World's Toughest Border Patrol: Gang Members & Money Laundering | Free Documentary

foreign [Music] following the attack on the United States on 9 11 the U.S government restructured its handling of investigating and managing immigration and related activity around the world it created ice Immigration and Customs Enforcement who has more than twenty thousand law enforcement and support Personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world in 2019 a camera crew was offered access to follow and document with the men and women of ice do on a daily basis every year ice removes thousands of immigrants from the United States the majority for committing crimes we're not going to focus on the person jaywalk down the street we're talking egregious crimes murder sex offenses child molestation the vehicle just pulled up in front of our Target house how you doing what the activities of ice and its enforcement and removal operations is not without controversy hi officer I go and I go this over here you see eyes as an assault on the very character and History of the United States a lot of people want to make it out that ice ero specifically wants to Target everybody in the country they wouldn't come on a radar if they were here just for a better better life these are the men and women of ice and the work they do 365 days a year are you gonna comply this time you're not going to comply the human stories behind the headlines and their core mission to enforce America's immigration laws Pond borders inside American Immigration Showtime this time on Beyond borders a Salvadorian murder suspect and gang member is Tracked Down To The Streets of New Jersey a woman is released back into her community with an ankle monitor while her case is being processed by a federal judge we go inside the dining facilities at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility on the Mexican border near San Diego see how detainees receive medical treatment at Florence Detention Center in Phoenix the Mexican fugitive suspected of money laundering and narcotics distribution is apprehended in Tucson and the clock runs down for a Guatemalan man won it for a legal entry into the United States ice Officer Ken and his team are conducting an early morning operation in New Jersey right now it's five o'clock we just left Newark we're heading towards Woodbridge New Jersey traveling down the New Jersey Turnpike we're looking to arrest a El Salvadorian National known MS-13 gang member that has multiple arrests for domestic violence and assault that's illegally here in the United States MS-13 is a violent criminal gang whose Roots date back to 1980s Los Angeles early members were from El Salvador young men escaping the 12-year Civil War in their home country Infamous for its extreme cruelty some consider MS-13 to be the most dangerous and ruthless gang in the world we're going to set up by his last known address that we have you know Intel states that he should be at this address it's always fluid but we'll be setting up there waiting for him to leave the residents to make the arrest as he's leaving his residence any gang members especially MS-13 can be armed at any time whether it's a firearm machete knife so you have to use additional caution when you're trying to arrest someone with that criminal background we're here to keep the community safe and that's what I feel the main job and the main function of ice as an agency is and we do a very good job of it unfortunately the barriers that we're facing now make the job harder the law enforcement agencies and the offices out in the field they don't know what they're supposed to do as far as when they contact ice and I've told them look anytime you call us whether to help we'll always be there to help a lot of times they're like well I don't know if I can hold this guy for you I'm not sure if we're supposed to call you so what this immigrant trust directive has created is confusion and being a law enforcement officer the last thing you want out in the field is to be confused ice officer Peter attends a dawn briefing ready for today's operation this target was referred by our non-detained unit the subject of final order of deportation he appealed this case that appeal was dismissed and he uh asked for the ninth circuit to uh review the case that review was denied so as it stands in the final order first conviction was a transportation of and selling of Narcotics uh we have a procession of firearms and ammunition conviction which was vacated and the subject was involved in a uh a murder which he was arrested for in 2011 he still considered a suspect in the case so the house is right here this is River and this is Latoya there's a Basha Supermarket right here all set up on the eye right around here it gives me a straight view to the house right here I have I'll have you set up right over here in this Burger King there's this little road right here that he can take and leaves him right into this parking lot so I'll have you guys set up right here Pete if you can there's an apartment complex right in here I believe this gate is closed but you might be able to get it from here and I'll have you set up right there right across of river I'll have you further down on river right around here crimson clover Lane we've seen the subject drive a uh black Jeep Commander it's a 2012. at the residence we have a young girl around 12 years old she leaves around seven for school every once in a while he'll walk out of the house we've seen him take out the trash things like that that happens we'll have Giannis will be the closest one and myself will go around and make an approach try to get him before he gets into the house but otherwise we'll concentrate on doing a vehicle stop we're actually targeting you know convicted felons some people I think just literally think