Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-351) and index.

"Patrolling Chaos is based on extensive ethnographic field work focusing on one station of three hundred agents over a two-year period. It follows twelve typical agents, men and women, as they go about their regular ten-hour patrols along the border. It describes the daily challenges and risks they face and the perspectives and insights they hold as a result of their extensive, first-hand experience with the hard realities of immigration policy, the war on drugs, and the threat of terrorist infiltration." "Robert Lee Maril spend two years observing the surveillance and apprehension of thousands of undocumented workers and drug interdictions involving huge quantities of marijuana and cocaine - as well as the deaths of illegal immigrants, corruption among law enforcers, and other events that shaped the work lives of agents. The book also describes the impact of the 9/11 attacks on border security and on the personal lives of the agents and their families."

"This rarely documented view of the world of agents of the U.S. Border Patrol will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of our border with Mexico, the people and the resources of the borderlands, the constant flow of illegal immigrants and drugs, and new challenges confronting the enforcement of laws and policy in light of international terrorism."--Jacket.

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