The town of Twin Falls is one of the largest population areas in the state, with a city population of more than 44,000 people. The Twin Falls border crossing station is unique because it is not located near the Canadian border, and is actually considered a “sub station,” which means it is responsible for interior border protection. The Twin Falls border crossing station is responsible for monitoring much of the entire state of Idaho, west of the Salmon River and is also responsible for monitoring all of the state of Utah.
Twin Falls is located in a region that is known for its agriculture jobs, which is attractive to immigrant workers- and sometimes immigrant who have entered the United States illegally. Also, because the area of Idaho is mostly rural in nature, border patrol jobs at the Twin Falls, ID border crossing station occasionally require border patrol agents to assist local and federal law enforcement for a variety of tasks (including surveillance and intelligence gathering.) The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency is also responsible for deterring terrorist activity as assigned to them by the Department of Homeland Security.
This History of the Twin Falls Station
The Twin Falls station was built in 1972. Originally, the station consisted of only two rooms, which were located in the Twin Falls County Courthouse Building. Since then, the sub station has moved to two other locations and currently resides in the Warburg Building, which is also headquarters for the regional office of the United States Geological Survey and the United States Department of the Interior, which offers interesting opportunities for collaboration between all of the federal agencies.
The Purpose of the Twin Falls Station
Interior border crossing stations like the Twin Falls sub station are meant as a second line of defense. For example, if a person is able to cross the border illegally, it is the responsibility of the Twin Falls border agents to identify these people and send them back to their country of origin. These agents have satisfied specific language and contact training requirements that allow them to effectively perform these specialized jobs. Many immigrants from Mexico travel to the region in order to find migrant farm work at potato farms and other farm hand positions. There is also a substantial amount of immigrants from Canada, but are originally from another country of origin. The border patrol jobs in this area cover a very large portion of land, and often require agents to travel long distances in order to perform alien interviews and other tasks.