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WHAT IF?

By Terry Hodges

Warden Zeke Awbrey, California Department of Fish and Game, was on the prowl. At the wheel of his Ford Bronco patrol vehicle, on low-speed patrol along the All-American Canal, he scanned with sharp eyes the road ahead and the desert lands to the north. He drank in the scent of the canal, a damp riverbank smell that to him somehow promised adventure, and again the euphoric feeling of extreme good fortune washed over him as he was reminded of how lucky he was to be a game warden. Two years into the profession he had loved from day one, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

It was January 30th, 2000, Super Bowl Sunday, a day most wardens would be glued to their TV sets. But Awbrey’s lieutenant, with good reason, felt that at least one warden should be out and about, and because Awbrey was junior in seniority, he drew the short straw. Awbrey was fine with it, and eagerly awaited whatever action might come his way.

At that time, about 40 miles of the All-American Canal was the only barrier between California and Mexico. No fences had yet been built there. Ahead on the canal, Awbrey spotted activity and stopped. He then watched through his binoculars as a teenage boy, with one end of a rope, swam for the U.S. side some 20 yards distant. Awbrey held his breath, for swimming the canal was highly dangerous due to swift and deadly undercurrents not apparent on the surface. Hundreds of unwary swimmers had been sucked under and drowned there over the years. Awbrey, in fact, had spotted and helped recover the badly decomposed remains of a probable drowning victim a few weeks earlier. But on this day, this boy was lucky and scrambled ashore on the U.S. side. Aware of what was coming next, Awbrey picked up a handset radio on loan from the U.S. Border Patrol and gave them a call on their frequency.

From a gap in the tules, the boy hauled on the rope, and a crude raft of wooden pallets floated by truck inner tubes appeared on the Mexico side. The raft, bearing three people, started across. People on the Mexico side paid out a second rope tied to the raft. When the three people clambered ashore on the U.S. side, the empty raft was pulled back to the Mexico side and the process repeated. About a dozen illegal immigrants made the crossing as Awbrey watched. They had reached the great land of opportunity, but their jubilation was cut short by the sudden arrival of several Border Patrol units. They didn’t know it, but their arrests on that day might easily have saved the lives of one or more of them, for their immediate future otherwise would have been fraught with substantial danger.

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