we just drive around in Vans scooping people off the street and nothing could be further from the truth and in you know the whole separating families and putting babies in cages and just nonsense some of the stuff that you hear is ridiculous but you hear it it's sunrise in Newark and Ice officer Jose is hoping to arrest a Guatemalan illegal immigrant who is wanted on a charge of driving Under the Influence or DUI you see him still are you all on Mount Vernon or where are you guys at okay so we're down the street we're actually came in through Mount Vernon so we're just we're just chill over here if you guys gonna do a vehicle stop let me know stop security purposes and everything yeah no that'll be perfect okay okay Newark is considered a small field office it's a little bit over 200 employees we service all 21 counties in the state of New Jersey but we also partner with our partners in New York and Philadelphia we do joint operations all the time so my job is to make sure that our enforcement is done judiciously and efficiently so we prioritize criminal aliens first murder all the way down to what I think the UI is it's a public safety rig so I'm going to prioritize you I'm going to go after you and I'm going to take you off the streets thank you [Music] in San Diego Ice officer Jameson is briefing his team on the upcoming day ahead morning Gents we got about 10 targets today all across the city of Escondido here in California they're going to range for domestic violence to DUIs and we of course we always have our Advocates walking around so I want you to watch your six make sure that you have your cover with you at all times have good tactics if you need something I'm going to be there some of the other supervisors will be there and if there's any incidents Palmer is going to be our closest hospital so make sure that you and your partner put out the distress and we'll be there as soon as possible be safe and call me if you need me enforcement removal operations is literally the U.S Marshals of Immigration Services we not only arrest the person but we detain the person and then we remove the person back to the country the border patrol is meant to hold the line and the border and then determine and detect those illegal aliens or Contraband from coming into the United States the checkpoints that we deal with here in San Diego are just an equivalent of the border at specific locations they decide to deploy we as ice and enforcement removal operations not only deal with the people that they end up coming in contact with but our own as well so therefore ice in general does attention for all immigration and ero not only does the detention and focuses on that detention but also does the enforcement as well [Music] ice officer Cynthia is dealing with an undocumented woman who illegally entered the United States at the Mexican border she is being monitored with a GPS ankle bracelet while her case is being processed through the legal system this person was placed on a GPS on the border when she came in she's going to live down here in Miami so she's kind of like a high risk so instead of putting her on a detained setting she's non-detained but with an ankle bracelet to where she has to comply with several requirements like she gets home visits office visits until we are satisfied that she will be compliant with the program between the them not having any documentation we really don't know where they're going to be living we just want to make sure that they are coming to where they're saying they're going and it's a GPS unit basically just like any GPS it sends signals so whenever we have somebody that is tampering with their bracelet we get an alert they're called emergency reports and we actually have somebody who cuts it off they also get an emergency report so this is constantly coming back and forth to be mean and being tracked she has brought in her passport she's been compliant with her office visits her home visits we have had no emergency reports on her which means she's been good with everything we've asked her to bring in any documentation that we've asked her to bring in she's been good so we no longer require her to be in the program additionally she has a court date which is longer than 12 months from now so we're going to take her off the program and put her just in a regular non-detained setting a lot of people here illegally might never get encountered by immigration because they're basically following the rules not getting in trouble here it's those people who come here illegally and then they go commit a crime of course you're in jail you're going to run across ice radar because now you've committed a crime and we're going to do our job foreign Officer Ken arrives at the address of the first suspect but an update from one of his officers changes the plan I just spoke with the officer regarding the case and they're still waiting so at this point we're going to head over to another Target located in Elizabeth that our Intel states that he comes out in about half hour 40 minutes so we got a about 20 minute ride over there and we'll sit on that one that other subject is El Salvadorian National that's also MS-13 and was arrested in El Salvador for the crime of homicide we're working with the El Salvadorian authorities to determine if there's a warrant on the case as it stands right now nothing out of Interpol but waiting for the El salvading authorities to get back to us regarding his uh status on that case out there so he's got a homicide arrest and he has known arrest for resisting arrest till over in El Salvador he also entered the country uh without inspection illegally through the Border we'll still have multiple Offices here three vehicles and they'll keep me in the loop what's going on with this subject so as I stated you know everything is fluid so um