She fled Iraq now she's training to be a U.S. Border Patrol agent

At a training facility in the middle of a desert in New Mexico, aspiring border patrol agent Stevany Shakare sprinted laps in 103-degree Fahrenheit weather as her instructors shouted at her to run faster. Shakare, a 23-year-old from Iraq, is one of three women in a class of 20 at the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, New Mexico.

They are powering through an intensive 112-day training program, in which agents must master firearms, high-speed, off-road vehicle chases, immigration law, conversational Spanish and gruelling physical tests. They are preparing to track, apprehend and arrest immigrants and drug traffickers attempting to enter the United States illegally.

"I am obviously very short and tiny," said the petite Shakare, surrounded by men who appeared twice her size. "But I'm trying and giving it my all - that's all that matters." In 2004, at the age of 10, she fled her home after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Her family settled in Michigan where she graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in criminal justice.

"Had I stayed in Iraq, I probably wouldn't have ended up to where I am today," said Shakare, who said she learned English watching "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," on television. "Probably wouldn't have gone to college, wouldn't have gotten a degree. I feel like I owe my life to this country," she said.

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