In a world where United States Border Patrol Agents are portrayed as uncaring, knuckle dragging, mindless automatons, who succumb to corruption at every turn, it can take an exceptional event to shed luminosity into an unfair caricature.
David Amaya Barrick found himself doing whatever he could to survive on the mean streets of Tijuana, Mexico. He was told to run across a water culvert that led into the United States, in an area known by agents as “Goat Canyon,” with a group of illegal aliens. This illegal act set many things into motion. David was arrested for illegal entry into the United States and transported to the Imperial Beach (IMB) Border Patrol Station for processing and further investigation with the other illegal aliens.
When he arrived at IMB, David stated that he was a United States Citizen (USC) who was born in Chicago. He did not have any identification or other documents. Well, like most agents who are processing the incoming masses, they will hear this was either a false story or David was telling the truth. An agent could say, “I don’t believe you, next in line.” Or the trail could lead in a different direction and the truth is discovered. Does it seem too idealistic for agents to want to find the truth? For agents to take the extra steps to investigate claims of a man who might be lying for his own self interest? Whatever it was, agents at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station took the extra steps. They used those Administratively Uncontrolled Overtime (AUO) hours to do what agents routinely do as unsung heroes protecting our nations borders. Verification had to be made of David’s story and claims.
His mother, Kathy Amaya, had lost her 2 year old son to an estranged husband who took the boy to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. David was told and thought that his mother had abandoned him. Calls from IMB were made to Cook County vital records office in Chicago to verify his claims. There was a match. Since it was such a unique name on the birth certificate, agents decided to look up his mother. A phone number was found. This phone call would definitely verify if David was indeed a USC. However, before the phone call, David stated in the Spanish language that he had NEVER talked to his mother.
Kathy Amaya had spent years searching for her son, and “out of the blue” she gets a phone call from a border patrol agent asking if she had a son named David Amaya Barrick. She immediately recognized the name and began to cry. David began to cry. Even a few agents who were overhearing the conversation on speaker phone became misty eyed. 35 years of separation had come to an end.
Described by the agency as: "an unusual human story based on good investigative work and genuine compassion,” http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/13/us/mother-son-reunited-border/index.html?iref=allsearch, this is a completely usual and exceptional event that exposes the hearts and minds of hard working agents.
Agents at IMB Station are gathering funds to help with David’s trip back home with his mother.
by Gabe Pacheco National Border Patrol Council Local 1613
