Borderline is a 1980 American action crime drama film directed and co-written by Jerrold Freedman. Starring Charles Bronson, Ed Harris and Bruno Kirby, it is set in the San Diego–Tijuana area of the U.S.-Mexican border and follows a United States Border Patrol (USBP) Agent who poses as an illegal alien to catch a killer smuggling laborers from Mexico.

Plot

Patrol Agent in Charge Jeb Maynard (Bronson) is trying to identify the killers of a young Mexican boy and Maynard's friend, veteran USBP Senior Patrol Agent "Scooter" Jackson (Wilford Brimley). Maynard is the Agent in Charge of Otay Border Patrol Station (a fictional composite of the actual El Cajon and Brown Field stations), located in the hills east of San Diego. He is later helped by the boy's mother, Elena Morales (Karmin Murcelo) and a rookie Patrol Agent, Jimmy Fantes (Bruno Kirby). Hotchkiss (Harris) is an illegal alien smuggler, known by the aliens only as "the Marine." Hotchkiss works for a local fruit rancher, Carl Richards (Bert Remsen), a ranch he uses as a front for his alien-smuggling operation.