Vincent Vargas has been a friend of The Havok Journal since the very beginning of our site. In addition to serving in combat with the 75th Ranger Regiment and on the home front with the U.S. Border Patrol, Vince, or “Rocco” as he is his known to many of his friends and fans, is also an actor. You might recognize him from his time as the character Gilly in the Sons of Anarchy spinoff The Mayans.
And now, Vince Vargas has added to his ever-growing resume with a new book, titled appropriately enough, Borderline.
We were excited to learn that he had a new book on the street, and we asked Rocco for a few words. Below is what he has to say. But first, a review of Borderline from former U.S. Navy SEAL, podcast host, and bestselling author, Jocko Willink. Jocko liked the book, and we expect The Havok Journal audience will too.
We take our borders for granted―but we shouldn’t. People serve and sacrifice every day, in the harshest of environments, facing dynamic situations, with little or no back up. These people are our Border Patrol―and Borderline is their story.
Jocko Willink, #1 Bestselling Author
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An open journal, from Vincent “Rocco” Vargas:
I knew what I was getting myself into when writing this book. I knew the stress it would bring
into my life once going public with such a divisive topic.
From the start, my plan was to write about my career as a Border Patrol Agent with the goal of explaining the career that I have come to respect more than ever. I have always missed the feeling of being a part of something bigger than myself. Something that felt like a duty to serve the country. Writing this book is no different. I felt it was my duty to act. It was my duty to use my voice to help my brothers and sisters in these challenging times.
As I promote this book, I find myself doing interviews and having to navigate ideologies that I might not personally agree with. I have to bob and weave my way through these discussions that result in outcomes which sometimes are not made in my favor. Writing this book doesn’t make me an immigration subject matter expert, but it does prove my extensive knowledge of the career and the process of enforcing the legal authority of the Title 8 U.S.C. 1325. This is the immigration policy for individuals entering the United States outside of a Port of Entry, better known as Illegal immigration.
In my efforts to promote my book I have found it challenging to express my intentions of
writing it because people tend to fall in line with their own personal bias and not genially read the context. For instance, it’s an easy road for any outsider to ask the surface level question: “How would you fix it?”
But answering an extremely complex and dynamic situation with a simple answer does not do the question justice. And to assume that there is this “Ahh haa!” answer that solves the issue further demonstrates how most are only interested in digesting a surface level answer. This is not a 1+1 = 2 question. This is a question of what all the ingredients are to baking a cake; a little too much of anything can ruin the whole recipe.
If you take the time to read this book you will delve into a career field that is hardly ever explained well, is underappreciated, and overtly attacked daily. You will understand the complexity of finding a balance between homeland security and immigration policy and how they both simultaneously have to be addressed. This is a nuanced book for a nuanced subject. And it is definitely worth your time to read.
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As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.
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