Initially, FIST targeted smuggling activity in and around the ports of entry that would affect both port of entry and Border Patrol operations. The program has evolved over the years, and has generated a great deal of information targeting not only narcotic and alien smuggling, but also fraudulent documents.

The FIST team is deployed from the Rio Grande Valley Sector Office of Intelligence and is divided into two distinct areas of operation. One team works in the Brownsville and Harlingen areas while the other is responsible for the Mercedes and McAllen areas. The two teams consist of seven Border Patrol agents and three CBP officers from the Hidalgo and Pharr ports of entry.

FIST was patterned after a program started at the San Diego Sector, where joint efforts took place at the port of entry. “The unique thing about the program,” says Garza, “is that it facilitates the collection and dissemination of information between BP and OFO in a real-time way. It is real-time intelligence right on the spot. It gets everything out to the ports or agents as soon as possible.”

The FIST team has generated a number of cases that have demonstrated its strategic and tactical importance to the Homeland Security mission. Two such cases, however, illustrate the obvious advantages that arise from the FIST concept of combining resources at the field level.

In one case, a Border Patrol agent was interested in a subject he believed might be committing illegal activities near the Rio Grande River. The agent stopped and identified the individual, and produced an intelligence report with the suspect’s name and picture on it. Later, through surveillance and direct communication with port team members, FIST was able to establish that this individual was linked to other suspicious subjects that had been identified in a port operation. These associated links produced vehicle descriptions and methods of operation that eventually led to the seizure of 1,266 pounds of marijuana attributed to a drug trafficking organization. A month later, another seizure of 1,066 pounds was intercepted as result of the same information and attributed to the same drug trafficking organization.

In another case, the FIST team was able to identify a smuggling ring that had been creating fraudulent documents with the use of counterfeit immigration stamps. This case resulted in the arrest of four smugglers, the seizure of several fraudulent documents and the seizure of the counterfeit stamps. The port team members’ expertise in identification of the counterfeit stamps was an integral part of the case. The team immediately alerted other Border Patrol sectors and ports of entry about the fictitious documents and stamps and the alert was subsequently used to arrest two Ukranian nationals in Laredo, Tex. The Ukranian nationals were in possession of the same type of fraudulent documents that had been encountered by the FIST team in McAllen. Further investigation revealed that the same smugglers who had been arrested in McAllen had sold the fraudulent documents to these Ukranians while in Mexico.

“The biggest challenge the program faces right now,” says Garza, “is that it is gaining more popularity and we can’t do everything at once. We get calls from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other agencies, and sometimes there’s not enough of us to go around.”

“The greatest success of the program,” says Garza, “is that FIST is a model right now for how both offices, OFO and Border Patrol, can work together. The program highlights the importance of sharing information. It’s not like back then when it was two separate departments. Going into the future, everything is combined, and that’s what we need to concentrate on, combining efforts to make the mission successful.”

Javier Cantu, acting port director, Hidalgo port of entry, adds, “FIST creates a fusion of expertise and database utilization. Most of the people in the group have different legacy backgrounds and they’re all learning from each other, creating a special officer agent with the sharing of their knowledge and expertise.” Cantu also points out that FIST “can be implemented in any environment—we use it not only in passenger processing but also in the cargo processing area.”