Thoughts on Border Patrol Chief Banks' alleged sexual tourism.

I try to not be in the business of publicly responding to breaking news. Certainly not when it pertains to the rape culture of my former employer. Contrary to popular thought, I do not think every Border Patrol agent is a sexual predator. At the same time, this is just another example of how this culture does literally exist and it shows you how the system is rigged to protect predators just as the Project On Government Oversight has already discussed in detail. 

There are so many sexual abuse and misconduct cases that I have consciously stopped looking at cases prior to CBP’s creation. I do not look into ICE or CBP rape cultures simply because I know they will be more of the same as the cases I have documented in the U.S. Border Patrol. New cases must expose the coverup systems and people that protect these predators for me to spend time on them. It is simply a matter of self preservation. 

The Washington Examiner piece on Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks exposes this robust rape culture and the systems meant to protect it but not in the way many think.

I was not surprised to see that Anna Giaritelli wrote the article. She has a long history of publishing Border Patrol propaganda pieces and hanging with the bros in green. During the last administration, she was willing to publish pieces accusing the Biden administration of hating Border Patrol agents though none could provide a single memo or email validating their claims. These types of articles in which retired agents seek out reporters to spill the beans with anecdotal allegations and zero corroborating evidence often have ulterior motives.

When I see senior agents accusing other senior agents of sexual misconduct publicly and anonymously, I know as a former agent that this is about an internal power struggle and has nothing to do with their concerns over abuse of women. The six agents who have come forward to unburden their souls by telling Giaritelli this information have known about it for years. Why are they just now coming out about it? Why did they not go to the press before? Like, say when Chief Banks took office in January of 2025? I could understand not coming forward if these agents had been victims themselves. They would have rightly been traumatized and scared of retaliation. But they are not traumatized victims.

These men do not care about the victims of sexual tourism. Instead, they are male Border Patrol agents using the pain and trauma of victims of sex trafficking for their own narcissistic reasons. All of the agents complaining have kept the secrets of the agency’s rape culture. 

It is tradition and a cultural right of passage for male Border Patrol agents to be treated to a night in a Mexican brothel by their management upon completing their probationary status. At my station alone, roughly 75% of the over 300 male agents had participated in this graduation sex tourism by the time I resigned. Border Patrol instructors have been documented playing the Game of Smiles  academy graduations in which female agents are forced into sexual abuse. This podcast interviews an agent who was involved. Border Patrol Chief Tony Barker, Jr. and Deputy Chief Joel Martinez were just removed within the last three years for allegations of sexual misconduct by female agents. 

Are these agents who report to care so much about women’s rights and safety saying they did not say or know about “On her first” instead of “Honor First?” 

And speaking of the Union, President Paul Perez is doing what every past union representative and leader has done to protect the rapists and pedophiles wearing the U.S. Border Patrol badge. Paul knows better than anyone that female agents are not equally protected by the Border Patrol union. It is his union that eagerly defends agents against allegations of sexual abuse even when that victim is a dues paying agent herself. It is the union who will give expert advice and counsel to those being accused of sexual misconduct and not to those female agents who are the victims. Agents who become victims of fellow agents must get their own counsel, must navigate the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission themselves and deal with the constant retaliation that the union does nothing about. 

Sexual misconduct in the Border Patrol is ubiquitous - it is found in the academy on the very first day in the male locker rooms where male trainees are told women do not belong in the agency to the most senior chief openly engaging in sex tourism. 

I would have been more surprised had Ms. Giartelli came out with an article claiming there was no sexual misconduct found in Chief Banks’ past. I would have been astonished had CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) found the chief guilty of anything and bothered to hold him to account. This is the same CBP-OPR investigations boss who warned Chiefs Tony Barker, Jr. and Joel Martinez that they were under investigation for pressuring junior female agents for sex. And it wasn’t a coincidence that that investigation boss just happened to be an ex-Border Patrol agent named Daniel Altman. 

