Hail to the Chief: USBP's Oscar Garza retires

By María Eugenia Guerra

 

"It wasn't easy to become an agent back then," retiring Border Patrol Chief Oscar Garza recalled of his beginning in the agency in 1971. "I used to tell my Dad that was what I wanted to do, and so I went to the local office to get an application. The agent in charge at that time said, 'We don't hire Mexicans.' When I repeated this to my Dad, he took me to Congressman Chick Kazen's office in the Federal Building downtown. A couple of weeks later, I got my application in the mail and took the Border Patrol test in San Antonio . I was one of 52 interviewees and the only one selected," Garza recalled.

Garza trained in Port Isabel for four months and graduated in the Agency's 100th class, which included at that time 38 Hispanics in a field of 226 new agents. After being sworn in, he was assigned to Eagle Pass , which reports to the Del Río Sector of the Border Patrol.

"I was commuting to Laredo every weekend. There were some real hardships at home. My brother had been burned in a very bad car accident. I felt I might have to resign from the agency and move to Laredo to be of some help. A deputy chief made a call to Washington to ask that I be assigned to Laredo . Back then it was rare that you could come back to your own community," Garza said, adding, "I was back in Laredo by November 1974, about two and a half years before the official order for my transfer from Eagle Pass came through."

"There were very few Hispanics in the agency back then, perhaps 15 percent of the entire agency. Now the mix is more even and there is value to being bilingual," Garza said.

Garza was promoted to criminal investigator in 1979 and then a special agent. "Where the mandate had once been to stop the flow of illegal visitors to this country, the mandate in the mid-80s shifted to address the huge increase in drug traffic across the border. It didn't become our primary duty, but it was a collateral duty," Garza continued.

"I did a lot of undercover work, most of it in the interior of Mexico and the United States ," Garza said. "Much of my focus was the trafficking of aliens. We posed as smugglers and did a good deal of tracking in Houston, Dallas, and Chicago, and some in Mexico . Those we apprehended weren't just smugglers, they were murderers, too. I saw such misery in the harm they caused and the way they treated men, women, and children like cattle. The direness of it changed my perspective," he continued.

"As a Mexican-American I would be asked, how can you arrest mexicanos who are just trying to find work here? I used to say, it's just a job. As years went by, I can't say I became sympathetic, but I came to understand what they would endure to be able to work to take care of their families in Mexico . It changed my perspective, and it certainly made me understand my blessings," Garza said.

In 1987 he became an assistant chief patrol agent under Chief Joe Garza. As assistant chief he took the role of senior manager for many of the Laredo sector's community outreach programs including Youth of the Month, Youth of the Year, and Head of the Class. He also coordinated the sector's Explorer Scouting Post and Bike Patrol Operations.

Garza said that the caliber of USBP agents today are largely who they have always been, but that now and again a bad agent taints the good work of many. "I'm proud that I made it through as an exemplary agent, for staying above some of the behaviors of which agents are routinely accused," Garza said, adding, "I'm also proud that I have Top Secret government clearance, Cosmic Top Secret and Atomal Top Secret for which my record was scrutinized every five years."

Garza, a 1965 graduate of Nixon High School , earned an associate degree from Laredo Junior College and was drafted just after the Tet Offensive in 1968. He took a NATO assignment for the U.S. Army in Seckheim , Germany in 1969, and returned stateside in January 1970. He earned a BBA from Texas A&I University in Laredo in 1977. He is the recipient of countless service accolades and community awards from the Border Patrol as well as from federal, state, and local governmental agencies and leaders.

"I rarely speak publicly about my wife, but Zulema and the kids have been part of everything that has made me good at what I do," Garza said. Oscar and Zulema Garza, who were married in 1970, have three children, Anabelle, Oscar III, and Melissa Yvette, and are the grandparents of Victoria Anabelle.

"Oscar Garza is a wonderful human being, a great asset to our organization and to this community," said Peggy García, executive director of United Way of Laredo. "He volunteers wherever you need him. We need more Oscar Garzas. He always helps and with a beautiful smile."

Of Garza, community activist Sister Rosemary Welsh said, “He has been a faithful friend to many of us and has been an integral part of our community for years. On a personal note, Oscar assisted and supported the Sisters of Mercy as a Board Member at Mercy Health Center and at the shelter, Casa de Misericordia. I had to call Oscar on many occasions to ask his opinion and for advice and he was always open, honest and professional in his response to us. We thank him for every kindness and we look forward to working with him in the future."

"He retired? I never saw the guy," quipped Assistant USBP chief George Gunnoe of Garza, making light of Garza's community work outside the sector office. "But seriously, I've known Oscar Garza since the early 1980s. I credit him with making me what I am today. His activities in drug interdiction in Laredo kept me very busy at Carrizo Springs. The smugglers would go out of their way to avoid what Oscar and the agents here had in place," Gunnoe said. "What we are losing is a third of a century of historical knowledge of the agency, and at a time when the agency has changed a great deal. Oscar's retirement also means a loss of leadership for us. He will be missed."

Garza said he had mixed feelings about the changes that Homeland Security will spell out for the U.S. Border Patrol. "You will very likely see uniform changes and certainly you will see changes in the organization of the agency and U.S. Customs as they become Customs Border Protection officers with a mission to protect the security of our borders," he said, adding, "I could make those transitions, but you really need agents who are young and mentally fit to make it work."

Garza said Homeland Security's mission has made things "tighten up across the nation." He said, "We traded off some of our freedoms in the Patriot Act. We may ask for them back. It will be interesting to see what we get back."