Immigrants from the Tohono O’odham Nation: A U.S. Border Protection Veteran Sees His Agency’s Mission
The drones came 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 the rare night that he wasn’t alone, a sensor in Riccucci’s patrol car detected that someone was driving through the Tohono O’odham Nation. The agents went to cut off the travelers.
The agents chased the vehicle. When it reached the border, the car rammed into a steel beam barrier that divides Mexico and the United States. Passengers were ejected through the driver’s side window. The two agents couldn’t make them out in the dark as they landed south of the border.
Source: How a U.S. Customs and Border Protection veteran sees his agency’s mission
A Conversation with Tom Riccucci, General Manager of the Tucson Sector Border Patrol and an Interferometric Tracer of a Black Hole
You have to get out of there. 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.
Two people retreated, leaving 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.
Riccucci has worked for U.S. Customs and Border Protection for 17 years. No longer on patrol, he’s now division chief, overseeing the Tucson Sector’s law enforcement operational programs. He is responsible for the things that agents use to reach the furthest parts of the desert, a territory that includes as many as five Connecticuts.
“We are not sure whether the laws are right or wrong but we are not opposed to their interpretation,” he said. “We are doing our job correctly and in line with the standards we were trained to do.”
Advocates for migrants have accused Border Patrol agents of disrespecting, even physically abusing, migrants whom they encounter along the border. The Tucson Sector Border Patrol was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for detaining migrants in ” inhumane and unconstitutional” conditions. The court later ordered the sector to take better care of migrants in its custody.
Border Patrol agents have been accused of abuse in the past. 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 abandoned in the desert by human traffickers look for Border Patrol agents not only so they can surrender and seek quasi-legal status through the asylum process, but also so they can stay alive.
How a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Veteran sees his agency’s mission: “Immigration migrants are border patrol customs,” says Riccucci
In case he encountered children he would carry candy or a stuffed animal. His training as an EMT helped him on patrol.
“One time I ran into a group, and they didn’t run. He said they asked him to look for the older lady they left behind. “It was an old Guatemalan woman, and she was delirious. I was able to give her medicine. It brought her back to life because she was so dehydrated.”
That type of lifesaving work isn’t always acknowledged by the media or the public. I wish we had more chances to tell our story, according to Riccucci.
“If the mission calls for brute force — to have all our agents in processing, making sure we’re able to get all these thousands of people that surrender, that want to claim fear and claim a benefit — that’s the mission,” he said. Most of us wanted to let them go through the front of the house.
Source: How a U.S. Customs and Border Protection veteran sees his agency’s mission
Roberto Riccucci, the Met Gala director, and the Sleeping Beauties exhibition at the Institute of Fine Arts, Los Alamos, Calif.
While protecting the “backyard,” he has never fired his weapon. That night in 2009 was the most terrified he has ever felt on the job, he said.
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 at the end of the day is to return to work safely and healthy, as well as to have a plan for when you get home, which is the next day.
The team passed pictures of dead agents to the lobby of the Tucson Sector office as they left. When agents die, their colleagues play bagpipes in their honor.
The Met Gala was attended by several superstars last night, including Zendaya, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth andJen Lopez. The event raises money for the museum’s Costume Institute. A new exhibition was opened last night by a soirée at the Institute, called Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. It features about 250 pieces from the Met’s permanent collection, including garments by Givenchy, Dior and Schiaparelli.
The Fate of the Social Security Fund: Congress’s Way of Resolving the Public-Commissioning Problem of Boeing and the Dreamliner
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Boeing over inspections of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft that “may not have been completed.” The FAA told NPR it is also investigating whether company employees may have falsified records.
The Social Security finances have improved in the last year, but the clock is still on Congress to fix it. A new report from the program’s trustees board predicts that the retirement program’s trust fund will run out of money in 2033. Benefits would automatically be cut by 21% at that time unless lawmakers adopt changes before then. Democratic and Republican lawmakers disagree on how to address the issue. Here are some of the fixes they’ve proposed.
It has been a whirlwind 24 hours in Rafah. Israeli tanks have taken control of the Gaza side of Rafah’s border crossing into Egypt. 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 said that the deal did not meet its demands.
Getting Up First with Quarks and Hadron Propagators (Facts, Remarks, and a Free Appraisal of the Law of Attraction)
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.