Three men meander along a tall metal fence.  It’s mid-day and the desert is hot and unwelcoming. One of the men dares to challenge what lies on the other side until he sees the white truck marked with a green logo that reads:  U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

The truck forges its way through the sandy trails, speeding through ditches and dry washes. Officer Mike Scioli bolts out of the vehicle and the men quickly disappear behind a bunch of thirsty palo verde.

This is a typical Wednesday for a Border Patrol officer.

Agents face multiple challenges daily ranging from catching smugglers to rescuing lost border-crossers in the desert.

“We wear three hats in this job,” said Scioli, Border Patrol agent and public affairs officer for the Tucson Sector. “We are an enforcer, rescuer and humanitarian.”

Illegal immigrants who cross the border by foot are usually walking for days without enough food and water. Many times the coyote, or smuggler guiding them, is the one to blame, Scioli said

“The smugglers will lie and tell them not to bring much water because it will slow them down,” Scioli said. “One study said that for every hour you’re out there (in the desert), you need one gallon of water.”

It’s a business for the smuggler and it’s all about getting the money. After that, they don’t really care what happens to the people trying to cross, he said.

“National Geographic named the Sonoran Desert one of the deadliest deserts in the world,” Scioli said. “It’s not about sprained ankles or snake bites. It’s about life or death.”

Last year, agents with the Tucson Sector rescued 573 people. This year, they have rescued approximately 450 people.

These rescues are a result of smugglers abandoning crossers once they’ve received their money.  Many times it is because they are slowing down the entire group, Scioli said.

Smuggling is a lucrative business. Smugglers can earn thousands of dollars trying to get people across the border. It costs $1,000 to $1,500 for one person to cross the border with a smuggler, Scioli said.

Smuggling illegal immigrants is more lucrative for smugglers than smuggling drugs, Scioli added.

The Tucson Sector is the busiest sector in the nation for drug seizures with an average of 2,600 pounds of marijuana seized a day, a 6 percent decrease from last year.

The Drug Enforcement Agency said 1.2 million pounds of marijuana was seized last year, with 900,000 pounds of that from the Tucson Sector.

Drug smugglers also use “mules” to transport drugs across the border.

Mules are drug runners who walk through the desert carrying up to 40 to 50 pound packs of marijuana per trip.

“Walking two days from Nogales, without a smuggler, you are dead in the water,” Scioli said, as he looks out the window to find a small man walking alongside the road in tall, dead buffalo grass.

Scioli whips around the vehicle and turns on his siren, pulling into a median between the north and south bound lanes of I-19.

Scioli questions the man in Spanish, who casually tries to tell the officer he grew up in Nogales. The man is relaxed while he answers the questions, as if he has gone through this process more than a dozen times. Finally, he admits he’s not an American citizen.

The man is placed behind the holding carrier in the back of the vehicle. He explains that he walked around the port of entry in Nogales, walked about three days in the desert, and was finally turning around to go back to Mexico.

Scioli explains the concept of mules, and that this man probably just came over to drop off drugs to a stash house.  After he passes off the man to another officer at the checkpoint, he notices the man has gang tattoos branded across his chest and back.

“He had MS-13 all over his chest and stomach,” Scioli said. “That group has no respect for law enforcement, and are known for narcotic and human smuggling.”

The gang, MS-13, originated in South America, and began as a group of rebels using military tactics, and extreme violence.

Though the man may have acted harmless, officers use precaution at all times.

Fifteen percent of illegal immigrants have criminal records in the IAFIS system, and there have already been 246 assaults this year on officers in the Tucson Sector, Scioli said.

The Tucson sector, including Cochise County, has always been busy.

“Tombstone gets their fair share of action,” Scioli said. “Smugglers use the same trail, until we close them off. Now they’re using vehicle traffic, and Checkpoint 80 is breaking that smuggling trend.”

The checkpoint on the outskirts of Tombstone recently caught an RV full of illegal immigrants and busted a vehicle carrying 4,000 pounds of marijuana, Scioli said.

While some people have different opinions on whether they agree with the Border Patrol’s tactics, the Tucson Sector has seen more positive reactions from the public lately, said Scioli.

“People used to throw eggs at our vehicles,” Scioli said. “Once we merged with customs in 2003, that’s when the media came in and people started to understand what we really do. I say it all the time: why make an enemy when you can make a friend?”