Quis custodiet
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.
In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If he dies, he dies.”
It’s inevitable, I suppose. People with humane generous instincts wouldn’t go into that line of work. I think that’s more the case than it is with for instance the police. Hopeful immigrants aren’t doing anything inherently wrong, so wanting to be in the Border Patrol probably has little to do with a taste for justice or the public good. But the attitudes coming from the top also make a difference, I should think.
“These comments and memes are extremely troubling,” said Daniel Martinez, a sociologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who studies the border. “They’re clearly xenophobic and sexist.”
The postings, in his view, reflect what “seems to be a pervasive culture of cruelty aimed at immigrants within CBP. This isn’t just a few rogue agents or ‘bad apples.’”
Definitely the kind of thing you want to see from people who have power over others.
“These comments and memes are extremely troubling,” said Daniel Martinez, a sociologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson who studies the border. “They’re clearly xenophobic and sexist.”
The postings, in his view, reflect what “seems to be a pervasive culture of cruelty aimed at immigrants within CBP. This isn’t just a few rogue agents or ‘bad apples.’”
The Border Patrol Facebook group is the most recent example of some law enforcement personnel behaving badly in public and private digital spaces. An investigation by Reveal uncovered hundreds of active-duty and retired law enforcement officers who moved in extremist Facebook circles, including white supremacist and anti-government groups. A team of researchers calling themselves the Plain View Projectrecently released a hefty database of offensive Facebook posts made by current and ex-law enforcement officers.
And in early 2018, federal investigators found a raft of disturbing and racist text messages sent by Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona after searching the phone of Matthew Bowen, an agent charged with running down a Guatemalan migrant with a Ford F-150 pickup truck. The texts, which were revealed in a court filing in federal court in Tucson, described migrants as “guats,” “wild ass shitbags,” “beaners” and “subhuman.” The messages included repeated discussions about burning the migrants up.
Several of the postings reviewed by ProPublica refer to the planned visit by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Veronica Escobar, to a troubled Border Patrol facility outside of El Paso. Agents at the compound in Clint, Texas, have been accused of holding children in neglectful, inhumane conditions.
Hurr hurr, a burrito, get it?
The head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Joaquin Castro, reviewed the Facebook discussions and was incensed. “It confirms some of the worst criticisms of Customs and Border Protection,” said Castro, a Democrat who represents San Antonio. “These are clearly agents who are desensitized to the point of being dangerous to migrants and their co-workers.” He added that the agents who made the vulgar comments “don’t deserve to wear any uniform representing the United States of America.”
Next up: Trump will invite them all to sit with him at his July 4 Nazi Rally.
Updating to add: AOC points out that the membership of this group is nearly half of the total. Damn. I hadn’t realized that.
There are 20,000 TOTAL Customs & Border Patrol agents in the US.
9,500 – almost HALF that number – are in a racist & sexually violent secret CBP Facebook group.
They’re threatening violence on members of Congress. How do you think they’re treating caged children+families? https://t.co/AfDB50cgHQ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
Anyone want to mock Hillary’s “Basket of deplorables” comment? No one? I thought not.
A side note – “I have never seen floaters like this” – implying they have seen “floaters.” And since that means there are in fact “floaters,” why would “the dems and liberal parties” need to doctor a photo to make a point? I can’t imagine that the public outcry would be less if the bodies were more covered in dirt.
Having just taking a required harassment training course, I am aghast that so many of these agents are clearly violating the terms of their employment. It’s likely that those who would otherwise tell their supervisors about such blatant bigotry are keeping quiet because it’s so pervasive.
This is horrific. Are we helpless to stop this?
Cry? Vomit? Stay in room with curtains drawn?
Tell their supervisors? Surely you don’t believe the highers-up don’t know about this.
It wouldn’t be at all surprising that some supervisors would know about and even participate in the secret FB group, and that it would be risky to tell them anything, let alone file an official complaint. The fear of reprisals is real too. An investigation must be done, although you can be sure Trump and the Republican Party will do all they can to block it.
One thing I had thought could be done is establish groups to recruit compassionate, good people to be police and Border Patrol agents… The problem is that the Border Patrol especially is a really, really shitty job with the only real perk being power over people (if that’s what you’re into).
Who’s going to want to do it over a better paying job?
Huh.
I was assured by Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss and Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Chait and many others, that political correctness had gotten so out of hand that people were terrified to say anything any more. And yet now I find that public employees are posting racist comments on social media under their own names?
Hmm. It’s almost as if Oberlin College is not representative of society at large.
Yeah, I’ll mock it. When you’re trying to win an election, you don’t slap an insulting label on a big chunk of the electorate, even if they deserve it. You turn off people who might have voted for you and fire up people to vote against you. The latter was especially evident with people embracing the “deplorable” label and gloating that the deplorables had gotten their revenge when Trump got elected. With the election as close as it was, she might very well have won if she hadn’t said that, and we might not be having this conversation about the corrupt CPB. It as incredibly bad politics.
Maybe this agency is rotten to the core. I’m a little skeptical of half of them being in this Facebook group though. It’s open to current and former members, and who knows if they actually verify anything. It could mostly be a bunch of random deplorables (I’m not running for office, so I can say it) from 4chan or whatever.
Regardless, something needs to be done ASAP. This is a disgrace.
Oh Skeletor Skeletor Skeletor. Who but you would take it so literally. None of us here is running for president, so we don’t need advice on what not to do if running for president. It’s not an important or interesting or relevant or meaningful subject, plus it’s three stinking years old. Let it lie, willya.
Also, it was the truth. Truth matters.
It’s almost like someone should write a book about that. Or a sequel…
Just think, that was before all the “you may not say this man is a man” buffoonery.
I’d almost forgotten about The Before Times, O.
Looooooong time gone.
“Deplorable” is about the mildest thing that could be said about people who are in favor of violence, mocking, cruelty, racism, authoritarianism, dishonesty, cheating, corruption, vengeance, destruction, annihilation, stupidity, etc., etc., etc.
@Ophelia Benson #11,
What are the odds that the 2020 Democratic nominee will call out gender-critical feminists as transphobic?
Dude, I’ve tried those. They don’t help.
No.