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Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Monday, September 9th, 2024. This is the

Exert. Today we hear about a long time Border Patrol agent who shifted to migrant aid.

Plus new developments this weekend in the aftermath of the Georgia shooting.

And could Geoengineering help fix climate change.

After decades working as a Border Patrol agent, one man has a new role,

migrant aid.

I spoke with USA Today National Immigration reporter Lauren

Viegran for more.

Lauren, thanks for wrapping on today.

Hey Taylor, thanks for having me.

So Lauren, would you just start by telling us about Michael de Bruell and his career as a Border Patrol agent?

Yeah, Michael de Bruell was a Border Patrol agent and sector chief in a 26year career with the agency. He started as a Border Patrol agent back in 1989,

patrolling the Rio Grande in Texas, and his career took him all over to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to Washington, D.C. and back to Texas.

Yeah, so how and why did he then shift to working in migrant aid after he retired?

Yeah, it's such an interesting story. I met Michael a couple of years ago during an intense

wave of migration at the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, where he had taken over

a migrant shelter at a Catholic church in downtown.

And when I went to visit the refuge to speak with migrants, I learned that he had previously been a border agent.

And you know, in a place like El Paso where folks are born and raised on the border. Things often aren't black and white and people's lives intersect in extraordinary ways.

But Michael had told me that after he retired in 2014, he became a Homeland Security investigator.

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