On the line: One Border Patrol agent sees world shift under his feet

Recently retired U.S. Border Patrol Agent Christopher Harris stands next to a pit of plastic debris that get washed into an area neat Imperial Beach in San Diego on Monday, Mar 12, 2018. He says the area was recently cleaned. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
People put their names on a list with “Grupos Beta,” a Mexican governmental agency that helps migrants, and wait for their names to be called to begin the asylum process at the Tijuana/U.S. border on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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A man looks into the U.S. from Tijuana on Wednesday, December 5, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
People with the correct documentation pass freely into the U.S. from Tijuana on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
U.S. border patrol agents can be seen through a graffitied metal gate in Tijuana on Wednesday, December 5, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
An secondary border wall near Tijuana used to be a heavily breached until barbed wire was installed. A border patrol agent keeps his eye on the area from a hillside vantage point. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Children wait with their parents at the Tijuana/U.S. border as they wait for the slow immigration process to begin on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A heavy police presence can be seen around Tijuana near the Mexican-U.S. border on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
As the sun goes down, a film crew shoots the border wall in Tijuana on Wednesday, December 5, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A man peers through a border fence near near Tijuana on Saturday, March 10, 2018. He says he has never tried to sneak in to the U.S. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Surrounded by border patrol agents on the lookout for illegal immigrants, a man sits on the U.S. side of the border wall and holds a hypodermic needle in his mouth as he gets ready to shoot up. He can quickly dodge back into Mexico because there is a natural opening where the Tijuana River flows into the San Diego Channel, Christopher Harris with the National Boarder Patrol Council said on Saturday, March 10, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Members of the caravan staying at the Tijuana/U.S. border post a sign declaring,” We are not criminals, we are international workers,” on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Migrants from Honduras post a sign on the outside of their tents “demanding that our human rights are respected.” The group has organized an informal hunger strike at the Tijuana/U.S. border on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Caravaners set up tents under a road along the Mexico/U.S. border where they post signs “demanding that our human rights are respected.” on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Caravaners set up tents under a road along the Mexico/U.S. border where they post signs “demanding that our human rights are respected.” on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A border patrol agent west of the San Ysirdro port of entry patrols the area known as “Whiskey 3” on Saturday, March 10, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Sammy Contreas, 23, from Honduras, shows off his hard-worn shoes after walking to Mexico. He is staying under an overpass at the Tijuana/U.S. border on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One-year-old Anthony Reyes of Honduras stays in a tent with his family under an overpass at the Tijuana/U.S. border on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The “Undocumented Cafe” in Tijuana is near the Mexico-U.S. border wall where many migrants have been caught trying make it into the US. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Christopher Harris, Secretary Director-Legislative and Political Affairs, gives a media tour along the U.S. border wall near Tijuana on Saturday, March 10, 2018. The long-time border patrol agent and union head, just retired. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A sign in Tijuana makes a point along the Mexican border in Tujana on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Children wait with their parents at the Tijuana/U.S. border as they wait for the slow immigration process to begin on Monday, December 3, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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In one agents view, there are three things one needs to secure the border: infrastructure, technology and “boots on the ground.”

Recently retired U.S. Border Patrol Agent Christopher Harris ticked off his list, detailing each at a quick clip.

“Infrastructure is not just a wall. Its fencing. Its roadways. Its stadium lighting. Technology is our cameras, our thermal imaging devices, our sensors, and radios that work,” Harris said.

“And you can have all the infrastructure and technology you want, but if you dont have boots on the ground, its pointless.”

Until his recent retirement, Harris, 55, was a union leader representing some 2,000 Border Patrol agents in the San Diego sector who work or live in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. During the latter part of his 22-year career he also often served as a tour guide of sorts, leading myriad groups – from Congress members to media to environmentalists – to interesting spots along the Southern California stretch of border that divides the United States and Mexico. Along the way, Harris often offered a glimpse into the thinking of the men and women whose job it is to patrol it.

Candid, articulate and passionate, Harris does not shy from offering his own views on the border wall, the asylum system, or the president that has made such matters his signature issues.

Some of those views – and the events that shaped them – might be surprising.

