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Saturday, May 28, 2005

Remembering past efforts
Border Patrol honors 97 fallen agents

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

Since 1924, 18 Border Patrol agents have died on duty in the El Paso sector.

On Friday, the agency honored them during a memorial ceremony at the Border Patrol Museum on Trans Mountain Road.

Connie Duran attended to represent her son, Roberto Duran, who died May 6, 2002, in a car crash near Casa Grande, Ariz. Roberto Duran, an El Pasoan, was assigned to Chula Vista, Calif., and temporarily deployed to Arizona. He had been a Border Patrol agent for five years.

"We were proud," said Connie Duran, of Santa Teresa. "You never think it's going to happen to your own."

Just before Duran died, he learned he would be transferred to Marfa, closer to El Paso and his family. He left behind four children.

The latest agent to die on duty in the El Paso sector was Rene Garza, a Lordsburg horse patrolman who collapsed from a cardiac arrest in 1999.

Since the agency was created in 1924, 97 agents have died on duty, including four after the Department of Homeland Security took over the Border Patrol in 2003. They're honored in a new display at the museum.

"We are so focused on our mission that we forget the very real dangers of our jobs," said Luis Barker, Border Patrol deputy chief in Washington, D.C. He is the former chief of the Border Patrol's El Paso sector, and returned to El Paso for the ceremony.

After Barker's speech, a riderless horse, with boots wedged backward in its stirrups, made its way slowly down the road.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.