At the Ready: the Latino teens training to be border patrol agents

In a complex, eye-opening new documentary, El Paso high schoolers hold complicated reasons for wanting to become part of a divisive institution

The US border with Mexico is a region unto itself, with its own culture, rules and politics. If that wasn't clear before the 2020 presidential election, then it became so when Donald Trump, riding on a wave of Latino support, became the first Republican to win Texas's border-hugging Zapata county in 100 years, despite getting trounced 58% to 41% among all of Texas's Latinos. All of a sudden, Democrats were scrambling to understand how a man known for his virulent anti-immigrant, anti-Latino rhetoric and actions could appeal so strongly to this group.

This is a dynamic that film-maker Maisie Crow dives into in her fascinating and delicate documentary At the Ready, which follows the lives of high school students in El Paso as they train to become border patrol agents. We get to know Cesar, Cristina and Mason (identified by a different name throughout the movie, but who comes out as a trans man in a coda following the credits). They are all Latinos, holding complicated, often contradictory reasons for wanting to train for a career in law enforcement.