End the Border Patrol
This agency's culture is saturated with racism and indifference to human life. Time to tear it down and start again.
It's time to tear down the U.S. Border Patrol. And I mean tear it down entirely: Fire its staff, close its detention centers, and start over from scratch.
Why? Because new details confirm that this agency is fraught with problems. And extreme problems often require extreme solutions.
This week put the agency under an unflattering spotlight. A ProPublica investigation into a Facebook group composed of current and former Border Patrol agents revealed these people "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."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Awful. Disgusting. Reprehensible. But then things got worse.
A group of congressional Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), visited migrant detention centers in Texas and found "appalling" conditions, operated by a staff apparently hostile to congressional oversight, where migrant women "were held in cells without water and told by officers to drink out of the toilet."
"This has been horrifying so far," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We're talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals."
The agency's defenders accused Ocasio-Cortez of misconduct. Other Democrats who made the visit, however, corroborated her account:
So yeah, this is a disaster for the Border Patrol. Let's shut it down.
Even before President Trump arrived on the scene with his anti-immigrant agenda, the agency gave every sign of being a moral and ethical mess. In 2014, the former head of internal affairs for Customs and Border Protection — the Border Patrol is a subdivision of that agency — went public with accusations that Border Patrol leaders tried to change or distort facts to exonerate agents involved in more than two dozen deadly clashes since 2010. "In nearly every instance, there was an effort by Border Patrol leadership to make a case to justify the shooting versus doing a genuine, appropriate review of the information and the facts at hand," James F. Tomsheck said at the time. Nothing seems to have changed: As recently as last year, court filings in the case of an agent accused of killing a migrant revealed racist text messages between the defendant and other agents.
Despite that record, the Border Patrol's budget more than doubled from 2003 to 2015 — thanks to a post-9/11 emphasis on border security, plus efforts by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to crack down on undocumented migrants in the vain hopes they could get conservatives in Congress to meet them halfway on immigration reform. Thousands of new agents were hired — critics said many were unfit for the job — and deportations increased dramatically, but an immigration compromise never materialized.
Instead, the National Border Patrol Council — the union representing three-quarters of the Border Patrol's 21,000 agents — enthusiastically endorsed Trump for president in 2016. It had never made an endorsement before, but Trump and his nativist rhetoric proved attractive. "If we do not secure our borders, American communities will continue to suffer at the hands of gangs, cartels, and violent criminals preying on the innocent," the union said in a statement at the time. Border Patrol agents aren't just enforcing American immigration policy; they used their collective political muscle to elect a president who would give them more power and resist reining them in. They got what they wanted.
How should we rebuild and replace the Border Patrol? Very carefully. WOLA, a non-governmental agency that advocates for human rights in the Americas, has offered suggestions for revamping the nation's border security. Its agenda includes requiring border agents to wear body cameras, increasing the staff of internal affairs investigators, and adopting a new approach that makes detention a last resort. It suggests expanding a program that once used caseworkers to keep in frequent touch with asylum-seeking families. Such an approach would require rethinking immigration policy with humanitarian concerns in mind, instead of continually finding new and more troubling ways to deter migrants.
Admittedly, these would be challenging times for a well-run agency with a good, redeemable culture, regardless of Trump's efforts to blockade the border: Poverty and violence have inspired massive migration northward from parts of Latin America. "What bothers me immensely as an American is the ire that's directed toward CBP as opposed to directing it to the problem," Acting CBP Commissioner John Sanders said at a recent forum. "I spend a lot of time educating Congress about the great job the men and women of CBP are doing to uphold the laws of this country."
It's tempting to sympathize. But there has long been a growing pile of evidence that the agency's culture is saturated with racism and indifference to human life. There's no reason to believe the Border Patrol, as presently constituted, is culturally capable of handling its duties in a professional or humane fashion. This week's events should be the tipping point. It's time to dissolve the agency and start over.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Joel Mathis is a freelance writer who has spent nine years as a syndicated columnist, co-writing the RedBlueAmerica column as the liberal half of a point-counterpoint duo. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic, The Kansas City Star and Heatmap News. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.
-
Israel concedes it may not be able to destroy Hamas
Speed Read Despite five months of war in Gaza, Israeli intelligence officials admit the militant group eludes them
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The art world and motherhood: the end of a final taboo?
Talking Point Hettie Judah's new touring exhibition offers a 'riveting riposte' to old cliches
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'Musk's reliance on China draws rising scrutiny'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published