Different eras of migration[hhmc]

For beginners, Harris wife, Norma Harris, arrived in the United States illegally from Mexico, as a child with her family, in the 1970s. She and her family have since become citizens, something that would be harder if they came today.

The irony is not lost on Harris, who has spent his entire adult life in law enforcement. His marriage might never have happened had his wifes family been booted from the country decades ago by someone who carried a badge similar to the one hes worn.

Harris doesnt necessarily justify her familys crossing, but notes that times were different then. Over the last few decades, drug cartels and narcotics have increased. As a result, he said, the population of people coming into the country has become “more vicious; you have more gang bangers and criminals mixed in.”

Since the 70s, he added, theres also been a “major game changer” – Sept. 11.

“Times do change,” Harris said. “Nine-eleven made us realize we need to do a better job who were giving visas to, and who we are allowing to come over.”

If his wife were an unauthorized immigrant today, they wouldnt be married.

“I cant be with someone who is here illegally,” Harris said. “I would be fired.”

Hes a Republican who doesnt care much for President Donald Trump. Shes a Democrat who voted for Trump because of his support for the military and law enforcement. Ultimately, Harris did too.

“It was going to be my first election when I was going to sit it out,” he said. “But Norma said I should vote.”

When the National Border Patrol Council endorsed Trumps candidacy, Harris wasnt thrilled, but he understood the rationale.

“You had a guy who for the first time ever said Im going to consider you, National Border Patrol Council, as subject matter experts on how to secure the border,” Harris said. “We never had anybody do that before.”

But matters of national security and defense should not be partisan, he said. Borders, he added, should be maintained and replaced as needed; and not just because Trump says so.

“Its become politicized.”

Chase, catch, repeat[hhmc]

Harris remembers the days, two decades ago, when agents in the San Diego sector would arrest more than 1,000 Mexicans every night. The migrants would run across the border. He and his fellow agents would chase them down and bring them back. Then, the migrants would run again. The cat and mouse game was repeated most nights for many years.

“It was almost pointless,” Harris said of a border he called “no mans land.”

“You dont see that anymore,” Harris added.

“Over the years, weve gained more control, with more fencing and more agents.”

By comparison, in a typical 24-hour cycle, agents now arrest about 100 people crossing illegally in the San Diego sector, he estimated. And that number was substantially lower before large Central American migrant caravans began arriving last year in Tijuana, when an average day saw 30 to 40 arrests.

But the fewer number of illegal crossings is not the only thing that has changed over the years.

For one, much of the border activity between Tijuana and California is now controlled by Mexican drug cartels, he said.

“Theres no more mom and pop smuggling organizations.”

Another thing that has changed is who is crossing.

While the Tijuana stretch of the U.S./Mexico border has always lured migrants from all over the world, Mexicans historically accounted for most of those trying to cross. But in recent years – as Mexicos economy has come to include higher paying jobs and as conditions in other countries have deteriorated – Mexican migrants have been replaced by Central Americans, primarily from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

While the number of people from all countries crossing illegally into the United States via Mexico has dipped to its lowest level in more than a decade, the demographics of new arrivals has shifted. In 2016, 5.4 million unauthorized immigrants from Mexico lived in the U.S., down from 6.9 million in 2007, according to Pew Research Center. During roughly the same period, the number of Central American immigrants living in the United States has jumped from about 2.7 million to about 3.4 million, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.

The caravan of asylum seekers that Trump talked up prior to the November midterm (and, again, in recent weeks, as hes pushed for a border wall) included several thousand people, mostly from Central American countries, who today are living in encampments in Tijuana. Many if not most of those migrants still hope to get into the United States.

Many plan to seek asylum. While Harris noted that seeking asylum is a legal process, he believes it can be grossly abused. On this, he agrees with Trump.

“The smuggling organizations have learned this is the new good way to get people into the U.S. You just claim asylum. Most of them, especially if they came with a family, will be released pending a future hearing.

“There are loopholes in the system that need to be closed.”