but we'll head out to the next Target right now hopefully he's there we make the arrest if not we will follow up and eventually get him we have multiple sources that we use to follow up with intelligence and eventually we will arrest them whether it's today later today tomorrow next week but we won't give up and we'll still continue to follow up on him but in the answer we will move on to another subject that uh we're uh have on the target list for today so it's many targets many criminals if you miss one you go back to it but you got another one to follow up on in Newark officers think they have spotted their suspect is he on foot spray truck right here hey here you go it's going on Mount Vernon [Music] say Southeast all right let's get ready to do the vehicle stop it's on Mount Vernon he's approaching the right now there's four cards five cars off was to make a model of the vehicle I see it yeah at Florence Detention Center in Phoenix ice officer Matt is visiting the staging area of the facility behind me are stagers they are folks that are arrived from all throughout the United States either yesterday or earlier today they are staging for a return flight is leaving tomorrow morning the folks that are in here now will be brought out shortly the property will be returned to them they'll be given an opportunity to speak with their consulates and or their attorneys to let them know what's going on and make any final Arrangements they may need to make before departing the country once they're on the flight they return to Guatemala the other end there are officials from the government of Guatemala to meet the aircraft we call them off the plane those officials greet them bring them into a reception area in their Reception Area they work with them to coordinate bus rides home into their communities and also to assist with medical care if need be ice is not going out looking for these people we have our hands full with the majority of the criminal aliens that are out there committing crimes we're working with the local authorities to pick them up out of County jails after they've been arrested for a variety of crimes or we're working with the immigration Courts for those who fail to show up for immigration proceedings and defy the judge's order to remove themselves from the United States if they were to blend in society and not go out and commit crimes 99 of the time we would never know they were here in Tucson ice officer Pete is in position and standing by to make the arrest at seven o'clock because we want to wait until the sun comes up a little bit he's going to go ahead and attempt what I was talking about earlier which is a knock and talk and so all we're going to do is basically move up it's going to be the fifth house in on the left in this cul-de-sac straight ahead I had him tap his brake lights which is uh just a way for me to make sure that I'm in a good position before we start rolling up I was 99 sure that was him right there but I wasn't positive so just a good way to check and it's 6 22 right now so if nothing happens by seven we're going to roll up and go ahead and attempt the knock and talk and I'm not sure what tactic they're going to use if they're going to try to lose their way in or if they're gonna try to come you know be direct with it or what so we'll see I hope it's successful honestly I hope the guy gets in a car and drives somewhere before seven o'clock because that's always a lot better way to do it is is in the street thank you in San Diego Ice officer Jameson receives a call from one of his teams that they are about to arrest a suspect right now we're going to head to one of the target addresses this one actually has I believe arrests for domestic violence and some drugs arresting somebody yep you're good officers questioned the man about what they found in his car but he refuses to talk to them finally he is Led away in handcuffs to the waiting car okay so one of our Targets this morning obviously came out from uh go to work and they popped and they found him as he was starting to walk to the transit station it was a quick arrest his threat convictions his prior removals from the United States and as I said he has an order of deportation now he'll be taking into custody he should already have most of his documentation already printed out for charging documents to be put in front of the immigration judge he'll be transported back down to the San Diego field office for uh to be put into detention at old time he'll end up seeing a judge in probably about a week two weeks and he'll be able to determine whether or not he's going to have a separate relief stay in the United States or he'll be removed immediately [Music] it's meal time at the Otay Mesa facility in San Diego California we feed over 1 100 icy paintings every day three times a day so breakfast lunch and dinner the food Port is just a small window so just enough to get your hands in the tray through they don't see who they're serving so they don't see who's there and they just they sign in and the only time that they know it's something different is when they have a different badge color for uh special diet whether it's medical or religious all of our religious diets are all authorized and approved by our chaplains in accordance with the religious requirements of the local governing bodies of each of the religious groups here in San Diego if it's a Kosher diet a Halal diet or any of the other religious sites that we do offer here as well could be a low-fat diet it could be a diabetic diet just multiple reasons for whatever health reasons they are where they've been told by a one of our medical providers at ihsc that they need a special diets probably a good 40 to 50 people working back here preparing each meal and it's the all volunteer Workforce so everyone that's here has