From Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist: A Podcast with Jenn Budd

For six years, Jenn Budd wore the green uniform of the U.S. Border Patrol. Before joining in 1995 Budd, who grew up in Alabama, says she knew little about the agency. Her harrowing experiences of misogyny, rape, sexual harassment, and with corruption at the agency would ultimately force her to resign.But Budd says, leaving the Border Patrol was only the beginning on a long road of reckoning. Not only with her years as an agent but also with a childhood of trauma and abuse.Her new memoir: Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist, takes an unflinching look at a Border Patrol riddled with corruption, racism, and misogyny. Raw and truthful, no one escapes judgement, not even Budd, who searches deep within herself to examine her own prejudices as a White southerner, and the role she played as a Border Patrol agent. Budd’s book, which comes out in June, is also about healing from deeply inflicted traumas. After grappling with suicide, she eventually finds love and acceptance with her wife Sandy and becomes an activist for immigrant rights.In this Border Chronicle podcast, Budd talks about her journey from Border Patrol agent to one of the Border Patrol’s fiercest critics.The Border Chronicle is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Border Chronicle at www.theborderchronicle.com/subscribe