Border Patrol Quotes

“Getting bodies,” in Border Patrol lingo, didn’t necessarily mean collecting corpses. Bodies were living people. “Bodies” was one of the many names for them. Illegal aliens, dying of thirst more often than not, are called “wets” by agents. “Five wets” might have slipped out. “Wets” are also called “tonks,” but the Border Patrol tries hard to keep that bon mot from civilians. It’s a nasty habit in the ranks. Only a fellow border cop could appreciate the humor of calling people a name based on the stark sound of a flashlight breaking over a human head.”
― Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil's Highway: A True Story

“My mother shook her head. You make it sound like you'll be communing with nature and having heartfelt conversations all day. The Border Patrol isn't the Park Service. It’s a paramilitary police force.”
― Francisco Cantú, The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border

“Good people will always be crossing the border, and whether I'm in the Border Patrol or not, agents will be out there arresting them. At least if I'm the one apprehending them, I can offer them some small comfort by speaking with them in their own language, by talking to them with knowledge of their home.

Fine, my mother said, fine. But you must understand you are stepping into a system, an institution with little regard for people.

I looked away from her and a silence hung between us. I glanced down at my hands and weighed my mother’s words. Maybe you’re right, I replied, but stepping into a system doesn’t mean that the system becomes you. As I spoke, doubts flickered through my mind.”
― Francisco Cantú, The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border

“my name is Xochitl Tzompantli
Skull Rack Flower i am
the life-cutter the eater
watchtowers guards artillery
wires & codes & dogs &
filth nourish me”
― Juan Felipe Herrera, Every Day We Get More Illegal