Medina gunned the engine of her green and white U.S. Border Patrol truck, drove down a dirt road, pulled over and plunged into the mesquite brush. It was 106 degrees.
She darted through spiny bushes that reached above her 5-foot-8-inch frame. A branch caught her curly brown hair, coiled in a bun. Those could be families up ahead, in which case there would be no need for the handcuffs dangling from her right hip. Or children traveling alone. They could be men smuggling drugs or inked with teardrop tattoos, meaning they had killed someone or had done time.
The chase unfolding in broad daylight by the Rio Grande has become more and more common along the busiest stretch of the U.S. border with Mexico.
The river valley became a conduit two years ago for a wave of men, women and children fleeing gang and drug violence in Central America. It has not let up since. The Border Patrol apprehended 186,855 migrants here this fiscal year, when crossings crept up after a year-long drop.
