- Title: Women hope to beat odds at elite U.S. Border Patrol Academy
- Date: 21st June 2017
- Summary: ARTESIA, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (JUNE 9, 2017) (REUTERS) U.S. BORDER PATROL ACADEMY CLASS IN GYM STUDENT STEVANY SHAKARE VARIOUS OF STUDENTS STRETCHING (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEVANY SHAKARE, STUDENT AT BORDER PATROL ACADEMY, SAYING: "This country gave me my education, gave me what I know now. Had I stayed in Iraq, especially with everything going on now, I probably wouldn't have ended up to where I am today. Probably wouldn't have gone to college, wouldn't have gotten a degree, nothing like that. So I feel like a owe my life to this country." SHAKARE AND FELLOW STUDENTS IN GYM SHAKARE DOING PULL-UPS SHAKARE THROWING MEDICINE BALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEVANY SHAKARE, STUDENT AT BORDER PATROL ACADEMY, SAYING: "I am obviously very short and tiny so I have to compete with that but that motivates me more knowing that I have made it as far as they did and I just have to keep up with them." VARIOUS OF MALE STUDENTS WORKING OUT IN GYM VARIOUS OF BORDER PATROL JEEP DRIVING DURING TRAINING EXERCISE STUDENTS DURING FIREARMS TRAINING STUDENTS EATING LUNCH SCENARIO EXERCISE WHERE BORDER PATROL AGENTS DISPLAY PROPER ARREST TECHNIQUES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS MORE OF STUDENTS DURING PHYSICAL TRAINING STUDENT TRISH SIMPSON IN GYM (SOUNDBITE) (English) TRISH SIMPSON, STUDENT AT BORDER PATROL ACADEMY, SAYING: "Honestly, I do not feel different. People here don't treat us different. Everyone is one and you have to do everything the same and I don't feel different. If the next guy can do it that why can't I and that is just how it is." PATROL INSTRUCTOR DEMONSTRATING WATER TACTICS VARIOUS OF COURT CLASS ROOM
- Embargoed: 5th July 2017 16:51
- Keywords: U.S. Border Patrol Academy Stevani Shakare Artesia New Mexico Iraqi refugee Chief Patrol Agent Dan Harris
- Location: ARTESIA, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES
- City: ARTESIA, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0016M7YXC7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At a training facility in the middle of a desert in New Mexico, aspiring border patrol agent Stevany Shakare sprinted laps in 103-degree Fahrenheit weather as her instructors shouted at her to run faster.
Shakare, a 23-year-old from Iraq, is one of three women in a class of 20 at the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, New Mexico. They are powering through an intensive 112-day training program, in which agents must master firearms, high-speed, off-road vehicle chases, immigration law, conversational Spanish and grueling physical tests.
They are preparing to track, apprehend and arrest immigrants and drug traffickers attempting to enter the United States illegally.
In 2004, at the age of 10, she fled her home after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Her family settled in Michigan where she graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in criminal justice.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to crackdown on illegal immigration and strengthen security along U.S. borders, particularly with Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security in February announced plans to add more than 5,000 border enforcement agents to the current force.
Chief Patrol Agent Dan Harris, who runs the academy, said a major increase in violent crime along the southern border in the past year encouraged many to become border patrol agents.
Shakare said she now has the full support of her parents, both of whom plan to watch her graduate in November. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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