BP Retiring Sector Chief" Violence Greatest Threat"
Retiring sector chief says violence greatest threat
04/06/2007
By LYNN BREZOSKY / Associated Press
Rising violence against Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley is the biggest challenge facing the sector today, a retiring Border Patrol chief said Friday.
Rio Grande Valley sector Chief Lynne Underdown, 49, spoke to reporters after announcing her retirement following 27 years with the Border Patrol.
She recalled her alarm in December 2005 when unseen assailants on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande were shooting at agents on boat patrol, where they were at "maximum exposure."
"This is not a position you learn on," she said.
Since then, agents have repeatedly been shot at, including two incidents this year in an area of the river near Donna. No one has been injured.
The violence was a predicted outcome of more agents making more drug seizures and frustrating the cartels on the other side of the border, Underdown said.
She joined the Border Patrol in 1982 in California, when the agency had only 2,000 agents and equipment was a "flashlight, radio, and a blanket." The agency now has about 12,000 agents and is slated to grow to 18,000 agents under directive from President Bush. Agents now patrol with state-of-the-art jeeps and Humvees, use high-tech mapping devices, and have the aid of remote sensors, camera, helicopters, and unmanned aerial drones.
After feeling she had achieved what she had set out to in the sector, Underdown decided to retire.
Most significant among those achievements, was tackling the problem of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico, Underdown said.
When she arrived in the Rio Grande Valley in 2005 as sector chief, non-Mexican immigrants were released onto the streets with a notice to appear in front of an immigration judge because there was no space to detain them. Few returned for court.
"It got my attention my first day," she said. "It was an unacceptable security situation."
Added detention space and an effort to quickly process immigrants for deportation has brought things under control, Underdown said.
Another achievement was centralizing information and using advanced technology.
"We just don't put people out there," she said. "It's much more sophisticated than that."
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