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Saturday, August 05, 2006

Oldest living former Border Patrol agent recalls his career on U.S.-Mexico line

BY GENTRY BRASWELL
Wick News Service

TUCSON - The work of patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border is worlds away from what it was in the old days.

In the early days of the U.S. Border Patrol, the face of immigration itself was quite different in scope. Marion Russell, 98, remembers his career with the patrol, which began in the early 1940s. He is the oldest living former Border Patrol agent, and carried the title of "border inspector" for 28 years.

Border enforcement in the early days of the patrol dealt more with farmers and land use than with outright flight from Mexico by nationals, as is one of today's main border problems, Russell said.

While contraband has always been an issue at the Southwestern border, today's smuggling enforcement is of a much larger scope, Russell said.

He was switched back, forth and between stations in Southeast Arizona during his Border Patrol years.

"Up until a couple of years ago he was still attending Border Patrol Christmas parties," said Rob Daniels, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector.

Joining the Border Patrol

Russell was born in Sheridan, Wyo., on Nov. 23, 1907. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1930, and ended up teaching school in Gillette, Wyo.

While living in Gillette, a notice tacked on a bulletin board advertising border inspector positions with the U.S. Border Patrol lured Russell into his new career, he said. He took the handwritten exam, then the oral exam. He was asked to report to El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 24, 1942, for training.

After six weeks of schooling, he was stationed for his first assignment in Douglas in early October 1942.

In those days, Douglas was a very small town, he said. "It was about six or eight of us, and they had one man on horse patrol. We were limited to 20 miles on the car, so we didn't go very far," Russell said.

That limit was just about used up for the day on routine patrols during his Douglas days after driving the vehicle down to the railroad yard and back to check for illegal immigrants.

It wasn't all work. Soldiers from Fort Huachuca would come down to the border to find leisure on the weekends

."We used to have a lot of fun down there," he said.

The Douglas station staff numbers about 600 people today, Daniels said.

One of the inspectors who worked with Russell during his first assignment in Douglas was later taken into the U.S. Army. The other inspector ended up at the Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Russell, however, from his first assignment went on to the Sasabe border station.

From 1945 to 1949, he was stationed at Naco; he was stationed at Tucson for the first time in 1949, for about 14 months.

"My wife said she was there for 14 months, but I was there for seven because I was on detail a lot," Russell said.

He spent time stationed at Naco and Casa Grande as well, both of which stations comprised a staff of four inspectors and a senior officer in those days, he said. Personnel operating out of the Naco station number more than 300 today.

In 1957, Russell returned to Tucson, where he remained stationed until 1970 when he was transferred to Nogales. He retired in 1973.

Patrolling the border

Like today, those border inspectors were charged with preventing illegal immigrants from entering the United States, he said.

"We had them coming through the line on both sides of the port. We were stretched so thin we couldn't be on both sides, so we got the Army to send us some MPs," Russell said. "When I first got there, our first responsibility was to catch anybody coming through the fence. We caught quite a few - mostly soldiers coming back through the fence on Saturdays. And every once in a while, a Mexican, and they would be re-routed through the port."

Their duties, he said, didn't change a whole lot through the years. Inspectors frequently made rounds.

"Mostly train checks and bus checks," he said. "Of course, we didn't have many (illegals) in Tucson around that time, either."

U.S. immigration policy would shift from time to time during his career, which he said sometimes complicated his job. At times policy was such that immigrants who entered the United States before a certain time were to be left alone, but those who had entered after a particular date were due for deportation. Because of this, it was at times left up to the Border Patrol to determine when a Mexican national had entered the country, in order to determine whether they needed to be deported.

"When I first came in all the emphasis was on farmers," he said. "And they were always changing the immigration law, so you had to keep up with it."

Bilinguality was an important skill then as it is now for Border Patrol personnel, though Russell said his Spanish-speaking skills have gotten a little rusty.

The most significant change to the patrol has been its growth in response to increasing illegal immigration, and more recently to a post Sept. 11, 2001, world.

"And the biggest part, I think, after I retired they started hiring more people," he said.

Scary times on the border

Like today, some scary encounters occurred from time to time on Russell's watch.

Cross-border underground tunnels were certainly not safe places, "and every once in a while we'd have some shooting done underneath there," Russell said.

"Had an electric eye in there, so we knew there was people in there. Every once in a while, somebody got hit down there," he said. "Occasionally, somebody didn't want to get caught and would shoot, but not very often."

The patrol had good cooperation with the police south of the border during his tenure, Russell said.

Contraband smuggling was an issue at that time, though "not as much of a problem as it is now," he said.

Regarding current political dialogue surrounding the Southwest border, Russell said some things about the issue never change.

If a fence is built, "they'll either cut a hole or climb over it," he said. Regarding national security threats, he agreed the issue is of capital importance.

Regarding preventing illegal immigration, he added, "I don't think they'll ever cut it clear down."

He discussed a significant U.S. campaign in the 1950s to collect and deport illegal immigrants. Russell said many Mexican nationals went home by there own volition during that time, and they often would often return when authorities weren't concentrating on their specific border location.

"You've got so many of them here now, that I don't know what their going to do," Russell said. "Right now, you can't keep everybody out. If you catch one-half of them you're doing good."

In May 1924, the U.S. Congress passed the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924, officially establishing the Border Patrol for the purpose of securing the borders between inspection stations. In 1925, its duties were expanded to patrol the seacoast. The agents didn't have uniforms until 1928. Border personnel were initially provided with a badge and a revolver. They furnished their own horse and saddle, and Uncle Sam supplied the oats, hay and a salary.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a sharp increase in illegal immigration occurred, to which the patrol continually responds with new technology and increased personnel.

U.S. National Guard deployment to the Southwestern border is one of the latest executive responses to the immigration issue that grows ever more politically charged and ever more a matter of concern to U.S. citizens.