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Yuma Sun Editor’s Note: Yuma Sun Staff writer James Gilbert attended a media academy put on the Yuma Sector Border Patrol and is writing about his experiences. This is the third installment.

The Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents oftentimes find themselves working in the inhospitable desert terrains of eastern Yuma County.

That work includes tracking, gathering and collecting physical evidence, surveying known illegal alien routes, responding to sensor and surveillance system alerts and patrolling some of the most remote and rugged terrain.

For one highly specialized Border Patrol unit, which is capable of responding to emergency search and rescue situations anywhere, when they aren’t apprehending illegal aliens, they are providing needed medical assistance to distressed agents and migrants along the border.

That unit is known as BORSTAR, the Border Patrol’s Search, Trauma and Rescue team. Agents in the unit have been specially trained in medical and technical rescues.

I got to spend some time with them on Thursday during the third day of a media academy the Yuma Sector is hosting.

The sector put the academy together to help give reporters who cover the public safety beat a better understanding as to what it takes to serve and to protect our country’s newsmaking border.

“South and east of Wellton are our busiest areas,” said Maj. Tyler Emblem of BORSTAR. “During the summer months we can be out there every day.”

Emblem said the types of injuries BORSTAR agents seem to treat the most coincide with the time of year.

“Typically winter is busy for trauma-type injuries while summers tend to be busy due to heat-related illnesses.” Eblem said. “There’s really nobody else to do this, when you think about it.”

BORSTAR agents, who are frequently the only medical or rescue responders available, undergo a specialized regimen of training consisting of a variety of disciplines including medical skills, technical rescue, navigation, communication, swiftwater rescue and air operations. They also must maintain peak physical fitness.

Their training and knowledge not only require BORSTAR agents to locate distressed individuals, but also enable them to provide medical assistance in order to stabilize and transport patients from areas that would normally be inaccessible.

As part of the time I spent with BORSTAR, they demonstrated their expertise in what is known as High-Angle rescue using the Arizona Vortex system from a cliff near Blaisdell.

In the demonstration, BORSTAR agents had to climb down the cliff to rescue someone who had fallen from the top.

They set up set up A-frame rigging for their ropes. Once this was done, a paramedic repelled down the cliff face to the victim and began providing medical assistance. A second member of the team then brought down a lifting harness and litter to bring the fallen climber back up the cliff for air evacuation.

Needless to say the demonstration was very impressive.

In another session on Wednesday, I got to spend some time with Joe Dressler, the special operations supervisor of an elite Border Patrol unit called BORTAC and several of its members.

BORTAC, based at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, is essentially the agency’s national level tactical unit.

Dressler described the unit’s mission as responding to terrorist threats of all types anywhere in the world in order to protect our nation’s homeland.

These agents, who hide in the hills, crouch under shrubs and lie unnoticed waiting in holes in the ground for many hours on end, are also tasked with detecting and deterring the flow of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

These guys, who are basically the SWAT teams of the sectors where they are located, are simply known as the “enforcers” on the border.

Make no mistake, this is a group of some really tough dudes. They are a completely self-contained unit and can be anywhere in the nation within hours.

According to Dressler, less than 1 percent of the agents across the country are active BORTAC members. Making that statistic even more impressive is that in the unit’s 26-year history, just over 300 agents have ever gone on to become BORTAC agents.

I think it is safe to say the five-week BORTAC basic training course must be considered one of the most difficult and arduous training courses in civilian law enforcement.

The unit was first formed in 1984 to deal with disturbances occurring within Immigration and Naturalization Service detention facilities.

Since then the unit has has steadily expanded its scope and mission capabilities, and is now a rapid response unit capable of executing both foreign and national level domestic operations.

BORTAC members have operated in 28 countries around the world, Dressler said. Their missions have included international training/advisory functions, counter terrorism operations, counter narcotics operations, dignitary protection, interdiction and patrol operations, tactical training to other U.S. agencies and military units, and high-risk warrant service.

Dressler said something that surprised me and will probably surprise a lot of other people. He said the unit had been covert throughout most of its history and most people did not know it even existed.

That all changed, however, back in April 2000 during a raid on a home in Miami, Fla., to safely remove a Cuban refugee child named Elian Gonzalez and return him to his family in Cuba.

Earlier in the day we were also given a demonstration in checkpoint operation at the Border Patrol’s checkpoint, near Telegraph Pass, which has been temporarily closed.

While there is not explicit statute governing the Border Patrol’s use of checkpoints, a 1976 landmark decision in United States v. Martinez-Fuerte allowed the Border Patrol to set up permanent or fixed checkpoints on public highways leading to or away from the Mexican border. The U.S. Supreme Court found that these checkpoints are not a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The court indicated in its ruling that it would be impracticable for agents to seek warrants for every vehicle they searched and that to do so would eliminate any deterrent toward smuggling and illegal immigration.

I also learned that day the court has determined a canine sniff to be a “free air sniff,” and therefore, also not a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

“It’s not a violation of the Fourth Amendment because it is non-intrusive,” said Wes Burch, special operations supervisor for the Yuma Sector’s canine unit. “The agent is not violating your rights by running the dog down the side of your car sniffing the air around it.”

There is more that I want to add about checkpoint operations and the agency’s K-9 program, but I’m running out of room so I will add it to my next academy story.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.