Although Coyote Smart is a novel, it was very important to me to deal with the subject of illegal immigration and human smuggling in a factual way. I wanted to be certain that I portrayed events correctly in order to create an accurate picture of the border and its current hazards. Granted, research is essential in writing any novel, but this particular subject seemed to require even further attention.
To do that, I got a lucky break. I was chairing a school accreditation visit last spring, and after the team had completed our task, we began talking about personal and professional interests. I mentioned my books (imagine that!!) and when I described Coyote Smart, one of the team members suddenly became interested.
With a degree in criminal justice he had become a U.S. Border Patrol Agent a number of years ago before quitting to become an educator. After starting out with a gung-ho attitude, it didn’t take long for this talented young man to become frustrated and disillusioned with the constraints imposed on the agency such as “sitting on X.” This term is used to indicate that the agent is required to sit in one place sometimes for eight hours watching for illegal immigrants. As you can imagine, this caused him irritation, not to mention boredom. The worst part is that after apprehending a number of migrants, he was sometimes forced to let them go because of lengthy processing times, large case loads, and bureaucratic ineffectiveness.
In all of his accounts, however, he was extremely positive about his colleagues, and it seemed to me that he didn’t leave his career because he disliked his assignment, just the limitations of it. It was easy to understand how a smart, articulate young man could get exasperated.
Day after day of watching and waiting can take its toll, especially when one feels that much of what he is doing is futile. This is in addition to the isolation he often felt and the acute dangers he faced daily, not to mention the human suffering he observed on a regular basis.
We talked for over an hour, and he told me events he had personally witnessed while serving in the Naco, Arizona area during his tenure. Several months later I flew to El Paso where he is now a school administrator to interview him. On his own time, he spent several hours showing me photos he had taken and describing incidents that he had been involved in that gave me great insight into the issues of both human and drug smuggling along the U.S. / Mexican border. His expertise was invaluable. What a great resource for the book. Thank you, Ignacio!