Harris cites cases hes personally experienced as examples. Chinese people from the Fujian province who say they seek asylum because theyre persecuted as Christians; but when asked about the teachings of Jesus, they say “he was a friend of Buddhas.” Or Central Americans who say they are fleeing gangs in their country but then admit they are crossing the border for a shot at a better job and way of life.

Economics, he noted, is not a justifiable reason for asylum.

“I think there are people who deserve it around the world. And the United States is a shining beacon, but lets do it right.”

Noting that it currently takes years of waiting to see an immigration judge, Harris said the process could be improved by building large “humane, detention centers — with playgrounds but no cells,” along the border. He also would like to see more judges who could quickly process asylum requests.

“Lets not make people wait years,” Harris said. “Those who deserve asylum, lets say, God bless you. Welcome to the United States. But if their claim is false, lets remove them quickly.”

“American people love the underdog. But we dont like cheaters.”

“Immigration has made our country,” he added. “We would not be a superpower if we didnt have all these people here.”

One rock; four years[hhmc]

Harris said he and the agents he represented are sympathetic to immigrants. About 55 percent of the countrys Border Patrol are Latino, with the number slightly higher on the Southwest border.

“And many Caucasian agents have married, like me, into a Hispanic family,” Harris said.

“They are not inhumane,” he added. “But theyre going to do what theyre paid (to do) by the American public, and what they swore, to do: Uphold the law of the land. Theres a way to come into this country legally.”

In response to recriminations against Border Patrol agents who threw tear gas at some caravan members in two recent incidents, the latest on New Years Day, agents said they were responding to migrants throwing rocks and bottles at them. (Photographers working for the Associated Press said in the latest incident the tear gas was fired before the rocks were thrown.)

The rock throwing, Harris said, is “considered deadly physical force,” and “agents have a right to respond with physical force to stop it.

“But we chose to use less intermediate force, at great risk,” he added.

“You should be thanking the professionalism and restraint of the men and women of Border Patrol who chose not to use deadly physical force. They could have shot them.”

Harris said his life was changed by a thrown rock.

In 2006, he was struck in the head after a smuggler threw a rock “the size of a baseball.” Harris suffered a traumatic brain injury: excruciating headaches, temporary hearing and vision loss, memory loss, depression, anxiety and panic attacks. He said he went through treatments and therapy and was out of work for four years.

“I would look at the refrigerator and it bothered me that I couldnt remember the name of that thing sitting in my kitchen…Now, I understand depression.”

The incident occurred a few years after the death of his first wife, which also had been devastating. Since then, Harris has given talks to law enforcement groups about alcoholism and depression. He said Border Patrol agents, like some other law enforcement groups, have a high stress job and a higher percent of alcoholism and suicide rates.

Union man[hhmc]

From his parents – his dad was a teacher and his mom a nurse – Harris said he developed an interest in labor issues.

Before he started with the Border Patrol, Harris held other jobs in law enforcement. At age 18, he joined the New York State Department of Corrections and went to work at Sing Sing, a maximum security prison. Later, he worked as a policeman in New York and at the U.S. Treasury Dept..

Until last month, Harris served as director of legislative and political affairs for National Border Patrol Council, Local 1613. In early 2017, after a disastrous sewage spill sent millions of gallons of waste and toxic chemicals from Tijuana into San Diego, Harris said he made it his mission to focus attention on the long-time contaminated flood control channel between the nations.

The sewage, chemicals and other debris had sickened at least 80 Border Patrol agents in the Imperial Beach Border Patrol station by September of last year, Harris said, and the numbers have increased since. One agent had chemical burns on his feet; the muck in the dirty Tijuana river dissolved his boot.

Harris described himself as an environmentalist, something he said applies to most of his fellow agents.

“We choose to work outside… We love the outdoors. We love the environment.”

Border Patrol agents, Harris said, sign up for a job that offers fewer perks than other law enforcement agencies while generating as much stress. And now, in the midst of a politicized battle over border walls and migrant caravans, Border Patrol agents are targets of unfair rhetoric from all sides.

Still, the agents will continue to do their work, Harris said.

“The challenge is to do our job as firmly and consistently and as humanely as possible,” he said. “They are not going to back down.”