For First Time Ever, A Woman Leads Local Border Patrol

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — For the first time in history, a woman is heading the U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, which encompases all of Southwest Riverside County, including Murrieta's Theodore L. Newton, Jr. and George F. Azrak Station, Orange County's San Clemente Station, as well as San Diego stations in Imperial Beach, Brown Field, Campo, El Cajon, Chula Vista and Boulevard.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday that Patricia McGurk-Daniel was tapped as the chief patrol agent in charge of the sector. She follows in the footsteps of Aaron Heitke, who was named chief patrol agent of the San Diego Sector in February 2020.

Heitke retired after 25 years of service, according to Eric C. Lavergne, special operations supervisor in the San Diego Sector's Information & Communication Division.

McGurk-Daniel's CBP career is long. She began serving in 1999 at the Nogales Border Patrol Station in the Tucson Sector. Throughout her tenure, she worked in numerous sectors along the northern and southern borders including the Tucson, El Paso, San Diego, El Centro, and Spokane sectors. She also completed assignments at the U.S. Border Patrol Academy, U.S. Border Patrol headquarters, CBP’s Office of Intelligence, and CBP’s Office of the Commissioner, according to a CBP news release.

She most recently served as the chief patrol agent of the agency's Yuma Sector.

Roles such as commander of the CBP Migration Crisis Action Team, patrol agent in charge of the Brown Field Station, deputy chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy, acting chief patrol agent of the Spokane Sector, and deputy chief patrol agent of San Diego Sector are on her resume.

McGurk-Daniel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Phoenix and is a graduate of both the CBP Leadership Institute and the Department of Homeland Security Executive Capstone Program, according to the news release.

“I am honored to serve the border patrol agents and mission support staff of the San Diego Sector who have dedicated themselves to protecting our great nation,” McGurk-Daniel said in a released statement. “San Diego Sector has one of the most complex and challenging border environments in the United States, and partnerships with local, state, federal, tribal, and foreign agencies are an integral part of securing that environment. I look forward to working with those partners to create a unified front against the transnational criminal organizations that operate in the California corridor and beyond.”

The San Diego Sector encompasses 56,831 square miles, including 931 miles of coastal border from the California border with Mexico north to Oregon, although its primary operational area of responsibility is the international boundary with Mexico and 114 coastal border miles along the Pacific Ocean.