“We have always targeted veterans for the Border Patrol; about a quarter of our workforce is prior military. The type of work we do is blue collar – you’re going to get dirty and sweaty and it requires people with good thinking skills. The training they get in the military – the discipline, rank, structure, and all – make them optimum for the type of work we do. We only have to train them in civil law and rules of engagement,” Lee said. “We also have opportunities to gain experience with some of the military equipment coming back from the war and how, if we had it, would we employ it to make us more efficient.”

With respect to how cartel violence affects the general population, the difference between Mexico and the United States at the beginning of 2012 could not be more stark. Victor Camacho Jr., the son of a successful Mexican restaurant owner who was kidnapped in broad daylight in 2008 and is now presumed dead, summed up life for those in the cartel strongholds in a 2011 interview with Time magazine: “Anybody can be caught in this now – and we’re tired of being quiet about it. Every part of your life is affected. Economically, morally, physically, you live with a daily fear of losing your family, your livelihood, everything.”

Keeping that out of American life is a top Border Patrol priority.

“The men and women of the Border Patrol, who work three shifts a day, 365 days a year, are forever vigilant and have done an outstanding job. And as a chief, I would like this opportunity, on behalf of the American people, to thank them,” Lee said. “The border is more secure today than it was five years ago. And all we will do is get better at what we do, so I would say, yes, we will be even more secure five years from now.”

While public attention since 9/11 has been heavily focused on Afghanistan and Iraq, the much closer narco-war along the nation’s southern border is beginning to gain notice beyond those living there.

“The border does not exist just on the U.S. or Mexican side – we have as much to gain or lose with their struggle as they do,” Fisher concluded. “As a Border Patrol agent and chief of 20,400 agents, we enforce the laws in effect at the time in accordance with our oath to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We assess strategic objectives each year and measure those against our border security mission. But we can’t define success independently or keep score on whether we’re winning.

“The context of the threat – the intent and capabilities of the opposition – continues to change, from what they were doing 10 years ago to now to 10 years from now. It has become a national security issue, so we can no longer categorize the threat as a drug-smuggling operation here or aliens more likely to enter that section of our 2,000-mile border with Mexico. We don’t know until after they are apprehended who we are dealing with, what they may have in their possession, what danger they may be to the nation.

“We need to know a lot more about these organizations, their centers of gravity, their vulnerabilities, so we can disrupt and dismantle them. We also need to build a workforce with rapid response as a hallmark, so once we have received that information, we not only react but deploy in advance of a threat to minimize problems along the border. And that is our strategy through 2016.”

This article was first published in The Year in Homeland Security: 2011/2012 Edition.