It is the federal agents who are the violent criminals.

Seven years ago, I publicly called for my former colleagues at the US Border Patrol to refuse illegal orders and stop separating children because that is what Nazis did in World War II. Six years ago, I wrote an article entitled “Open letter from an ex Border Patrol agent.” It is no longer available online, but essentially I reminded them of their oaths to the Constitution and that the cruelty they were demonstrating by cramming migrants into outdoor camps was, well Nazi-ish. Three years ago, I ended my memoir about my time in the agency and how we as a nation were heading to this place of fascism. I wrote that my former agency could not be trusted to protect the US public because of its constant lies, coverups and corruption. This year, I told The Border Chronicles’ Melissa del Bosque that the Border Patrol (including ICE and CBP) are going to become Trump’s secret police.

And here we are; full fascism.

As critical as I have been about my former agency, it may seem difficult to believe that I have often held my tongue. This is because I know many agents who I consider to be like myself, good people with good intentions in a corrupt system. I believed we were trying to protect our country from the actual criminals and dangerous drugs that I know from experience do cross our borders. I can recall that it took me several years to understand that the racism, rape culture and corruption were part of the system and that the agency had created illegal cover up teams to protect agents who committed crimes. It took me years to accept that I had joined an organization that was created by Confederate losers and eugenicists.

It took me a decade and a half and a nearly successful suicide attempt to face my own prejudices, to admit that I had hunted human beings like animals, pushing them further and further into the mountains endangering their lives for something that was all a bunch of lies. The biggest lie was that there were plenty of legal avenues with which to enter the country legally. Although there were more legal ways when I was an agent than today, most were not coming for asylum. They needed work and there were not enough permits issued.

We told you all that there were plenty of legal ways, that our deterrence policies were not intentionally killing them, that we were not sexually assaulting the women and children, that they were all criminals, that they did not care about their children, that we were not targeting Muslims, or asylum seeking families, or taking their kids, or starving them with rotten food, or sexually assaulting the unaccompanied kids, or allowing children to die from neglect in our custody, or keeping them out doors in dangerous camps for no reason, or that we spent money designated for migrant care on our toys.

But we were lying. Here is the truth.

There were few legal ways even back then, deterrence policies have intentionally killed over an estimated 50,000 human beings including agents and innocent citizens. Agents were always sexually assaulting the women and kids. The system is rampant with child abuse. We did target Muslims and asylum seeking families. We were taking asylum seeking children from their parents long before we told you. We have been starving them with rotten food and little water. We were sexually assaulting unaccompanied kids, and neglecting them to death in our custody. We did force asylum seeking families to stay in dangerous outdoor camps. We did spend money meant for migrants on ATVs and other toys.

We always lie. Why? Because no one holds us responsible. Our oversight agencies (internal affairs) are controlled by our own agents. Even though I helped get the illegal and secret coverup teams exposed, the Biden administration moved the teams into CBP legalizing them and covering up their cover ups. The former chief and all the other chiefs were found to have corrupt ties and accepted gifts from a wealthy Mexican tequila maker, and nothing happened.

The US Border Patrol has killed thousands of people, and I cannot find one agent who has ever been held accountable in over 101 years of existence. Off duty agents, yes. Never an on duty agent.

Federal law enforcement allows its agents to act as recruiters, hiring officials, training staff and they decide who gets fired. They have been self-selecting for decades. This means they self-select people aligned with their ideology. This is why the federal agencies have been taken over by fascists. And yes, you can be a person of color and a fascist.

The US Border Patrol is divided into two timelines: Old Patrol and New Patrol or prior to 9/11 and after 9/11. While the agency was always rooted in white supremacy, rape culture and corruption, the Old Patrol still had a few good agents in it. Without the internet back then, unless you had experience with the agency, you did not know it was so unethical and immoral. The level of brutality could not reach the level it is now because we did not have much funding.

Today’s agents in the New Patrol have been raised in this hyper vigilant border militarization. They have been spoon fed propaganda and given all the toys and resources they could want. It takes little time now to understand what you are doing, simply because most new hires are straight out of high school and have little lived experience. From their academy training, today’s Border Patrol agents are aware that due process is afforded to undocumented migrants and that they are violating the Constitution when they do expedited removals without a court. They know that they are violating people’s rights by cramming them into cells, hiding the sexual assaults, starving them, neglecting them. Federal agents know it is a constitutional violation to target people because of their faith. They know it is immoral, unethical and illegal to cover up crimes, to hold people in outdoor camps, to kidnap them off the streets with no due process.

They know, but they do not care because the people who order them to commit these crimes are paying them over $50,000 to attend the academies and they can make over $100,000 in just 3 years. Additionally, they are well aware that no one will hold them accountable. They also know that they have no skills outside of being thugs. They are stuck. So, thugs they will be.

The federal agents I see today are escalating the violence for civil immigration crimes in order to push American citizens into violence. It’s not for the migrants. They are already scared. It is for us. This will be used to justify martial law. Then these same agents will turn on citizens and begin rounding them up. This is no different than the disappearances of civilians under Pinochet in Chile. And while the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice claim to prevent terrorism and rant about freedom and national security, it is they who are terrorizing our neighborhoods.

I am no longer proud of wearing that uniform. I am completely ashamed, and have no empathy for these men and women. The US Border Patrol and the other federal agents assisting them must all be held accountable in a court of law for following illegal and unconstitutional orders. All management giving the orders must be held to account as well. Agents who do not wish to be a part of this must stand up and speak out. We must demand this accountability every single day until we get it.

To my fellow agents, you are not heroes. If you were, you would be going after actual violent criminals and not people whose only crime was a misdemeanor 20 years ago. You wouldn’t be hanging out in courts and outside schools like the predators you are. You are dressed for war over what is the criminal equivalent of a jaywalking ticket. Every single one of you who has processed a migrant knows they commit less violent crimes than your fellow agents who are getting away with all sorts of lurid acts which you all gladly show up to support in uniform. You have sent innocent people to torture concentration camps. You will all be remembered for this betrayal of the Constitution and US law. May your families bear your shame. May your grandchildren change their names.

You have become the very thing you profess to save us from…you are terrorists according to your own definition.

Today, I publicly call for the arrest of federal agents who have violated their oaths to the Constitution and broken US and international law. I denounce my service and the US Border Patrol just as I did in 2001 when I resigned in protest over the rampant corruption and unethical and immoral orders from its management. I no longer believe that borders can be nonviolent, or that these agencies should even exist. I will do everything in my power and expend my last breath fighting against their brutality.

#HonorFirstIsALie

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