By: LA Times Editorial Board Over the past three years, the Obama administration has struggled to change a culture of violence and impunity within the U.S. Border Patrol — a culture that has tolerated excessive force against suspected border crossers, including unnecessary lethal shootings. To its credit, the government has forced some improvements in both transparency and accountability, as well as reductions in the use of force, under Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, though the agency continues to face dogged problems with bribery and other underhanded actions by some of the agents. Continue reading

By Vicki B. Gaubeca, Director of the ACLU of New Mexico’s Regional Center for Border Rights Next week, retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, will go before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for his confirmation hearing. If confirmed, Gen. Kelly will inherit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): the largest federal law enforcement agency and infamous for its abusive and lawless practices. One question before committee members then is whether Gen. Kelly will check the agency’s worst practices or only make them worse. Continue reading

Campaign enlists public’s help fighting officials on the take By Kristian Hernandez This year at least a half dozen government agencies in the Rio Grande Valley were allegedly compromised by criminal organizations, but a new campaign aims to enlist the public’s help to end corruption across the border. Continue reading

Dear President Obama, In your remaining days in office, you have the ability to overcome some of your administration’s checkered immigration record.   You have a choice — you can hand over the largest immigration enforcement regime in history to an incoming administration that has promised mass deportations and human rights violations; or you can begin to dismantle some of the detention and deportation machinery and protect the human rights of migrants and their families. Continue reading

By Andrew Becker The head of internal affairs for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, has resigned, according to an email obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Continue reading

By Erika Cervantes People who cross the U.S.- Mexico border to shop in San Ysidro or visit family in the area say they’re living in fear. They say it’s because of President-Elect Donald Trump and his promise to crack down on immigration. Continue reading

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. Noe Lopez needed a favor. Continue reading

By Associated Press The U.S. Border Patrol says one of its agents shot a man who had gotten control of the officer's collapsible steel baton during a physical struggle in southeastern Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico border. Continue reading

By Rory Carrol The US Border Patrol agency has engineered the death and disappearance of tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants by using the desert wilderness as a “weapon”, according to an advocacy group. Continue reading