Haiyan Hernandez, 24, in his office in the U.S.-Mexico border town of Nogales, Ariz. (Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)

His job will be just one of many challenges he’ll endure before he starts the U.S. Coast Guard cadet program.

Hernandez is one of 11 Border Patrol agents who entered the academy in June amid turmoil and scrutiny over their role in a botched gun-smuggling operation.

The agents had been tasked with stopping drugs that entered the United States as immigrants fleeing violence in Mexico, and many expressed anger after the operation, which also resulted in the murder of two agents.

In July, the agents filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, saying they were unfairly targeted for retaliation after they sued the government for the wrongful firing.

In September, the court ruled the Border Patrol was justified in firing the officers because it found them responsible for the July 19 death of one agent, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, by a machine gun fired after a shootout with Mexican Border Patrol agents during a routine search.

“The actions that led to the wrongful termination of the agents were the result of the policies, attitudes and instructions from above regarding the handling of illegal aliens,” a federal judge wrote in the July 21 ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Tucson.

The suit’s leaders, the agents and other agents in the U.S.-Mexico border region — a group that included Hernandez — appealed the decision to a three-judge panel that included conservative Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of U.S. District Court.

In a scathing decision released Oct. 2, the appeals court said several of the officers were unjustifiably fired and cited two instances of misconduct that violated federal immigration and criminal laws.

“It is sad to see that one member of a group of individuals whose primary focus is enforcing the law has been singled out by the (government) for unlawful and unwarranted actions that jeopardized the security of both the public and my unit,” Lt. Ronald Bivens, who led the unit before his dismissal in July, said in a Sept. 25, 2011, email.

“I will never forget what happened to my unit after I was fired because of my refusal to participate in illegal immigration enforcement,” he added. “I will live my life with the knowledge that it