THE BORDER REPORT

Well, this certainly grabbed my attention.

A group of illegal migrants from Oaxaca report that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested them and made them march to Mexican music turned up high while they followed them in their patrol vehicles, shouting encouragement.

"They grabbed us in the mountains and made us walk and march to Mexican music turned up very loud for nearly an hour while they followed behind, yelling and laughing at us." The report was filed by three women, four men and a 14-year-old girl who were captured by Border Patrol agents working out of the Naco, Arizona, station, July 14. The migrants filed the complaint with the Naco Centro de Recursos Para Migrantes. Okay; couple things here. First, the director of the center seems to be a serious, clear-headed sort. I cannot vouch for the migrants, except to say that this would be a very strange story for eight people to consistently cook up. Then there's the Naco Station of the Border Patrol. In the infamous words of a FBI agent I talk to on occasion, "it's a horrible, horrible job." So horrible that last year agents at that station were amusing themselves with a hobby horse welded together from pieces of the steel used to build the border fence.

I never could find one of our defenders of the homeland getting his kicks on this thing, but I was amused to note that it stood next to the Port-A-Potty. I'm guessing it really is a boring job. So boring that you can amuse yourself by marching migrants along to the Mexican National Anthem? Anything's possible in this place.

-- Michel Marizco