They are members of the CBP Border Patrol’s Special Response Teams.

Photo Credit: Adalberto Rodriguez

Special Response Team fast rope practice in a rehearsal before an actual mission.

Special Response Teams are specialized units capable of handling unusual and dangerous situations not usually encountered by Border Patrol agents within their normal scope of duty. With these situations come the undeniable chance of failure or catastrophe, but Special Response Team members do not think of it this way; they mentally erase failure and plan for success, thinking of the mission only in terms of a positive outcome.

History Although some teams have been around since 1984, the official beginning of the newly revamped CBP Border Patrol Special Response Team program correlates with the first national academy, conducted in May 2004, which nationalized and standardized the program. Special Response Team courses are taught by certified Border Patrol agents at the BORTAC (Border Patrol's specially trained tactical unit) training facility in El Paso, Texas. There are now officially 222 Special Response Team members dispersed throughout nine southwest border sectors.

Training As tactical first responders, Special Response Team members must maintain a state of readiness both on and off-duty, with their main focus to effectively resolve a situation while reducing the risk of death or serious bodily injury. They maintain a strong physical standard, must pass the physical efficiency battery test yearly, and must maintain a high level of proficiency with all firearms. They must also maintain proficiency in specialty items, such as noise flash distraction devices, pepper ball launching systems, and specialty impact munitions. They further must be ready for specialty missions, such as dignitary protection, close quarters combat, participation in a mobile field force, and serving as a precision marksman observer. The foundation for each of theses areas is provided during academy training.

Adalberto Rodriguez
Among the 17 agents that graduated from the Special Response Team Academy recently was Senior Patrol Agent Adalberto Rodriguez, from El Paso, Tex. Rodriguez enlisted in the United States Army in 1990 and became part of Bravo Company Ranger Regimen shortly thereafter. He served as an army ranger during the United States’ siege on Somalia in 1993, when UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters dropped approximately 120 American soldiers into Mogadishu.

Attacked in Somalia
Rodriguez was among the men whose mission was to fast-rope out of a helicopter, abduct several top lieutenants of a powerful Somalian warlord and return with them to the base, which should have taken an hour. Instead, two of the helicopters were shot down. Rodriguez rode in the main ground convoy, which never made it back to base and came to be known as the “lost convoy.”

He was blown out of his humvee by a rocket propelled grenade, then run over by a five-ton truck. Although he did survive, he sustained major injuries to his left leg, which resulted in him having to wear an ankle foot orthosis on a permanent basis. Because the grenade severed the nerves behind his knee and took most of the soft tissue, he cannot move or feel what is left of his leg. The orthosis keeps his leg stiff so that he can get around without dragging his foot.

The “adrenalin rush”
About 10 years after the Somalia combat, on October 5, 2003, Rodriguez entered the Border Patrol, and with less than four years in the Patrol, he made the decision to attend the Special Response Team Academy. “It challenges you to make sound, right, and practical decisions under physical, mental, and emotional stress,” Rodriguez says.

Rodriguez was attracted to the academy because of their military mentality (not coincidentally, most of the members have prior military experience). For him and the other agents, whether enlisted in the military or on duty with the CBP Border Patrol, their country always comes first, even if it means foreign deployment. Rodriguez looks forward to “walking on the edge, taking the challenge…and feeling the high of the adrenaline rush.”

Overcoming disability
Rodriguez’s use of the orthosis almost kept him from completing the Special Response Team academy. Because he does not have feeling in most of his leg, he has to be especially cautious because his boots or other pieces of equipment can rub him raw and ultimately risk infection. Rodriguez felt that the only challenge he faced was he “had to try to hold his body together longer than the other agents,” and due to overcompensating with his right foot, he actually ended up fracturing some of the bones in that foot.

Regardless of his prior injury, both Rodriguez and the Special Response Team instructors fully expected him to complete the course without any special treatment and his peers respected him more for the additional challenges that he endured.

For Rodriguez and the other Special Response Team agents, joining the National Special Response Team Academy and passing the course is essential to fully carry out the mission of safeguarding our nation’s borders.

“Special Response Teams are a necessary component of law enforcement, now and in the future,” says Rodriguez. “Given the rapidly changing enemies and larger-scale threats that our nation encounters, we need to counter that with faster, more agile, and more efficient force.”

To agents like Rodriguez, personal discomfort in the field is a fundamental ingredient, a personal badge of honor, a necessary evil that is not necessarily enjoyed when it occurs, but is later on talked about with nostalgia. Their dedication to our country is matched only by their perseverance and determination to succeed.

OFO Special Response Team graduates in Laredo By Rick Pauza, Public Affairs Officer, Laredo Field Office, Laredo, TX Photo Credit: Rick Pauza An OFO Special Response Team graduates. Recently, the Office of Field Operations graduated a Special Response Team, stationed at the Laredo port of entry but deployable nationwide. Special Response Teams can rapidly respond to critical, emergent or unique enforcement situations requiring specialized resources, tactics or techniques. The team is uniquely capable of maintaining the security of officers and the traveling public should a situation emerge in which border violence impacts the port of entry. The team also is capable of joint interoperability with similar specialized teams across the federal, state and local law enforcement spectrum. The lessons learned and best practices identified with the training and deployment of the Laredo teams will lay the groundwork for future Office of Field Operations Special Response Teams. The team completed three grueling weeks of training at the CBP Advanced Training Center at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia and three additional week of training at the port.