What Would You Do in Their Shoes? A DEA Agent’s Raw Look at the Human Side of the Border
Podcasts > Border Static
Saturday, June 20, 2026
In this episode of Border Static, former DEA Special Agent Sal Martinez asks you to do something most people won’t: block out your own life for a few minutes and truly imagine what it feels like to have nothing.
No running water. No electricity. No job. No hope. Just a cardboard box or tin shack, constant hunger, and the daily humiliation of begging for work that never comes. Sal walks you through the brutal decision to leave everything behind, the dangers of the journey north, the coyotes, the river crossings, and the constant fear of being caught once you finally make it to the other side.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about people.
Sal shares what he actually saw on the ground in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso — the difference between human smuggling and human trafficking, why walls and more agents alone will never stop determined migrants, and how mass deportations are already affecting American farms, restaurants, and factories. He also opens up about personal moments most agents never talk about, including the time Border Patrol agents stopped him as a teenager in El Paso and accused him of being undocumented.
The episode closes with a challenge: Can we raise our emotional intelligence enough to see the human being before we see the label?
If you’ve only heard one side of the immigration conversation, this one will make you stop and think.
Border Static airs Saturdays at 2:30 PM Central on 930 AM The Answer. New episodes drop on YouTube right after the broadcast.
Sal’s memoir, NARC: Convictions of an Undercover Agent, is available now on Amazon.
Related Episodes
Undercover DEA Buy-Bust in 1990s Juarez: Inside a Real Heroin Deal
Saturday, June 20
