PBS高端访谈:增加美墨边境巡防力度（在线收听）

Hari Sreenivasan: While the president continues to demand walls, border closings and action from Mexico and Central American countries to manage immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border, there has been little mention recently about his 2017 executive order to hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents. Joining us now from Miami is USA Today reporter Alan Gomez who is reporting on Customs and Border Patrol hiring and staffing issues at the border. So two years ago 5000 was the goal where are we at now?

Alan Gomez: 118 is all that they've added over the last couple of years. We went through a whole series of of inspector general reports and realized just that the agency is at crisis levels right now. For six straight years, they lost agents every single year. They peaked that over 21,000 agents back six years ago, they're now under 20,000 agents and they're going about, they're trying to do everything they can to try to recruit and retain more agents. But they're having trouble fielding them so that makes you know, that makes it more difficult to patrol that southern border and they're even having problems just managing what their agents are doing to figure out how to best deploy them to try to stop what is becoming some record breaking numbers of people trying to cross.

Hari Sreenivasan: So let's talk a little about the challenges. I mean, the challenges with recruiting might be because of how hard the job is. What are some of the challenges that the Border Patrol agents are facing that are causing more of them to leave and fewer of them, fewer potential people to join?

Alan Gomez: It's a very, very difficult job. You're forced to patrol these incredibly vast desolate stretches of that southern border. I mean, when we think of the border, we picture places like San Diego, some of these bigger border crossings. But for the most part it's these vast desolate stretches in between. And so trying to recruit somebody to go work in these communities, all the time your schedule is constantly shifting, it's a very dangerous job over 41 Border Patrol officers have died over the past 17 years. Over 100 have committed suicide over the past 13 years because it is such a difficult job in and of itself but also asking people to live in these areas can be very difficult. The inspector general actually focus on one city called Lukeville, Arizona where there's a border patrol station there, that's a community of 50 people, one gas station, one grocery store the nearest school is 39 miles away and the groundwater has traces of arsenic in it. So try to convince your spouse to bring their children to move to that community, it's obviously a very tough thing to do. So that's sort of some of the built in difficulties that they have.

Hari Sreenivasan: And finally the role is changing considering that now they're having to deal with families and children.

Alan Gomez: Yes so you already have just the daily stress of being a border patrol agent. And now they're being asked more and more to not sort of act as law enforcement but as processors of these tens of thousands of family units that are coming from Central America. So where before, illegal immigration the U.S. was predominantly single Mexican males coming over here trying to work and trying to evade border patrol when they get across the border, now what's happening is we're seeing these groups of 100, 200, 300 migrants at a time crossing the border and actively seeking out a Border Patrol agent to request asylum. And so now that agent, instead of going out there doing what he's trained to do as a law enforcement official, is forced to make medical assessments of these folks and process them and make sure they have enough water and food until they can get them and transfer them over to another facility that can better take care of them. So that just adds another layer of stress because there have been four Border Patrol, four deaths of migrants in Border Patrol custody over a period of four months recently. And so they feel that pressure. They know that that pressure is on top of them. And so it's very difficult to see now kind of service as people who are just taking care of these people instead of trying to track them down and arrest them.

Hari Sreenivasan: All right. Allan Gomez of USA Today thanks so much.

Alan Gomez: Thank you.

哈里·斯瑞尼瓦桑：虽然特朗普总统一直要求建造美墨边境强、封锁边境，以阻止墨西哥和中美洲国家的移民通过美墨边境进入美国。最近鲜少有人提及2017年特朗普下发总统令雇佣5000名边境巡逻战士的事儿。今天节目邀请到了迈阿密州《今日美国》的记者艾伦·戈麦斯，他将为我们带来有关海关及边境保卫队雇佣人员的报道。

2年前，5000名边境巡逻战士曾是我们的目标，而现在我们达到了这个目标，对吗？

艾伦·戈麦斯：过去几年间，总共增加了118名巡逻战士。我们阅览了所有监察长报告，并意识到海关及边境保护局现在正处于危机中。连续6年了，每年，巡逻战士的人数都在减少。6年前是人数最多的时候——2.1万多名巡逻战士。而现在只有不到2万名巡逻战士，他们现在也在紧锣密鼓地招募更多人。但招募的难度很大，所以南部边境的巡逻难度更大了。而且，他们也很难把握巡逻战士的职责管理，所以也不知道怎样发挥每个人的作用。也就很难组织突破历史新高的移民进入美墨边境。

哈里·斯瑞尼瓦桑：您能简单介绍一下海关及边境保护局面临的挑战有哪些吗？具体来说，就是招募工作所面临的挑战，因为我们都知道巡逻战士这项工作不好做。边境巡逻战士都会面临哪些挑战呢？是什么样的挑战让他们选择离开，又是什么样的挑战让一般人无法胜任这项工作呢？

艾伦·戈麦斯：巡逻战士很难胜任，因为工作要求他们必须在荒无人烟的广袤地域上巡逻南部边境。在提到边境的时候，我们总会想到圣地亚哥这样的地方，这些都是比较大的边境地区。但大多数时候，边境都是极为荒凉的地域。所以，如果想招募巡逻战士的话，时间表就会一直改变。这项工作很危险，过去17年来，有41名以上的巡逻战士因公殉职。过去13年间，有100多名巡逻战士自杀，因为工作难度很大，在这片地域上生活难度也很大。监察长其实主要关注的是鲁克维尔。亚利桑那州也有一个巡逻站，那里有50人。此外还有一个加油站、便利店。最近的一所学校也在39英里开外。地下水里还有砷元素。所以，很难说服自己的伴侣带着孩子搬到这里。所以，这些是随之而来的困难。

哈里·斯瑞尼瓦桑：所以，他们的角色在不断变换，因为他们要兼顾老婆孩子。

艾伦·戈麦斯：所以，作为一名边境巡逻战士，本身每天就要面临压力。而且，现在他们不仅是执法人员，还要处理来自中美洲无数移民家庭的问题。非法入境美国的基本上都是墨西哥的单身男性，他们来美国是想找工作，但在穿越边境的时候总是想要躲避边境巡逻。现在的情况是：经常有100-300人不等的移民一次性跨越边境，想要通过一名边境巡逻战士来寻求庇护。所以，巡逻战士不是以执法人员的身份完成培训习得的本领，而是被迫对这些移民做医疗情况评估和安置，确保他们有水和食物。在把移民转移到下一个安置地点之前，他们要一直照顾这些移民。这样就多了一层压力，因为在最近的4个月里，巡逻站监护下依然有4名移民死亡。这也是他们面临的压力，这反而是最大的压力了。照顾移民其实比追踪逮捕移民难度更大。

哈里·斯瑞尼瓦桑：好，让我们感谢《今日美国》的艾伦·戈麦斯。

艾伦·戈麦斯：谢谢您。