Synonyms

Synonyms
 

I’m looking for another way to express the sentence below in Spanish, using different words:
‘Si son capturados por la patrulla fronteriza estadounidense,..’

My attempt:
‘En caso de que se cojan por la pollcía americana que trabaja en la frontera…’


The sentence has been taken from the paragraph below:
“Los menores viajan por semanas desde El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras, con la pobreza y violencia como sus banderas de escape. Si son capturados por la patrulla fronteriza estadounidense, son procesados al interior del país y luego pasan a manos de la Oficina de Reasentamiento de Refugiados del Departamento de Salud.”

Is my attempt correct? Is there another way this sentence can be re-written in Spanish?

Many thanks in advance.

"Que se cojan por" is not correct; you would need a passive voice construction with a past participle instead of a conjugated verb. You can also change to active voice by saying "que los coja la patrulla fronteriza".
Also, keep in mind that Latin Americans don't use the verb "coger" the same way as Spaniards do. The verb "agarrar" is the verb we prefer here.

By the way, "la policía americana/estadounidense" is fine, but the there's a specific authority doing this, so "patrulla fronteriza" is better.


Some alternative constructions:

- En caso de que los atrape/detenga/aprehenda/arreste...
- Si son atrapados/detenidos/aprehendidos/arrestados por...
- Cuando los atrapa/detiene/aprehende/arresta la patrulla...

Thank you so much, AngelicaDeAlquezar.