volunteered to work and they're all being paid between a dollar to 1.50 per day to help out and work here they get a little extra benefits they get Electro food they get away from the pods during the day as well when you're cooking for 1100 people three times a day it's always going to be the best but we have a lot of our senior staff here at the facility they actually eat on a regular basis in here I think after either grab a meal they'll sit down with the detainees and eat cooking for 1100 is tough but it's decent it's not bad at all [Music] [Music] ice officer Christine is inspecting the staging facility the area used by detainees prior to their deportation deportation is not a punitive measure deportation is a civil measure so there are a couple of different bars that apply it depends on how many times you've re-entered the country and what kind of removal order you have it could be five years could be ten years could be 20 years could be a lifetime bar they have family here they have homes here they have Community here and they're going to keep trying until they can get back and try to reassemble late back into the community without being detected the inspection moves to the visitation area nationalities vary we have people here from over 49 different countries currently top three populations can be Mexico Guatemala and then India is going to be close third foreign there's a large flight to Guatemala Honduras El Salvador going out so we do have some females here in medical that are being screened for tomorrow's flight detainees awaiting deportation receive full medical support with access to doctors nurses and Rehabilitation programs they also receive free dental care while in Immigration custody the U.S authorities are Keen to stress that these detainees are not prisoners that immigration violation falls under a different category to those other people who commit criminal offenses in the United States as such detainees receive a high standard of medical dental and pharmaceutical care thank you back in Newark ice agent Jose's team is about to take down a suspect all right here's the action the guy's right there so I'm gonna try to get up over Lacey as ice officers confront the suspected illegal immigrant the Guatemalan stands his ground officers State why they stopped the car and tell the suspect he is wanted by law enforcement the suspect refuses to get out of the car and protest his innocence so officers are determined to extract the suspect without involving the other people in the car [Music] it's a standoff that ice officers are Keen to defuse before it escalates into a potentially dangerous situation while the suspect is initially uncooperative he then actively resists arrest [Music] let's go officers must now use reasonable Force to make the arrest we gave you a chance before all right all right it takes some time to securely handcuff the man am I there I'm gonna give you one tonight I'll take care of everything we'll take that with him then as a precaution officers search for any concealed weapons [Music] foreign the suspect is clean here he continues to protest his innocence as he is Led away towards the patrol car [Music] the officer struggled to get him into the car what eventually he realizes there is no way out of this situation and complies [Music] we stopped the vehicle conducted a vehicle stop um he resisted they want to leave the vehicle he presented a danger to us because once we when he's resisting like that we don't know if he has anything in his pockets we don't know the occupants of the vehicle so we try to remove him as quickly as possible we had to use Force the amount necessary to get him out of the car so you actually saw it was the minimum force necessary to get him in custody now he's in custody he'll be taken to our Detention Facility and he'll be able to make phone calls there but right now we're just trying to secure the seat [Music] I'm retirement eligible I could I could retire every time I want the reason that I come back every day every every day I wake up and I come back to work it's because I love my job and I understand what I'm doing and the importance it has on public safety in Tucson Arizona's second largest city the target of today's operation is a Mexican fugitive with previous convictions for possession of firearms ammunition and narcotics I pull my copy go ahead and what's the plan on this uh vehicle if it leaves uh we'll try to see if it's occupied uh twice and see if hopefully our Targets in the passenger seat so basically he's thinking that this guy came to pick the target up so what we'll do is we'll do What's called the takeaway so if the vehicle leaves we're going to follow it uh we'll try to get a positive identification on the passenger and if the passenger is the target we will conduct a vehicle stop and we'll try to uh hopefully be able to take our Target into custody at that point 10-4 you want to take it away Showtime [Music] vote all right they're gonna go uh somebody want to get in between me and the target okay this time the arrest is straightforward and the suspect does not resist everything went clean and according to plan it was a good arrest he has already been ordered removed so he's going to be taken back to our office and he's going to be processed and then he'll be physically removed from the country this afternoon [Music] for the most part most of our ATD people are non-crims so really their biggest crime is being here illegally and of course everybody's trying to look for a better life so we ask for documentations we actually assist them with looking up when their court dates are and in any way that we can help them as much as immigration wise we can we do she entered the country without permission it was the only way she could get here and then she got caught by immigration as she was doing