Cochise County, AZ
31.371331, -109.210230
Hedglen Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Dugan Meyer, May 2024
31.371331, -109.210230
Hedglen Forward Operating Base (FOB)
Dugan Meyer, May 2024
Popular understandings of U.S. border policing, and of policing more generally, imagine a set of domestic institutions that have become increasingly “militarized” over the last few decades. While this framework may help to focus critical attention on very real trends toward the adoption by police agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol of weapons, technologies, and tactics developed in military contexts, it also limits our understanding of both police and the military in important ways. Perhaps most significantly, it can leave us with the impression that there was once a point in time when (border) police was distinct from the military, rather than framing a long history of interaction and mutual influence between these two realms—what Schrader (2022) calls the “police-military continuum”.
Pictured here is one of many examples of tactical infrastructure developed in a military context and deployed by the Border Patrol within the United States: Hedglen Forward Operating Base (FOB) in remote southeastern Arizona. FOBs are military installations established in strategically or tactically important locations that may be slow or difficult to reach from main operating bases (i.e., Border Patrol stations, in this case). In this context, they enable Border Patrol agents to mobilize more quickly in response to intelligence such as surveillance tower footage. The Border Patrol does not publicly share the locations or names of most FOBs or the smaller, temporary tactical camps it establishes; however, some, like this one, are identifiable in publicly accessible (though sometimes redacted) environmental impact assessments or the occasional news article. According to the most recent reliable documentation I am aware of, as of 2017 the Border Patrol was operating 12 permanent FOBs and 5 tactical camps spread among its southwest border sectors, with an additional 4 FOBs along the border with Canada.
Hedglen Forward Operating Base (FOB), May 2024
Satellite image of Hedglen Forward Operating Base (FOB); Google Earth, Nov 2023
Proposed layout of the Hedglen FOB facility, from a 2012 environmental assessment [CBP 2012, section 2.3]
U.S. Border Patrol agent patrolling near Hedglen FOB; Approximate coordinates: 31.373096, -109.141235; May 2024
Hedglen FOB in relation to the U.S. Border Patrol Douglas Station's area of responsibility (AOR) patrol zones, as of 2012; [CBP 2012, section 1.2]
An Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) system near Hedglen FOB; Coordinates: 31.34302002, -109.1229485; May 2024
A communications relay tower near Hedglen FOB; Coordinates: 31.355204, -109.126105; May 2024