Borderline

November 15, 2023
A retired veteran's laudatory look at the culture and history of the U.S. Border Patrol. In his debut, Vargas combines memoir with an overview of the Border Patrol's tactics and training and the misunderstandings the agency's mission provokes. "Border Patrol agents are not 'rogue cowboys' doing whatever they want to at the border," he writes. "Rather, they are individuals charged with holding the line while leveraging their extensive training and long apprenticeship." Of Mexican and Puerto Rican ancestry, the author grew up near the southern border in California. As a child, he was aware of the long-simmering migration crisis, later joining the military and becoming an Army Ranger. Noting his determination to continue in government service, "I wouldn't have signed up if I wasn't willing to protect others by sacrificing myself." Vargas passionately pursued the Border Patrol's rigorous requirements for achieving Journeyman status, and he also sought to join one of their lesser-known elite tactical units, BORSTAR, a trauma-response unit created in 1998 "in response to the growing number of injuries to Border Patrol agents and migrant deaths along our nation's borders." He wanted to address a lack of integration between these specialized teams: "The basic question was this: Should I go tactical or medical?" Vargas bolters his account with the recollections of other agents, including his teams' takedown of the Uvalde school shooter in 2022: "Border Patrol agents were the ones who finally brought it to an end and likely saved many lives." Vargas writes empathetically about the plight of beleaguered migrants, emphasizing the violence and human toll beneath the controversy. While the author's discussion of the border's grim social tableau is often balanced, his defensive tone may grow tiresome to some readers. Containing a useful insider's perspective regarding the border crisis, this book will appeal to fans of military memoirs.

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