so so she's been put in the removal procedures which frequently entails detention or just um being placed under orders of supervision or things like that while the procedures go through the courts and everything depending on the judge and the court and everything but her next hearing might not be for years so they're going to be in this stage of limbo essentially it could be anywhere from two to three I think I know another attorney who recently got their next Hearing in 2024. um so it it could be a very long time yes meanwhile the detainee's ankle tag has seized okay perfect they've been there for a while they get you know kind of stuck in there so sometimes you have to work with it a little bit the way this ATD Works you're wearing either an ankle monitor or what's called smart link smart link works out of your cell phone so if you have a smart cell phone we download an app into your cell phone and then you're checking in what would be virtually like a selfie we start you off with a GPS and then if you're being compliant we'll move you to a Smart link and then after that you basically graduated the ATD program and if you've complied with all the requirements we'll remove the bracelet and then you can continue on as a non-detained reporting either every two every year or every month three months just depending on how your case is going on [Music] when we do put them on we have it's kind of like putting handcuffs on you measure to where you put two fingers in the middle that way you know that it's not going to be so tight so you free to go now she's going to go down to our contractor site and they're going to close her case out there because like I said when you're on ATD you get home visits and office visits so we'll send her back to isap we are going to send What's called the termination paperwork to our isap office they know that we have taken her off the program and they'll close their case out with her and then just check back in in a year as your OSU paperwork says and then she just comes here to miramari every year we're not here to get people that just come here to get a better life we're here to help you but of course if you're going to break the rules and regulations we're going to do our jobs and put you back in attention or send you back to your country but I'm very proud of being ice thank you back in New Jersey ice Officer Ken is at the residence of the second MS-13 suspect the mail coming out Target vehicles yes not suspecting anything so that's the best way to get them catch him off guard Target Vehicles backing up the moments just before an arrest are always tense for officers Target vehicles on the street what direction oh thank you the suspect is cooperative and does not resist the officers detaining him animals officers take the suspect to the waiting patrol car that went well the Intel received has him coming out about 7 30 and right on time it came out at 7 30. and we were able to take him down we had the vehicle that he was driving and we knew the direction he was going so the staff set up the officer set up on the corners and once you pull down we were able to take them down that way so you know I wish they could all be like that um you know when safe and when smooth and we took a uh Public Safety threat gang mammal off the street so it went well uh right now we'll be taking them to our office to process him um he'll be giving a charging document to appear in front of the immigration judge and the judge will determine whether or not he can stay in the United States or he's going to be ordered deported and moved from the United States that's all up to the judge it depends on uh background equities everything so um that's all in the hands of the judge right now we did our part we made the arrest and now it's up to the immigration judge to decide whether or not he he has to be removed from the United States thank you good job guys when they go well it's good it's unfortunate uh the way we're portrayed in the media all we're doing is enforcing the laws that were passed by Congress each person that we're going out each individual that was seeking its targeted enforcement what that means is that I have offices that research and investigate cases they will then take that case to our legal department so our office of principal uh legal advisor here in Newark gets involved they check the crimes determine if the subject is legally sufficient to issue a charging document which we call a notice to appear for them to be you know arrested once that's done they take that case to their supervisor the supervisor reviews the case make sure everything is correct and once the supervisor reviews the case they then bring it to me and then I go through and do all the checks again so you're talking about a triple check of an individual that was seeking to arrest that we have a probable cause we know they hear illegally they've committed crimes or they're an immigration violator and we go out and that's what we're looking for there are no sweeps conducted by icro and that's another false narrative that gets uh placed across the media and it's so far from the truth [Music] in San Diego Ice officer Jameson and his team are taking their arrested suspect to a new location for transfer to a secure Detention Facility individual that came into custody was not only known for theft but also hit and run this is one of the things that we need to pay attention to basically vehicle issues that we have here in California and you still don't have to have insurance someone like this is a danger of both the community and to the public in that he hits a car hits a person then takes off I don't know the specifics but he did get the church with hit and run along with his theft which I can only imagine is probably parked our contract security guards will secure the detainee as you see