http://www.yumasun.com/news/yuma_46955_ ... order.html

Two episodes of ABC show to focus on Yuma Border Patrol
January 7, 2009 - 7:28 PM
BY JAMES GILBERT, SUN STAFF WRITER

Homeland security happens here every day. Now Yumans and viewers from around the country can watch more of it on ABC's new television show "Homeland Security USA."

According to Agent Michael Bernacke, a spokesman for the Yuma Sector Border Patrol, the Yuma Sector will be featured in a two-part series of the show.

"It is always a great experience and is good exposure for the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol," Bernacke said. "Anytime we can use the media to get our message and our story out there, about how proactive we are and the job we do, it is great."

Bernacke added he watched the first episode of the show, which premiered Tuesday night, and thought it was done well.

"I thought it portrayed us well and that it was a good episode," Bernacke said. "It did a good job showing the elements of the work we do on a day-to-day basis."

Tuesday's episode featured Border Patrol agents and Customs officers working at the Los Angeles International Airport and along the Mexican-American border in San Ysidro, Calif.

Bernacke said he has been told by producers that the shows featuring the Yuma Sector are scheduled to be the seventh and 13th episodes of the program.

The seventh episode will focus on the arrest of a group of illegal aliens in the desert south of Wellton, according to Bernacke.

Bernacke explained that when the show was out here filming for the episode, they were on an aerial ride along with agent and sector spokesman Jeremy Schappell and ended up helping agents on the ground locate a group of illegal aliens in a mountainous area.

"They were there for the duration of that arrest and were filming it," Bernacke said. "It was a group of about five to 10 illegal aliens."

The 13th episode will focus on the loss of Agent Luis Aguilar, who died in the line of duty in January 2008, said Bernacke.

According to ABC spokeswoman Patrick Prebelick, the network does not have an air date set yet for the Yuma episodes, but she expects them to run sometime in March.

The "Homeland Security" show is comprised of 13 one-hour episodes and shot entirely on location throughout the United States.

Each episode covers eight or more locations on the "front lines" where the officers and agents work every day, according to a news release issued by ABC.

"They're ordinary men and women working against an epic landscape," said the program's producer, Arnold Shapiro, in the news release. "They have a job that is dangerous, difficult and always unpredictable. What viewers will see is powerful, dramatic, amazing and emotional, with unexpected humor."

Prebelick added that each episode can be watched on the network's Web site, so if Yuma viewers miss the episodes shot here they will still be able to watch them.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854