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.