Border Patrol hopefuls are already serving

Explorers help at community events

By Mark Arner
STAFF WRITER

November 29, 2008

SAN YSIDRO – Michael Ibarra, an 18-year-old student at Southwestern College, is among a dozen members of a new Border Patrol Explorer troop in Imperial Beach who jumped into community service this month.

He and others from Post 1924 served early Thanksgiving meals last week to more than 1,000 people at a community agency in San Ysidro.

The troop also helped manage traffic, pick up trash and serve meals Saturday in Crown Point to hundreds of people participating in a 60-mile fund-raising walk to fight breast cancer. That event was among more than a dozen conducted nationwide by the Susan G. Komen For The Cure organization.

The Imperial Beach Explorer post is among a half-dozen troops that the Border Patrol has sponsored countywide to expose youth to the agency.

Ibarra said his mom suggested looking into the Border Patrol after he expressed a desire to work either in the military or law enforcement.

A buddy then told him about the new Explorer troop and recommended he join it. Ibarra scheduled an interview and obviously impressed the advisers because they chose him as “Patrol Explorer in Charge.â€