San Diego Border Patrol Sector Chief Aaron M. Heitke tweeted a photo on June 1st from his official twitter account. The photo was of Border Patrol in full tactical gear, holding weapons while standing over a community altar from a peaceful vigil in remembrance of George Floyd and other victims of police brutality in San Diego, CA. What the photo didn’t show, however was that these agents were posing for a photo-op in the aftermath of officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the peaceful crowd.  In the now-deleted tweet, Sector Chief Heitke claimed that they were protecting police from “lawless rioting & other criminal activities.” However, the photo of border patrol agents smiling with guns and military-grade equipment, standing with local police atop the remains of the all but destroyed altar paints a drastically different picture, one that falls in line with CBP’s culture of abuse and lack of accountability.  Sector Chief Heitke may have deleted his tweet, but we see CBP’s true colors — and we have the screenshots to prove it. We won’t let CBP, Border Patrol and law enforcement continue to go unchecked and not held accountable for their abuse and excessive use of force. All across the country CBP has been deployed to surveil and police peaceful protestors. CBP is the largest law enforcement agency in the country who claim unprecedented powers that they believe allow them to violate 4th amendment protections in certain circumstances. They believe they are untouchable, and their culture of accountability and cruelty must be revealed for what it is. 

By Jenn Budd The United States Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have long wanted to become a national police force. This week, they took a dangerous step closer to realizing that vision. As Acting Secretary of CBP Mark Morgan was tweeting about deploying these unaccountable agents across the country to clamp down on people protesting the killing of George Floyd, immigration agents were already deployed in the streets of Washington DC, San Diego and El Paso. This after a CBP predator drone flew over protester in Minneapolis last week. Continue reading

By Yesenia Padilla As communities across the country take to the streets to protest unjust policing practices, police brutality and the murder of George Floyd, Border Patrol agents are being deployed nationwide to clamp down on protesters.  Continue reading

By Jenn Budd, The Border Patrol has been violating our nation’s immigration and human rights laws for decades, but what is happening today is so egregious and blatantly illegal that it’s mind-boggling just to try to wrap your head around it. That’s saying a lot when you consider the massive culture of corruption at both the Border Patrol and its parent agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which have a well-documented track record of death and abuse across the southern border and beyond. Since March 20th, CBP and Border Patrol have been operating a shadow immigration system that few in the media are willing to discuss. It is a system of nothing: no asylum, no refugees, no credible fear hearings, no child sponsorships, no hearings before immigration judges, no oversight, no accountability.  Continue reading

Harmful, deadly and wasteful border wall doesn’t make us safer, but it does destroy wildlife and sacred lands, lead to horrific disappearances and deaths, and wastes billions of taxpayer dollars. Now, the current administration has used the COVID-19 pandemic to push forward on border wall construction, waving critical environmental protections while disregarding Covid-19 social distancing guidelines.  Continue reading

By Vicki B. Gaubeca Bull-dozing sacred burial sites. Destroying delicate wildlife. Siphoning billions of dollars from other programs to build dangerous and deadly border walls. President Donald Trump’s actions in the year since he declared a national emergency in a cash grab for wall funds — a state of emergency which he recently extended — seem like they’re out of dystopian novel, or the actions of a dastardly villain in a movie.  Continue reading

By Jenn Budd Former Senior Border Patrol Agent US Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost has announced her long overdue retirement from the agency. She opined that she would like all of us to stop playing politics and come together on immigration. She demands we come over to her side, the side that separates families and treats asylum seekers as criminals. The side that ignores the cries of children in Border Patrol custody who are forced to sit in their own feces for days. The side that through its intentional neglect, has resulted in more in-custody deaths for which the agency has refused to accept any responsibility.  Continue reading

By Jenn Budd Former Senior Border Patrol Agent Customs and Border Protection has extraordinary powers. Unlike other federal agencies, they assert the right to stop, interrogate and detain people without probable cause or warrants. These abusive powers have made Border Patrol agents feel justified in doing whatever it takes to make their cases in court. Whether it is falsifying dates on legal government documents or using pre-written narratives in defiance of the facts, agents have long gotten away with misleading the courts. I saw this myself as an agent, and I am seeing it still today. Continue reading

A new poll of registered voters across the four southern border states reveals a “crisis of confidence” in Trump’s border and immigration policies. The poll asked voters whether they approve or disapprove of the president’s policies, how much they trust border agents, how we should treat asylum-seekers, and whether we should provide aid to those in distress, among other things. Continue reading

By Vicki B. Gaubeca Border Patrol checkpoints — far from the actual border — that threaten the civil liberties of millions and lead to the detention of U.S. citizens.  Unconstitutional, illegal cash grabs to build massive, senseless border walls, taking money away from  schools and daycare programs for children of military, with complete disregard to the impact on wildlife, people or local communities.  Unaccountable border agents who act like a paramilitary force, and treat migrant children and families like like a threat, rather than vulnerable people seeking protection and safety. While many of these blunt-force enforcement tactics have gained notoriety under the Trump administration, all of them have their roots in Operation Gatekeeper, a program which began 25 years ago this October 1. Continue reading