Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Los Angeles Times

    Could the Big Bend in Texas be the border's weakest link? Smuggling of drugs and migrants is on the rise

    by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Dec 27, 2017 5 minutes

    PORVENIR, Texas - Two Border Patrol agents bent to study the sandy dirt like animal trackers - what they call "cutting for sign."

    They didn't have to look far.

    Just yards from the Rio Grande, Agent Lee Smith pointed to footprints and scraps of carpet. Smugglers tie carpet to their shoes in hopes of covering their tracks, he said. Smith followed the rough trail through thick brush, his fellow agent close behind, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a long gun.

    They saw no one. But the agents sensed smugglers watching, waiting.

    "They come right across. What's here to stop them?" Smith said.

    Sometimes smuggler scouts cross on horseback: The muddy banks are pocked with human and horse tracks. The river here, about 60 miles east of El Paso, is just a few yards wide, one of the reasons Border Patrol agents in Texas' Big

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Los Angeles Times

    Los Angeles Times3 min readCrime & Violence
    Carvalho Faults Alleged Actions Of School Safety Worker Who Failed To Stop Fatal Fight
    LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles school district has removed a campus-safety contractor from Washington Preparatory High School after an adult — who apparently worked for the contractor — refused to intervene before a fight that ended with the death of
    Los Angeles Times8 min read
    Beyond Erewhon: Inside The LA Grocery Store Where All The Cool Vegans Are Flocking
    LOS ANGELES -- On a rainy Saturday afternoon in late March, a block of East Hollywood is unusually quiet but for the corner of Fountain Avenue and North Edgemont Street. There, a line snakes halfway around the perimeter of a little vegan grocery stor
    Los Angeles Times3 min read
    Commentary: USC’s ‘Security Risk’ Rationale To Thwart Peaceful Protest Is Not Justified
    During Vietnam War protests, the Nixon administration called them “outside agitators.” Now my university’s provost prefers “participants — many of whom do not appear to be affiliated with USC.” Beyond Andrew Guzman’s misdemeanor of wordiness, the pla

    Related Books & Audiobooks