Big Bend Border Patrol agents meet with West Texas students
People from Fort Davis to Alpine Texas all got the chance to meet and speak with Border Patrol agents in Marfa Tuesday at the Big Bend Sector’s open house.
From dogs to trucks, horses and drugs, agents in the Border Patrol’s Big Bend sector shared every aspect of their job with students visiting from Fort Davis to Alpine.
The annual open house is a chance for members of the community who see Border Patrol every day to speak and learn what their job is like.
Some of the weapons, the horses, the canines. Just coming out here and seeing the way they do things helps some of those pieces fall together and helps us better understand the job they do,” said Logan Bourbon, a senior from Alpine High School.
These community days aren’t just a chance for kids to come out and check out the horses. A couple of them have actually been recruited because of these very same trips.
“This is a chance to meet and greet our kids. Sometimes they’re our agents’ kids, they’re out here, they’re enjoying what their parents do. Some of them are just kids in the community that they see us day in and day out, working in these communities, protecting them and keeping them safe,” said Arain Carrera, Border Patrol Big Bend Sector agent.
With Border Patrol agents and their work so solidly under the limelight some visitors said events like these help forster connections between the agents and their neighbors.
“I used to teach in Arizona, in Douglas, Arizona, and I think something like this would have been a huge benefit, getting to the Border Patrol station, meeting with the Border Patrol agents, seeing what they do, not just seeing them out standing on the Xs or watching the fence,” said Jacqueline French, a mother from Alpine who took her children to the open house.
It’s these relationships agents say they rely on to work with their communities as political tensions rise.
Members of the National Guard, who are helping Border Patrol in the Big Bend sector were also at the open house.