now leg irons belly chain and they'll hold them inside the car until said time we've told them that that's all we're going to do or they're full most of the paperwork is done prior to the arrest so that it's more efficient and then he'll be put into detention if he wants to see a judge if you put attention to the court case otherwise he can be removed tonight because he's a Mexican citizen foreign the minute you say that you have ice on your badge or you have ice on your back people will start yelling and swearing at you and calling you names only for doing your job and they have no idea who it is we're taking into custody at the time we're always there to answer something and to express what it is that we do because we do not want you to think of us as an evil entity we're here to be able to support and defend the United States and then to help you as a community either grow or learn from you so we know what it is that you might want from us in Newark ice officer Jose is back at base after a successful day we had teams in Newark New Jersey and Elizabeth New Jersey and they all reported a rest so we had arrests from various countries with criminality backgrounds that ranging from aggravated assault murder domestic violence DUIs you know we had a gang member out there all those people are now out of the community which makes our communities much much safer when we stop a vehicle we overwhelm we oversaturate that area with law enforcement they see all this law enforcement it goes to that fight or flight mode in your mind where you go oh yeah I don't know I can run I can get away with this but then you start seeing more and more officers arrive and your chances of Escape lessened so that went through that gentleman's mind he first maybe saw just one officer and he's still thinking he's in shock he's like I don't want to go uh he's hearing this nonsense in the news that you know uh that we don't have the authority to do what we do so those things go into a person's mind whether they actually want to flee or just give up and it takes a minute so we do allow that time to sink in you saw out there that we didn't just grab the guy and you know before we gave him plenty of warnings we actually talked to the other applicants how come his other car to convince them that it's a good thing they maybe just give up instead of having us do actual Force to bring it into our custody so we take every precaution but that's an inherent nature of our job that some will resist especially the the criminal elements like the gang bangers and stuff like that they usually always resist so that's why we over saturate the area with with police and once they see that we usually have compliance so now they go through due process right so they come here where we process we take their biographic information fingerprints and they go through their paperwork if they have not seen a judge yet then one will be scheduled for them to see a judge they go through that due process they still have to the judge actually makes determination for them to actually be removed from the countries not us the ones that know that they're way after them they do take every precaution they live lives really day to by day times like today it's going to happen where the end of the road right so you get arrested they know they're going to be about here some of them resist some of them don't it's just the nature of the law enforcement work in Tucson Arizona the Mexican fugitive arrested by Ice officer Pete is processed at the station he is the subject of a final removal order from the United States and has a criminal history he is also a suspect in a murder investigation from 2011. um foreign officers cannot afford to take any chances with recently detained suspects a full body search is conducted to ensure no concealed weapons are present hello [Music] okay right now we're back at the processing facility where all the arrests that are being made are brought here by the officers to process the cases to be present in front of the immigration judge so the couple that we arrested this morning are back here and being processed right now as questions we're giving them uh what we call a notice to appear which is a charging document we give them legal lists we allow them to make phone calls as many as they want see my other teams that were out we have as it stands right now looks like a total of 10 arrests so far for the morning so it's just a successful morning every one of these people is a public safety threat they're no longer on the street and now they're going to have to go before the judge the judges determine whether or not they could stay in the United States but from our point of view and we've basically done our job is to get them off the street remove that Public Safety threat and now let them have their chance and time in front of the immigration judge [Music] later the Guatemalan DUI suspect was deported to his home country despite numerous appeals against his deportation order the Salvadoran MS-13 gang member was finally removed from the United States in January 2021. the Mexican national arrested in Tucson was deported back to Mexico later that day the lady with the ankle bracelet remained in the United States she has applied for U.S citizenship the Mexican Suspect with theft and driving convictions was issued a final removal order from the United States and voluntarily returned to Mexico the work of ice continues [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 375,516

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), border patrol, border patrol documentary, ice, ice documentary, border patrol USA, us border patrol, ice border, ice border patrol, American Immigration documentary, American Immigration

Id: ACAxf5ttXUY

Length: 47min 36sec (2856 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2023