Thread: From Mexico to law enforcement

December 28, 2009

From Mexico to law enforcement

By DEBORAH HIRSCH
Courier-Post Staff

Like so many immigrants, Ricardo Cobian came to the United States for the job opportunities he didn't have in Mexico.

While many of his fellow countrymen set about earning money to improve their lives back home, Cobian dreamed of becoming a U.S. soldier.

The 46-year-old Voorhees resident not only realized his dream, but worked his way up through the ranks to become a decorated lieutenant colonel.

Outside the military, he built a career enforcing immigration law, even policing the very border he crossed legally years ago. Today, he supervises a Marlton-based team of agents who process criminal illegal immigrants caught anywhere south of Trenton.

Cobian could've easily entered the country illegally himself.

Growing up in Tijuana, he watched people gather just south of the California border, waiting for nightfall to rush across. There was no fence yet, and crime had blossomed around the business of trafficking immigrants and drugs.

"It was like the Wild West for illegal immigrants," Cobian remembered.

Finding a good job was already difficult in Mexico, Cobian said, and it was even more complicated for Jewish immigrants. His grandparents had immigrated from Spain to Veracruz. Even though Cobian's father was born in Mexico, under the law back then he wasn't considered a citizen. So when he died of an undiagnosed ulcer, the government swooped in to take over his share of the department store chain he ran. Cobian was 15 at the time, the oldest of three brothers.

Cobian remembered how his classmates teased him about his height and light skin, hallmarks of his European ancestry.

"You're kind of treated like a second-class citizen of sorts," he said. "I used to get into fights all the time."

With their father gone and slim business prospects, Cobian's family applied for visas in 1981.

It would have been faster to just run into California, but Cobian wanted to go to college and become an Army officer. He knew that pursuing those goals would've been practically impossible without legal status.

When he was called for his interview, Cobian spoke in English, a skill he'd picked up from American cartoons.

"I think what got it is I told him, "Look, I want to be in the Army,' " Cobian said. "You have no security over here, so this is the country I am willing to give my life to."

Cobian enlisted not long after moving to San Diego. He became a citizen in 1987, worked as a corrections officer for the FBI and studied political science at San Diego State University, graduating in 1995.

In the late 1990s, he took a job as a detention officer for the federal agency that later became Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Cobian acknowledged that some people might not understand how he could send his fellow Mexicans back home.

"Yes, there are some who are just trying to get over here to make a better life, like I did," he said, but the rules must be enforced. "You have to do it the right way."

Many of the people they tracked smuggled drugs, or made a living by mugging laborers, Cobian said. Some of them shuttled immigrants to complexes where they were told to stay and work if they didn't want "la migra" to capture them.

"I don't think I can really empathize with somebody who is a criminal because that's what I dedicated my life to, finding criminals," he said.

In addition to field patrols, Cobian later worked on plans for a massive fence and other infrastructure designed to curb illegal border crossing.

In 2004, the National Guard called on him to coordinate training for a team of soldiers bound for Iraq. Instead of heading overseas with them, Cobian was sent on a different mission in Kosovo. There, he taught local soldiers how to collaborate with municipal leaders in responding to emergencies.

"He was able to demonstrate by deeds, not words alone that uniformed people and civil authorities can work very closely together," said California National Guard Adjutant Gen. William Wade II, who commanded the brigade in Kosovo.

After a year abroad, Cobian returned to ICE. A promotion brought him to South Jersey in May 2008.

At the state's suboffice in Marlton, Cobian oversees five agents who interview, detain and transport illegal immigrants. Occasionally, his team assists on raids but the majority of their time is spent responding to about a dozen calls a day from law enforcement agencies and jails. Cobian said more than 90 percent of those calls relate to illegal immigrants who have committed felonies.

Michael Melendez, who supervises the Marlton office, said Cobian has used his military background to not just manage, but lead his team.

"He's one of our rising stars," Melendez said. If another promotion becomes available, "we're not going to be able to hold him back."

Cobian hopes that's the case. Not withstanding interruptions for deployment, Cobian said he plans to see how far he can get within ICE.

Lt. Col. Kurt Schlichter, a friend from the California Army National Guard, said he admired Cobian's ambition and dedication.

"A lot of people who are native born don't fully appreciate what it means to have the opportunities that this country offers," Schlichter said. "A guy like Ric understands at a gut level. He understands what this country can give. He understands that there are people who have to defend its laws. It's guys like Ric that make this country great."

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I'm proud of immigrants of this sort.