Meet Albert Garcia–one of the U.S. Border Patrol’s official “fence fixers.” Weekdays, starting at 5a.m., Garcia gets in his pickup and patrols the fence between California and Mexico. When he finds a hole made by smugglers, he pulls up and patches it. The next day, there are more holes and the cycle starts all over again.
Cris Franco visits Garcia and finds out how he feels about his never-ending job. What’s his record number of patches? What’s a light, easy day? And why would a smuggler cut through double thick steel right next to an area of single thickness?
- Border Security: Fences Along the U.S. International Border, The Federation of American Scientists (PDF)
- Fencing in Failure: Effective Border Control is Not Achieved by Building More Fences, American Immigration Law Foundation
- Follow the Construction of Border Fencing, U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter
- Mending Wall, Robert Frost
