Politics

Why I Quit the Border Patrol

DISILLUSIONED

I took my work seriously and did it well, but eventually it became clear: The rules of the game were fixed in the wrong direction.

opinion
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Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

On a cool Sonoran Desert evening, just west of Yuma, Arizona, I sat in my white Chevy U.S. Border Patrol truck. An auxiliary cord connected my phone to the vehicle’s stereo system so I could listen to podcasts while scanning the desert for border crossers.

This particular night, I was assigned...

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