Monitor: 'Border Wars' Looks At Illegal Immigration And Efforts To Stop It

FEDS AND CIVILIAN GROUPS PATROL THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER ON THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SHOW

Los Angeles Times: From both sides, the stretch of the Rio Grande that paints the border between southeast Texas and northern Mexico doesn't look that wide. To those trying to make it to the United States, either in search of opportunity or to sell illegal goods, it's a hop worth attempting, even if it takes multiple times to achieve success. To those trying to keep those crossers at bay, it's barely an obstacle at all, not even wide enough to obscure the activities of those on the other side. The docuseries "Border Wars" (National Geographic, 8 p.m. Wednesdays) focuses on the perspective of the latter group. It's "COPS" with an added dose of geopolitics: Each episode focuses on a handful of efforts undertaken by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to bring order to a porous border, not always successfully. But accidentally or not, "Border Wars" plays like advocacy work masking as law enforcement propaganda. First there is the imbalance in scale between the officers and their targets. The show highlights not only the organization required to track illegal activity, but also the depth and organization of the illegal systems themselves. In one scene, an agent tears open a trash bag filled with all the provisions a border crosser would need for a long journey, provided by the people who steer the grueling trips. It's as thought-through as any of the agent's high-tech tools.