Deputies recount experience of guarding U.S.-Mexico border
By Jamie Rogers | Morning News Reporter
Published: November 21, 2009
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A week of work was far from average for seven Florence County sheriff’s deputies who spent several days this month guarding the U.S.-Mexico border just a few paces from the most world’s most dangerous city, Juarez, Mexico.

During the first week of November, the men were far removed from their mostly rural patrolling ground and in a place where map borders aren’t based on county lines, but on the territories of drug cartels.

The deputies, members of the sheriff’s office’s Criminal Enforcement Unit, were selected by the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to be part of the unceasing process of patrolling three entry ports near El Paso, Texas.

Their task was to prevent illegal immigrants and drugs from passing into the United States, Florence County Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Brown said.

It was a huge undertaking and a far cry from working the highways and interstates of South Carolina, Brown said.

Every hour, 24 hours a day, more than 1,200 cars cross the border, Florence County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Summerford said.

“You’ve heard of a lot of things, but to actually see them,â€