TUCSON, Ariz. — The Border Patrol often gets a bad rap.

Not only do humanitarian organizations accuse them of abusing the rights of immigrants, but vigalante groups curse them for failing to keep the border air-tight. Politicians, pressured by the demands of their constituents in regards to immigration issues, in turn pressure the Border Patrol agency. Congress wants more enforcement, but doesn't provide adequate funding to do so.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, as the cliche goes, agents have to simply do their job, what they swore to do when they accepted the duty of a United States Border Patrol agent. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, that is protecting the nation from terrorism and "facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel."

This often puts them into difficult situations.

According to Border Patrol agent James Gonzalez, about 3,000 agents work in the Tucson Sector, 262 linear miles spanning the area from the Arizona-New Mexico border to the Yuma county line. Long-known as one of the busiest sectors in the nation, 378,239 immigrants were apprehended during the 2007 fiscal year alone.

Although most of the people they encounter are merely looking for work in the U.S., some have less than honorable intentions, said retired Border Patrol agent Clyde Benzenhoefer. Some are smuggling drugs and weapons into the country. Others are gang members. Many have outstanding felony warrants. The difference is not always apparent at first glance.

"When you encounter a group of people, it's just like any police officer anywhere, you're dealing with the possibility of a very dangerous person," said Benzenhoefer. "The general public doesn't associate an illegal immigrant with being a criminal, yet a Border Patrol agent can't afford to handle it that way."

Every year Border Patrol agents are injured in the field, sometimes fatally.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a website dedicated to officers from government agencies who have died
in the line of duty, there have been 104 deaths of Border Patrol agents since 1919, most of them due to gunfire.

Still, do some agents take it too far?

"That's a common allegation," said Benzenhoefer, who was a Border Patrol agent for 30 years. "Frankly, it's very rare. I'm not going to insult your intelligence and say that it's never happened before, because in any police department anywhere, you're always going to have instances where an officer may use more force than they need to."

Is it tolerated by the Border Patrol agency? No.

According to Border Patrol public affairs officer Jesus Rodriguez, all accusations are looked into and dealt with swiftly by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), a separate agency from the U.S. Border Patrol.

However, most agents understand the plight of immigrants who enter the U.S. in search of a better life, said Benzehoefer. "On the one hand, the Border Patrol has the mission to arrest people coming in here illegally, but there's also the obligation that they take very seriously to protect the people coming in, especially from alien smugglers."

Smugglers often subject immigrants to horrific, and often life-threatening, conditions. This is especially true for immigrants who pass through the Arizona desert, where the temperature can rise well over 100 degrees in the summer. If an immigrant falls behind, the smugglers leave them to die.

Partly in response to the rising number of immigrant deaths, a separate Border Patrol agency was developed in 1998 called BORSTAR: Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue. BORSTAR is made up of sworn Border Patrol agents who have also gone through additional intensive training, including Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification.

Accoring to Gonzalez, in the 2007 fiscal year alone, 573 rescues were made by BORSTAR in the Southwestern deserts.

Hear Clyde Benzenhoefer talk about balancing duty and humanity...