What Is the Border Patrol?

The US Border Patrol is part of the larger Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division within the Department of Homeland Security. It serves as the law enforcement arm of the CBP, detecting and capturing people conducting illegal activities along the US borders -- primarily the Mexican and Canadian borders and the Florida and Puerto Rico coastlines.

The Border Patrol and its parent organization, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have a variety of tools and techniques at their disposal that they use to guard the country's borders against smugglers, terrorists and undocumented aliens:

1. The Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators

Everyone has heard the story of Lincoln's assassination by the actor John Wilkes Booth, but the ensuing manhunt and trial of the conspirators (held before a secret military commission) is conspicuously absent from the history books. Lincoln's assassination was not the product of a single deranged individual, but the act of a complex web of conspirators, leading back to the heads of the Confederate party and mysterious confederate terrorists based out of Canada, who among other deeds, attempted to defeat the Union with biological warfare.

CSI: TV

Eight years ago, CBS debuted a new kind of crime drama, called CSI. The original show followed crime scene investigators in Las Vegas as they used fingerprints and DNA to help the police solve grisly murders and other crimes.

Interested in getting a criminal justice degree but not sure if it's right for you? A career in criminal justice can be among the honorable in the world, but it may not be for everyone.