New Border Patrol facility reflects expanding agency

McALLEN - A faint stone sign marks the dirt-stained U.S. Customs and Border Protection Facility on West Military Highway.

Cars line a side street - overflow from the parking lot. The 8,000-square-foot building, designed to house less than 50 patrol agents, is now crammed with more than 300 - the largest staff size and the smallest office in the Rio Grande Valley.

"I share an office with six other supervisors," said Dan Doty, a local spokesman for the agency. "I can't keep my personnel files in there for how I rate the people I supervise."

The situation is the same at the other office at 2301 S. Main St., which houses the garage and technicians for the agency's Rio Grande Valley Sector.

"There's absolutely no parking," Doty said.

But now, in an empty lot down the street from the office at 4201 W. Military Highway, a private firm is building a new 74,000-square-foot behemoth and officials say it's long overdue.

The situation reflects the growth of border enforcement in the past 20 years and also the shifting illegal immigration routes, which funnel thousands of people through the Valley every month.

When the office was constructed in 1988, the Border Patrol was a smaller, more modestly funded agency. The immigrants who came across seemed to favor paths through the Brownsville area.

But things changed. The administration of President George W. Bush drastically stepped up border enforcement, expanding the department's budget and folding it into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

Immigrant paths shifted as well. Cameras, patrol towers and motion detection systems now line the border area near Brownsville. The stringent enforcement has shifted immigrant paths westward.

Across the Valley agents nabbed nearly 74,118 illegal immigrants in 2007, according to statistics provided by the agency. The McAllen office, Doty said, is by far the busiest of the 10 offices in the Valley sector. The department does not provide numbers that break down arrests per office.

The new facility on West Military Highway includes two buildings, said Bruce Jackson a partner with Austin-based TAG International LLP, the firm designing the new complex.

"In describing the building, it's efficient, cost-effective and low-maintenance," Jackson said. "They're looking to, No. 1, just simply grow their facility."

The complex, estimated to cost upwards of $15 million to $18 million, is expected to open in January 2009. The property is owned by another private firm, McAllen CBP LLC, which is leasing it to the federal government.

The facility also anticipates the proposed rapid growth in the number of agents. Last year the agency recruited close to 2,500 new agents and this year the goal is an additional 6,000.

"We are really expanding our reach for recruiting nationally and internationally," said Tara Dunlap, a national spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection.

In the Valley it's hard to escape the recruitment effort. Several billboards are scattered throughout the region, and at local sporting events advertisements promote the "excitement" of life working the border.

But back at the McAllen office, officials are simply happy the days of sharing computers, desks, parking spaces and offices will soon be over.

"The new station is going to be wonderful," Doty said. "The guys in McAllen have worked in cramped quarters for too long."
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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.