.

"I don't think that's an accurate statement to say we're hampering their ability to do their job," Rodriguez said.

The Shadow Wolves began as a unit of about a dozen Tohono O'odham Indians who brought special tracking skills to the border enforcement effort. The tribe's desolate, cactus-strewn border with Mexico is heavily trafficked by drug and human smugglers.

The Shadow Wolves now include Indians from several tribes. They analyze the footprints and clothing fibers left by smugglers, able to tell whether a track was left by a man carrying a backpack loaded with marijuana or by a parched migrant lost in the desert heat.

After the 9/11 attacks, they turned their attention to protecting the border from terrorists.

In recent years, the unit helped train Eastern European customs officials in a U.S. effort to prevent the smuggling of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The Shadow Wolves were moved to Border Patrol after the Department of Homeland Security was created.

Eleando said children growing up in Indian Country looked up to the Shadow Wolves "just like the Code Talkers," Navajos who transmitted secret information during World II in their native language.

But Eleando said that the Shadow Wolves were a bad fit for Border Patrol from the start. Border Patrol imposed their rules and rank system, which some Shadow Wolves considered a demotion.

Eleando said that in addition to being confined to certain regions of the border, Shadow Wolves were prevented from paying informants and other practices, causing the agents to lose sources.

Rodriguez, of the Border Patrol, said he couldn't answer questions about changes in the way the unit gathered information. He said Border Patrol's hierarchy and mission are more structured than the Shadow Wolves were used to.

Shadegg said he is still looking for a senator to sponsor his bill to move the unit, but said the legislation now has the blessing of several administration officials. He also hopes that the Shadow Wolves can thrive so their work can be replicated on the northern U.S. border.
Eleando said that under ICE, the Shadow Wolves will have more flexibility.
"I feel it will help change things and put the Shadow Wolves back on track," he said.

Sometimes, I wonder which side the Border Patrol is on, for pete's sake. You've got crack bunch of trackers and you try to bridle them???

Why on earth would you do that?

Hopefully, under ICE, they'll be able to do their jobs.

Under the Border Patrol, the Shadow Wolves say, they are confined to seven-mile patrol areas and haven't been able to do the in-depth investigations that made them so successful at catching smugglers.
Their frustration has caught the attention of Congress.

"It's kind of like Border Patrol has kept the Shadow Wolves' hands tied to where they can't do the job they were put out here to do," said Marvin Eleando, who retired in 2004 partly out of frustration after 27 years with the Shadow Wolves. "It seems like they're just trying to discourage officers to retire or quit."

This one is to hard to figure out. The U.S. Border Patrol is one of President Bush's puppets, just like the DHS and the U.S. Attorney General. These people do not work for "we the people," they work for the Bush administration and will do his bidding.

I think the problem lays in the fact that those making the rules have no real field experience, they think tracking is a dieing art. They have all their mondern hi tech wonders so why bother with something they don't understand.
While all Border Patrol agents are taught how to track very few take the time to become good at it.
What they don't understand is that a good tracker can find people on the ground much easier than a helicopter, in thick brush a smuggler can hide from air crews but a tracker can follow them to where they are, if the tracker thinks the smuggler is way ahead of him he can radio in and have a fellow tracker cut for sign and either leapfrog ahead or pin point about where he is.
Tracking is more than following a set of foot prints in the sand, often there is very little to see but a good tracker knows what to look for and can learn a lot about the person he is tracking.
All this hi tech stuff is great but it does not replace a skilled tracker!

MountainDog:

You are amazing. Truly!!!

You are so right about trackers. (Had a few in my family). The sad part is that it is a dying art. Silly Indian kids are too busy playing video games. But a few do want t learn.

I wonder if it's just a little "turf war"? Who knows? Too many people today do rely on the high-tech schtuff and not enough on native (no pun intended - well maybe a little one) abilities.

But it does puzzle me>>> If I'm in the middle of a swamp sinking, I really don't care who helps me out. I just want to get out.

Like I said - sigh - maybe it'll work out better under ICE.

Well thank you Cheyenne,
Actually tracking is not a dying art, there are many people out there practicing it, mostly as a hobby but many others in search and rescue as well.
I started to learn how to track about twenty years ago from some Border Patrol friends of mine and it has been a hobby of mine since, I have used this skill in a few calls I have been on and it has come in handy.
The problem is it takes a lot of practice to be good so those higher ups don't understand how valuable a good tracker can be.
Even if you take them out into the field and show them they do not believe you because they do not see what a tracker sees.

Do you think that ICE, will really let them do their job, considering they themselves won't do their own job very often?

Nitty:

We can only hope.!!!

This was posted a few months ago. I really like this video about the Shadow Wolves, hope you guys do also.
NM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dvnlel9 ... rch=patrol

NewMex:

That is great!! Thank you.