Page 74 - Sun Rays May 2013

74 | SUNRAYS MAY 2013 ONLINE: SCTXCA.ORG
When we think of illegal im-
migrants crossing into our
country through our southern
border, we are quick to think they are
all of Hispanic origin. Not true, says
Garry Aston, a retired border patrol
agent. With 35 years of service dedicated
mostly to securing our borders, he should
know. In fact, he says illegal immigrants
enter the U.S. from virtually all foreign
countries...El Salvador, Buenos Aires,
Canada, Ecuador, Vietnam, Cuba, any
country. He also escorted many illegal
immigrants who have committed crimes
in the U.S. back to their homelands.
I recently sat down to have a chat with
Garry and his wife, Sherrill, to get a
feel for what life was like for them. I got
the sense it was much the same as what
our military families deal with day in
and day out.
A NATurAL
It all started for Garry as a teenager
in the town of McAllen, Texas, when a
friend of his mother’s gave him the idea.
At the time, he worked at a Piggly Wig-
gly (remember those?) as a stock boy,
but Sherrill says it was uncanny how
he could pick up on shop lifters. He was
a natural.
In 1972, Garry was the youngest recruit
ever to be sworn in in El Paso, just eight
days before his 22nd birthday. From
there he spent 16 weeks at the Border
Patrol Academy in Los Fresnos, Texas,
learning about Immigration and Natu-
ralization Service law (INS), firearms,
how to speak Spanish, and getting
physically fit for the grueling job that
lay ahead.
ON THE MOVE
Here’s where the life of a border agent’s
family begins to resemble that of a mili-
tary family. Border agents’ families set-
tle only temporarily so to move at any
given time. And move they did.
The Astons went from Texas to New
Mexico and back to Texas. To Colorado,
back to Texas. To Arizona, to Wyoming,
and back to Texas.
After graduating the Academy, Garry’s
working career began in Lordsburg, New
Mexico, where assignments ranged from
farm and ranch checks, to vehicle and
train checks, to border watch and sign
cutting. Sign cutting? I hadn’t a clue
what that was.
A sign is a physical evidence of any dis-
turbance of the environment left behind
by animals, humans or objects. The de-
tection of this sign is called sign cutting.
Smooth the dirt road, follow the tracks.
When we think of tracking, we usu-
ally think of footprints, but there are
other signs, such as clothing fibers,
over-turned rocks, any change of the
environment.
A LIFE OF INTrIGuE & SEcrEcY
Often, Garry would slink away without
any word to family about the who, what,
where or why of an assignment. (Sound
like the military to you?) He’d pack his
clothes and his firearms, and may or
may not have said goodbye.
On one such occasion, a TV reporter told
Safe & Secure
Meet Garry Aston, a resident who spent 35
years working in U.S. Homeland Security.
By Tina Berryman
PHOTOS BY MAGGI JONES