The veteran sees the mission of his agency
Seismic Alert: A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Veteran Sees His Agency’s Mission in the Night of a Refugee
We heard a high-pitched noise coming from the rear parking lot. When we drove past, we saw a man practicing his bagpipe, preparing for the next funeral, whenever it may come.
On this night when he was alone, a seismic sensor warned him that someone was driving near the land controlled by the Tohono O’odham Nation. The agents headed north, trying to cut off the travelers.
The agents chased the vehicle. The car rammed into the steel beam barrier on the Mexican side of the border. Passengers were ejected from the vehicle after the impact. The agents couldn’t make it out in the dark after they landed south of the border.
Source: How a U.S. Customs and Border Protection veteran sees his agency’s mission
The Case for Border Patrol Agent Ryan Riccucci: I’m sorry, I know, but I don’t want to give up my job
You have to leave that place. There’s 13 guys about a mile south of you with long arms, with machine guns, that are running your way,” Riccucci recalls a fellow agent warning them.
With backup hours away, the two retreated, leaving the injured passengers on the other side of the border. Riccucci later learned that the vehicle’s doors were stuffed with cash — a possible explanation for why its driver tried to abscond back to Mexico.
TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Ryan Riccucci was on patrol in the Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona, close to the U.S.-Mexico border, on a night in 2009.
People can have opinions, but we don’t think the laws are right or wrong. “We are doing our job to the standards that we were trained to do.”
The advocates for migrants say Border Patrol agents disrespect and physically abusing migrants along the border. The Tucson Sector Border Patrol is accused of detaining migrants in “inhumane and unconstitutional conditions” by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. The court later ordered the sector to take better care of migrants in its custody.
There were allegations of abuse by Border Patrol agents for decades. New York Times journalist John M. Crewdson won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for his reporting on illegal immigration, including a story about migrant children sent alone to jail after their parents were picked up by the Border Patrol.
Travelers who have been abandoned in the desert by human traffickers are looking for Border Patrol agents to give up their legal status in order to remain alive during the asylum process.
The Immigrants’ Journey with Customs: How a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Veteran Sees His Agency’s Mission
“I started carrying candy, or I would have a little stuffed animal,” in case he encountered children, Riccucci said. While on patrol he had EMT training.
“One time I ran into a group, and they didn’t run. He said that they asked him to find an older lady that they had left behind. “It was an old woman, and she was delirious.” I was able to deliver the IV to her. It brought her back to life because she was so dehydrated.”
That type of work is typically not appreciated by the media or the public. “I wish there were more opportunities to tell our story,” he said.
If the mission calls for brute force in order to get all the people that surrender to us, that’s the mission,” he said. “But most of us came in because we wanted to allow them to go through the backyard and let them pass through the front.”
Source: How a U.S. Customs and Border Protection veteran sees his agency’s mission
The Met’s Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion, and an Opening Exhibition at the Costume Institute in Riccucci’s Office
He has never fired a weapon over the two decades he’s been guarding the backyard. He said that the night he was in 2009, he was terrified, the most he had ever felt.
Items in Riccucci’s office suggest an interest in spirituality: Along with various plaques and trophies, he keeps a Tibetan singing bowl and a collection of crystals on a shelf.
“The most important thing to do at night is to go home from your shift safe and well and to refresh yourself and come back to work the next day,” he said.
Images of dead agents were on a screen in the lobby while our team was leaving the office. People who die play bagpipes in their honor.
The Met Gala stars welcomed superstars to the museum for the event last night. Known as fashion’s biggest night, the event raises money for the museum’s Costume Institute. Last night’s soirée marked the opening of a new exhibition at the Institute — a display called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” It features about 250 pieces from the Met’s permanent collection, including garments by Givenchy, Dior and Schiaparelli.
The Status of the Airline Inspections: Implications for Social Security and the Department of State, Homeland Security, and Border Patrol Investigations
The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the issue of the inspections of Boeing’s plane. According to the FAA, it’s also investigating whether company employees have doctored records.
The Social Security program’s finances have improved a bit in the last year, but they still need to be fixed by Congress. The retirement program’s trust fund will run out of money in 2033, according to a report from the trustees board. Unless changes are made before then, benefits will be cut by 21%. Democratic and Republican legislators do not agree on how to address the issue. Here are some of the fixes they’ve proposed.
It has been a whirlwind 24 hours in Rafah. The Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt has been taken over by Israeli tanks. Cease-fire negotiations with Hamas are on a knife’s edge after the militant group said yesterday that it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated proposal. Israel, however, said the deal didn’t meet its demands.
Every morning is good, but does not make a good one. So why do we care about our mornings? Why are we so excited about today?
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