Border Patrol is taking the powers they want.

I can still vividly recall my former coworkers sitting in my living room. It had been months since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I had resigned the US Border Patrol months earlier no longer able to pretend that the agency was all about their motto of Honor First. The threats against my life for whistleblowing, the bullets from an assault rifle that landed outside my Border Patrol truck driver’s door made me finally see the light. 

“Now that we have authorities to guard against terrorism, we can do anything we want. We can chase load vehicles and ram them. If they die or get injured, we just say it was national security. You should come back,” they said.

I took along drag off the marijuana joint Javie had brought from a seizure he made at the Interstate 8 checkpoint I used to work with him. It was the first time I’d smoked weed since I was a teenager. I thought about their comments as we got high off the dope someone went to prison for. Two other agents stood in front of us, practicing their pistol draws. They were two feet apart, facing each other, Beretta .40s fully loaded with one in the chamber, no safety. Three, two, one. They pulled and drew down on each other. Javie and I laughed. 

These agents never really knew me at all, and I was certain I’d made the right choice.

On September 1, 2025, I re-published an article I’d written in 2021: Border Patrol’s dream of becoming a national police force is becoming a reality. This article was originally published on a migrant rights NGO website, but had been deleted when I called out the NGO for working with Border Patrol and CBP. 

On October 30, 2025, I published this article: Border Patrol achieves its goal of becoming THE national police force. This article pointed out that Border Patrol management had replaced CBP’s management. I commented on how this is an offense to CBP officers as Border Patrol is considered to be the lowest and worst of the federal services. In the 1990s, we were known as the “butthole of the federal service” because the US Border Patrol is the most corrupt and thuggish of all the federal law enforcement agencies. We are the muscle: the ones you call in to do the dirty work, to cover it up and never say a word. The two most corrupt chiefs, and that is saying a lot because you cannot become a chief without engaging in corruption and coverups, are now in charge of CBP. Please see the October 30th article for specifics on why former Border Patrol chiefs Rodney Scott and John Modlin are so dangerous as CBP commissioners.

Then came the announcement that other Border Patrol chiefs would be taking over ICE districts because Trump and Stephen Miller felt there wasn’t enough violence in the mass deportations. Again, this is an offense to those serving in ICE as they look down on the Border Patrol. Honestly, it’s a stretch to parse the three immigration enforcement agencies when they all engage in coverups, have secret coverup teams, rape cultures, brutality that intentionally causes deaths of those in their custody and zero accountability, but it is still a valid point.

The US Border Patrol wins the corruption and brutality trophy hands down. The latest gambit by Border Patrol shows why. According to the Associated Press, 

The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, The Associated Press has found.

The majority of people driving on US roads are Americans. This means the US Border Patrol has crossed over into monitoring the actions of American citizens. This is a problem because the Border Patrol only has the legal authority to police immigration, narcotics, goods coming across the border without inspection and terrorism within 100 miles of any land or water border. This encompasses two-thirds of the American population, but it is still a limitation. 8 CFR 287.1 clearly states:

Only now, the Border Patrol claims they can operate anywhere in the US because of the addition of the authority to stop terrorism after 9/11. This is an assumption that must be challenged in court as it violates the 100 mile rule. This is more than mission creep. It is mission takeover. What we are seeing unfold as it happens in real time is the US Border Patrol realizing former Chief David Aguilar’s vision of becoming THE national police force. 

This article titled “The Douglas Mafia” was written by Melissa del Bosque in February of 2020. Del Bosque is an incredibly knowledgeable journalist when it comes to Border Patrol. This article lays the ground work for former Chief Aguilar’s vision of the agency becoming the federal law enforcement agency other agencies would have to go to for surveillance and intelligence. The chiefs that followed Aguilar have all become chiefs of the entire Border Patrol further carrying out this vision. This is not a coincidence.

Rodney Scott is no different. He was originally stationed in Arizona as part of this group and was groomed in the same cesspool of coverups and brutality as the Douglas Mafia. In my talks with former CBP Internal Affairs Commissioner James Tomsheck, I learned that it was Scott who helped develop the surveillance and intelligence systems. “Scott said that if there was a car bomb going off in Iraq, Border Patrol needed to know about it,” Tomsheck said to me. So, it should come to no surprise to us that when Rodney Scott took over CBP, we see this expansion to policing American citizens by the US Border Patrol come to fruition. 

As far as I can see, there has been no bill passed by Congress increasing Border Patrol’s authority to police traffic violations nor American citizens. Now, the law does state that Border Patrol can arrest people for crimes outside of their scope of authorities if they see a felony being committed in front of them, however they must be engaged in immigration enforcement at the time for this to be lawful. This means if I am working at a checkpoint, and a car drives up with a child claiming she has been kidnapped and that the driver is not her father, I could legally arrest the man and detain him for law enforcement that does have the authority to investigate such a crime. A Border Patrol agent does not have the authority to investigate this possible crime and make a full arrest, but they can detain that man for the cops who do have that authority.

And here’s the legal doctrine behind it: The US Border Patrol has 1896 authorities, meaning that they can perform “general inspections, investigation, enforcement and compliance” actions while performing their immigration duties. While Border Patrol agents can make arrests outside of their immigration and border enforcement duties if they see a felony occurring in front of them, they do not have the authority to investigate such crimes. US law under 8 USC 1357, which spells out their authority, clearly states this. 8 USC 1357 §(a)(5)(B) further states that these arrest powers only exist if the agents are performing their immigration duties at the time of encountering a felony outside of their authority such as an assault or murder. 

What does this camera surveillance program run by the Border Patrol mean in real life application? We can already see from this video on YouTube:

The US Border Patrol is actively engaging in the surveillance and policing of American citizens with zero probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Simply driving to the border and returning, something they call a fast turn around, is enough to get you pulled over by local and state police who are being fed vague and questionable “intelligence” by the US Border Patrol. 

This American citizen went to the border for business and was targeted by the US Border Patrol for “suspicious activity.” He was targeted, stopped, detained, had a K9 run over his car, had his belongings tossed and gone through by Texas police on the suspicions of Border Patrol. They found nothing. Nothing.

Please note that the officer stated his K9 hit on the man’s car, and yet no drugs were found. Now, the K9 officer will undoubtably claim that there were probably drugs in there before, but that is not provable and an assumption. The fact is the dog hit and there were no drugs, but cops then used this false hit to justify ransacking his truck. Note how the officers were discussing if the stop was legal or not and how they believed they were legally covered.

The surveillance camera system could have been rolled out by the FBI or ICE who have legal authority to work throughout the country. The fact that the Border Patrol is the one doing it means they are flexing and overtaking all federal law enforcement agencies. As former Chief David Aguilar and Rodney Scott wanted, all other agencies will now have to go to the US Border Patrol for intelligence and surveillance. This is an enormous amount of power especially for an agency that is awash in corruption, brutality and zero accountability.

The US Border Patrol has become our version of Russia’s FSB or state security police, and Rodney Scott is leading the charge. This is why I have been raising the alarm and will continue to do so about my former agency since 2016. 

Honor First is a lie.