Latino Agents See Patrol as Ladder to Success

It is an overlooked aspect of the Border Patrol’s personality and a reminder that times have changed: More than 40% of agents are Latinos.

The Border Patrol’s need for Spanish-speakers has made the agency an increasingly popular ladder of upward mobility for working-class Mexican-Americans in the Southwest, particularly in the impoverished Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

Juan Zavala, the son of migrant workers in Laredo, Tex., joined the patrol after serving in the Air Force and on the Laredo police force. In seven years as an agent in San Diego, he has honed his skills as a tracker of illegal immigrants in the brushland near the Tijuana River.

As do many other Latino agents from Texas, known as Tejanos, Zavala enjoys the work and scoffs at activists’ criticism that he and fellow Latinos are betraying their own.

“They’re not my people,” he said of those he arrests daily. “I’m an American. They’re here illegally.”

For more than half a century, patrol commanders resisted hiring Latinos, openly questioning their ability to police the border, veteran agents say.

“Management didn’t think a Hispanic could enforce immigration law against our fellow Hispanics,” said one of the agency’s highest-ranking Latinos, who asked that his name not be used.

Now three chiefs of major sectors are Latino, although the overall number of Latino managers remains proportionately low compared to the rank and file. Top immigration managers often point to the Border Patrol’s high Latino staffing to counter accusations of racism.

But some, including a 17-year El Paso veteran who has filed suit alleging that he was passed over for promotion because of his Mexican ancestry, insist that bias endures.

“A lot of these people still hold a lot of hate against the Mexican people,” said Mexican-born Arcadio Neira, who says Latino agents feel extra pressure to show toughness. “For Hispanics, there’s no in between. You’re either a hard-ass or a bleeding heart.”

Tejanos have a tough reputation among officers and immigrants alike. One Tejano agent nearly caused a riot at the Tijuana line in 1989 with an hourlong harangue on a vehicle loudspeaker directed across the international boundary. He called Mexicans “whores,” cackled maniacally and played taped ranchera music as he taunted the crowd in border Spanish: “The only Mexicans worth anything are los Tejanos !” Three agents, including a supervisor, were suspended.

Some of the patrol’s relatively few African-Americans say the culture can be particularly oppressive. Alvon Williams, a radio operator in El Paso, alleged in a formal complaint that an assistant chief made a disparaging racial remark to him. Discriminatory attitudes pervade the organization, Williams said.

“It carries out into the field,” Williams said. “What you see is what you get.”