The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-03-19
CLAUDE ALBURY GIVES LECTURE
TO IMMIGRATION UNIT ON DUTIES

in performing their daily tasks,
members of the immigration and
Naturalization Service here were
told this afternoon by Claude AL
bury, officer in charge.
The lecture, which was prepar-
ed by Deputy Commissioner l. F.
Wixon, with headquarters in
Washington, was one of the reg
ular weekly series covering the
problems of the service as a whole.
The Border Patrols job is to
prevent illegal entry at unguard-
ed points along the $500 miles
of international boundary on
northern and southern frontiers.
1t was pointed out that the men
of the corps apprehended 21,809
persons who had entered or were
in the act of entering the coun:
try illegally in the last fiscal
year. Eighteen members of the
organization of 1000 officers
and men have been killed in line
of duty since the patrol was es-
tablished ten years ago.
The patrol has to contend with
using airplane and high
motor boats, it was said.
AS an illustration, officers of the
patrol on the Canadian border
had been on the watch for a plane
suspected of running aliens across
the border. They came upon 1t
too late to prevent its takeoff
in time to apprehend wo aliens
who had alighted from it.
The officers waited near by
and when the plane returned
they drove for it at top speed.
The pilot headed his plane into
the wind and started his run for
he takeoff. The inspector at the
wheel of the patrol car swung
The automobile directly into the
path of the on-coming plane and
hey crashed. The inspectors got
heir men-the pilot and a third !
alien who was in the plane at the
line of its second landing.
Covers Many Things
For courage, bravery and re-
that story can be
matched by dozens of others. The
,oint which they prove is that in
esprit de corps. discipline and eff
ectiveness, the immigration BOr-
Ter Patrol does not suffer by
with the famed Royal
Northwest Mounted Police or the
pest of our state constabularies.
immigration authorities agree
hat members of the patrol COM
line the attributes of expert
or plainsmen, veteran
accomplished diplomats
md astute secret service opera
ives. They use automobiles and
motor boats and horses and pack
Inimals where motor transporta-
ion is impractical. The science
# tracking is constantly called in
% use by inspectors. Broken
'eeds on a river bank may tell
he plain story of the landing of
IN alien smuggler's boat. Auto
mobile tracks in the mud of a
onely trail may give the informa-
ion needed to make an arrest.
For the year ending June 80.
1898. this organization travelled
Y524. 7O2 miles on patrol duty.
Of this distance 382,339 miles
we're traversed on foot. That IS
, truly Gargantuan hike-equiva-
ent to something like SIS round
rims between New York and San
Francisco.
Relative To Patrol
Patrolling-even seven million
niles of it's not as significant
rs the revelation that, from June
30. 1882, to June so, 1888, in
spectors questioned 1,313,120 in
iividuals, boarded 279,SS3 freight
trains, 1902 passenger trains,
and examined the occupants of
l26.41S buses and 4S,202 auto
and the passengers on
l0,446 boats.
OF the 1850 persons appre-
hended more than 700 were turn
ed over to government agencies
other than the immigration Serv-
ice-ineluding customs service,
the prohibition and narcotic en-
forcement agencies. and the De-
partment of Justice. The group
not only viOlators Of
federal laws but many wanted by
state and municipal officials on
great variety of criminal charges.
Alien smugglers have used con-
veyances from covered wagons.
row boats and freight cars to air
planes. Two cases. taken from
the records of the department,
will serve 10 illustrate the meth
DDS now in vogue and the desper-
ate character of the criminals en-
gagged in the traffic.
Overtake Smuggler
Three officers Of the Border
Patrol overlook a smuggler's car
and a they alighted one was kill
pd and another wounded by the