Oscar
Charleston, SC
Male, 31
Spent a bit over four years (2006-2010) serving as a Border Patrol Agent in Tucson Sector, AZ: the busiest sector in the country. Worked numerous positions, and spent the last year and a half operating/instructing ground radar installations. Duties included: field patrols, transport, processing, control room duties, transportation check, checkpoint operations, static watch duties, etc.
From an official standpoint, obviously the Border Patrol does not endorse or condone "vigilante" style groups like the Minutemen. That being said, I don't mind them. We were required to report them and confront them if we found them operating in our AOR. This was rare though, as our sector was far too busy. We had a lot of people who would call in and help us (even had a lady who erected a watchtower in her backyard).
I never viewed the Minutemen as a "lunatic fringe" group. Most of the people are farmers/landowners or friends/relatives of them...people who are suffering at the hands of the border problem.
The stories of American citizens being forced to leave or sell their homes and land because of the flow of illegals/cartel members etc. is heartbreaking. So, officialy -no we don't support them, but on a personal level none of us really cared. We never had any citizens arrests etc.
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Tattoos are not a concern, unless you have obscenities or graphic content displayed on your neck/face/hands etc. If you have "normal" tattoos which are reasonable it is not a problem.
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Yes.
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There is no release of information from a station or sector level. An illegal immigrant is only kept in custody at a station for less than 24 hours (often not more than 12). As a safety precaution we do not release information/names/locations of individuals in custody.
A person can contact the Mexican/Other consulate within 24-36 hours and they should keep a record of people returned to their country. In the event that an illegal immigrant is sent to jail or prosecuted they will eventually get a chance to make a phone call/contact relatives etc. (like a normal incarcerated/prosecuted person).
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I've never even heard of an ICE locator, but as ICE deals with internal immigration handling, if they have a locator it will only contain illegals who are serving jail time for other crimes. The BP does not keep an active record of people in custody since most illegals are returned within 24 hours.
If someone is killed along the border (bandits, cartel etc.) the body will be handled by the local police department as with any other homicide. If the person has no identification or records then they'll be buried without identity. This is pretty common, as many people who die in the desert are consumed by wildlife within 24-36 hours, so identification becomes nearly impossible unless identification is carried by the person.
If a citizen of another country is found dead, and identified then the police department will likely contact their country of origin an attempt to locate relatives.
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Never worked with the US Marshals. You could apply direct to the Marshals though, unless you don't believe you have the resume to do so.
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All of the above. While it depends a lot on terrain and your local conditions, you have a large array of operations.
In our area we had a few "X"s...these are static locations watching a particular point of interest. You then had patroling units, which would actively be cutting for sign (footprints, debris, trash, spoor) which would indicate a recent group or vehicles. You also had static ground-sweeping radar. You had bike units which would operate further in from the border. You also had occasional aviation units when we could spare them.
In addition to this you have a large number of magnetic and seismic sensors which would register back at the station. During the day, we also had a Horse Patrol unit which specialized in rougher terrain (they were quite good up in the more mountainous regions).
Now, in some places like Nogales (nicknamed "Nogadishu" for the level of violence about a decade ago) it's an entirely different situation, as the USBP there is operating inside a city etc. Likewise, some stations operate solely in the mountains and operate heavily by airlifting agents around in helicopters etc.
It varies immensely by station.
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