Top, the new BP building and the many vehicles onsite, used to patrol the Back Country area. Below, Agent Rippel, Special Response Team, displays gear used in S.W.A.T. team-type responses. Bottom, O.W. Morey, neighboring property owner, is pleased to have a Border Patrol facility next door.

     PINE VALLEY — A ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house were held on Aug. 8 at the new Campo Border Patrol Station, located on Old Highway 80 in Pine Valley.
     Public tours were provided of the $34 million, 33-acre facility, constructed by Jordan-BE&K Federal Group. The new station replaces an older border Patrol Station on Forrest Gate Road.
     The new 45,000 square-foot station has the capacity to accommodate 350 Border Patrol Agents. The facility also includes a vehicle maintenance garage, water storage, armory, emergency generator, gym, canine training facilities, meeting rooms, and state-of-the-art processing facilities. Barbed wire-topped fencing surrounds the facility, which has Homeland Security surveillance cameras inside and outside with real-time monitoring from a control room equipped with flat-panel LCDs.
     Border Patrol Agent J. Espinoza demonstrated an electronic fingerprinting system (no more inky thumbprints).
     “If someone has been deported before, it comes up yellow,” he said, pointing to a computer screen. “If they’ve been arrested anywhere in the U.S., their names will pop up in blue or red.” Those with criminal records may face prosecution, he added.
     Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) from countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq are turned over to other federal authorities, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for questioning.
     Asked how often local Border Patrol agents have intercepted SIAs, Espinoza replied, “We’ve had them from Somalia, Iraq, Iraq, Brazil, Saudi Arabia.”
     The new facility has individual and group holding cells capable of holding about 300 detainees, said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent R. Marzec. Agents headquartered at the Campo station pick up an average of 150 people per day who have crossed the border illegally, he said.
     Often, immigrants are misled by human traffickers (coyotes) and realize they are over their heads in rugged desert or mountain terrain without adequate water or food. “The coyotes will tell them anything,” said Border Patrol Agent Rahman. “They’ll tell them it’s just a short walk over the border.”
     Most immigrants with no criminal records are returned to Mexico, usually within 24 hours, according to Border Patrol authorities. Some immigrants picked up in immigration raids and transported downtown may choose to fight deportation orders, particularly when they are living here with their families. “Downtown, sometimes they sit there for a week or a month,” Espinoza noted.
     The facility has trained first-responders on-site as well as emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to provide medical care to immigrants, when needed.
     Supervisor Dianne Jacob attended the opening ceremony. At the open house, Special Response Team weaponry was on display. Public tours were held and kids interacted with Agent KC, a robot used by the Border Patrol for recruiting purposes.
     “Is that a legal alien?” one visitor quipped upon seeing the talking robot, which resembled a combination of ET and R2D2.
     O.W. Morey has owned property adjacent to the new station since 1965. Asked how he felt about having the Border Patrol facility as his new neighbor, he responded, “I helped them come in.”
Morey complained that before the new facility was built, he frequently had border crossers on his property, including an outdoor restroom on the premises. “I opened that restroom door one day and there were 17 of them,” he said. Since the Border Patrol station was built, “There’s been no more Mexicans,” he said, adding that he’s had offers to buy his property.
     Not everyone shares Morey’s enthusiasm for the new facility.
     “It’s part of an overall strategy of increased enforcement and militarization of the border region,” said John Fanestil, executive director of Foundation for Change in San Diego. “It may solve some local problems for a few local residents, but it does nothing to solve the larger problems of migration between the two countries.”
     Fanestil called for comprehensive immigration reforms. “Clamping down on patterns of migration that go back decades won’t stop people from seeking to enter the United States and in fact, will encourage them to stay here permanently once they get in.” Construction of a border wall and other enforcement efforts that make it more difficult to enter or reenter the U.S. will result in Mexican people “seeking to enter permanently and bring their families to join them,” he predicted. “As long as economic need persists, the northward patterns of migration will persist.”
     Fanestil pointed out that the wealthy can obtain tourist visas, border crossing cards or local passports to enter the U.S. legally from Mexico, while poor Mexicans have no way to apply for legal entry. “All of those things require that you have some resources, and the Border Patrol assesses that you’re likely to return to Mexico,” he explained. “But if you don’t have resources and you can’t feed your family, there is no option but to seek to migrate. It’s not a choice people make light-heartedly. They make it out of dire circumstance.”


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