Build the wall? A US Border Patrol agent with Mexican heritage offers his insight

As a US Border Patrol agent with Mexican heritage, Francisco Cantú got a unique insight into one of the most complex and divisive issues in American society, which he has turned into a book, he tells our reporter

Walking the line: US border Patrol agent turned author Francisco Cantú

Darragh McManus

'When I first came into the field, having finished training academy, one of the jobs was getting sent to the top of a lookout hill," Francisco Cantú says, recalling his early days with the United States Border Patrol. "There's a camera truck, and you sit and monitor the desert for people crossing. I remember getting out of my truck one day and looking out at this desert, and having the sensation that it was as vast as the sea. You know? As vast and unknowable as the ocean."

Cantú details his experiences in The Line Becomes a River, one of those rare and wonderful non-fiction books that reads like a novel: a lyrical and impressionistic style; genuine philosophical and thematic depth; the sense of some deeper meaning being conveyed, beyond the surface-level of facts and recollections. And the desert, Francisco goes on, is a "central character": not only in his memoir, but in terms of "what this border is and what it means".