Amerikas heiße Grenze

El Paso, TX: Officer Holguin and two agents counting a big pile of confiscated cash. Laundered money is one illegal item which is regularly smuggled across the border. This money would likely have been sent to a drug cartel.

Nogales, AZ: Handcuffed men sitting on a hill. Migrants are often misled about the length of the walk from one city to another. With the difficult desert terrain and lack of supplies, this groupÕs outcome could have been grim.

McAllen, TX: Law enforcement helicopter taking off in support of border operations.

San Juan, TX: San Juan Police Department SWAT at the scene of a raid on the home of a suspected drug dealer.

Nogales, AZ: An agent sitting on an ATV loaded with confiscated bundles of smuggled goods. Smugglers regularly attempt to carry marijuana into the USA, and carry drug payments and weapons into Mexico.

Laredo, TX: Customs and Border Protection officers patrollingthe water for drug runners crossing the border.

SAN DIEGO, CA, USA: Border patrol agents on horseback survey the area surrounding the San Ysidro port, the boundary separating San Diego from Tijuana. While these agents travel by horse, others work on foot, by car or ATV, or by helicopter to provide holistic coverage.

McAllen, Texas, USA: A total of 56 immigrants are detained. Agents believe that was the entire group.

Pharr, Texas, USA: On a table sit bundles of marijuana that were hidden in a van, which is in the background.

El Paso, TX: Two officers and an agent counting a large sum of confiscated cash. This cash seizure will put a dent in the powers of the cartel or gang of smugglers. The Border Protection agents remain alert for attempts to conduct illegal smuggling.

SAN DIEGO, CA, USA: Border patrol agents apprehend illegal immigrants attempting to cross into this area of San Diego, California in trunks, under the dash, and in engine compartments. This San Ysidro border crossing is the busiest in the world, with over 40 million people entering the U.S. through this port in 2005 alone.

Nogales, AZ: Three CBP officers holding down and handcuffing a man. The officers believes the detainee fits the profile of a drug smuggler who walked drugs across the border and is returning to Mexico.

Pharr, Texas, USA: On a table sit bundles of marijuana that were hidden in a van, which is in the background.

El Paso, TX: A line of trucks driving through the desert.

Rio Grande Valley, Texas, USA: Supervisory Border Patrol Agent David Maibaum holding a shovel as he searches the area for hidden underground bunkers that may have drugs stashed in them.

NOGALES, AZ : A woman gets her fingerprints taken after she was caught crossing the U.S. border with Mexico illegally, at the U.S. Border Patrol processing center June 21, 2006 in Nogales, Arizona.