And there are more than a few down there that close property to Border Patrol access. They cannot prevent USBP walking out there, but they do have the right to not allow horses, Jeeps or ATVs out there.
They get paid to close off USBP vehicle access, and to simply “not see anything” when they look out the window. The agents are welcome to walk 8 miles across the property. Talk to any agents you find down there, you’ll hear some stories.
There is an assumption by some that every landowner on our side of the border is ok. Some are as dirty as anyone on the other side of the fence.
Not all ranchers that essentially keep BP off their land are dirty by a long shot. Years ago BP Agents had sense enough to close gates they found closed and not destroy things, run over livestock and not only not report it but deny it ever happened. Border Patrol used to hire people that grew up in the country and knew how to get along.
We had issues with the BP leaving our corral gates open next to a state highway, our horses would come across the pasture, find the gates open and walk through the corrals to the highway and play chicken with cars. It happened over and over. I called every BP office I could find a number for, talked to every agent, they were denying they had agents doing that, or even working on our place at that time. Denial, denial all the way and nothing changed. A friend of ours had a real nice horse turned out with ours and he got out and was killed by a car. One morning early I went to feed and when I got to the corrals I saw a BP truck parked there so I pulled off and watched him. He was walking out the corrals leaving every gate behind him open. I drove up and blocked his truck in and told him I wanted to talk to his supervisor. He had no clue why I was so upset. I asked him if anyone had told him to close gates you found closed on a ranch. No one had, and he had no idea there were horses in the pasture that could walk right out to the highway if he left gates open. His other excuse was the gates were old and hard to close. I told him well since I was a kid I was told if you can’t close a gate don’t open it. I guess he was too lazy to shut the gates or climb over fences. I did talk to his supervisor and our corral gates were never left open again. All the calls I had made, no one even bothered to tell the guys in the field. BP also opens a gate, drives through- don’t see any livestock standing right at the gate so they think they can leave it open until they come back. Nope. It is ALWAYS denied unless you catch them red handed doing it.
We have never restricted BP on our property but have come close to it. They also run over livestock and if their truck will run they will leave and claim they drove off in a gully or some other nonsense. I was in the store here one day when a ranch lady came in and told an agent he ran over ha black calf...he denied it. She told him his grill was broken, he said he did that some other way. She insisted on him getting a supervisor to talk to her. I walked out to my truck, looked at his grill and lo and behold there was black hair and blood in his busted grill.
Another neighbor locks his gate and let BP put their lock on the chain too. Their agents would leave it unlocked, and after he complained one night they locked him out of his property because they locked it wrong where his lock wouldn’t open the chain they way they had their on. He did end up making them hike in after that.
Most BP agents now do not grow up on ranches and farms, we understand that. A short course in how to deal with issues out here would be outstanding, and they need to remind them when needed and stop lying when one of their agents does mess up.
When the BP is causing more problems on your ranch than the cartel does it is time to do something different. The sad thing is there is no need for it with a little training. And don’t talk to me about ranch laisons, they will lie to your face and seem to have little to no contact with the actual agents from what I can tell. Seems to me they are just supposed to talk nice and make promises to calm people down, we have never had an issue solved by talking to one.
I support BP every chance I get, and most are great people. There seriously needs to be a Ranch 101 class at the academy though.