I don’t believe these six ex-agents are whistleblowing because they are concerned about sexual violence and disrespect to women. I think they are upset because he is chief and they are not. As they mentioned to Giaritelli, Chief Banks skipped over the various ranks to become the chief of the entire agency. Most chiefs chosen to lead the agency have been a chief or at least a deputy chief of a sector. Chief Banks’ highest rank prior to being selected as chief of the entire Border Patrol was a patrol agent in charge, commonly called a PAIC (pronounced “pack” or “P.A.I.C.”). This is the boss at the station level or the head of a special group such as the sector intelligence unit. There are many levels between PAIC and chief of the Border Patrol. This is where the real crime is for these men.

What Chief Banks is being accused of is, quite frankly, pretty standard behavior for Border Patrol agents. Sexual tourism is so common among male Border Patrol agents that it is at the center of my third book to be released this fall. It is a graphic novel explaining how male agents bond over sexual violence and utter disrespect for women. This behavior is deeply woven into the male Border Patrol agent experience. 

Chief Banks represents the men of the U.S. Border Patrol well as an excellent example of this culture. He is accused of engaging in prostitution in Colombia, Thailand and Mexico. All three countries have legalized prostitution and are common destinations for male Border Patrol agents on vacation. The anonymous ex-agent complainants stated to Ms. Giaritelli that just because prostitution is legal in other countries it does not mean federal agents can engage in such conduct because it is illegal in the United States. I recall this being told to us in the academy. The example given was if I visited a country where marijuana was legal, I still could not use that drug because as a federal agent the drug was and still is illegal here federally and I was enforcing that law. 

That was over 30 years ago. So, let’s look at today’s policies.

The most current CBP Standards of Conduct directive I could find is from 2020. CBP Directive 51735-013B states under section 7.1: “Employees will not engage, on or off-duty, in criminal, infamous, dishonest, or notoriously disgraceful conduct, or any other conduct prejudicial to the government.” This overly broad statement of “infamous, dishonest, or notoriously disgraceful conduct” is designed to enable the government to fire anyone they choose. At the same time, it must be pointed out that the head of CBP and former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott has engaged in “infamous, dishonest and disgraceful conduct” while in uniform with illegal coverup teams and still has not been removed. So, obviously this is a throwaway statement that has little enforcement teeth.

Sections 7.3.7 and 7.3.8 of the CBP Standards of Conduct directive deal with employees committing crimes in other countries. Employees are expected to self-report their interactions and arrests with law enforcement in other countries. This is a voluntary report, and it is likely that agents are underreporting these events. It is not known if Chief Banks engaged in any illegal activity in the countries he visited. As mentioned, prostitution is legal in all three countries he visited. We do not know if Chief Banks followed the laws of the countries he toured or if he engaged in illegal sexual tourism because CBP-OPR investigations into agent misconduct are secret. Americans are not allowed to know what exactly Chief Banks is accused of, what was found, who even conducted the investigations or their outcomes. 

Section 7.6 is where the example of using a drug while visiting another country is found. Here is the exact wording: 

USE OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. CBP is charged with the responsibility for interdicting illegal drugs that are being brought into the United States. Therefore, in accordance with the CBP Drug-Free Workplace Plan, CBP employees are prohibited from using, possessing, selling, or distributing illegal drugs. CBP employees are also prohibited from using illegal drugs in states or foreign countries where such use has been legalized. Users of illegal drugs will not be selected for employment in CBP, and removal action will be initiated with respect to any CBP employee who is found to use, possess, sell, or distribute illegal drugs.

While this section specifically deals with drug use and Chief Banks is being accused of sexual misconduct and not drug crimes, I ask that you bear with me for a moment. Read the above policy again but this time with a change in the wording to reflect prostitution and sex trafficking. 

USE OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES PROSTITUTES AND SEX TRAFFICKING. CBP is charged with the responsibility for interdicting illegal drugs prostitution and sex trafficking victims who are being brought into the United States. Therefore, in accordance with the CBP Drug Sex Trafficking and Prostitution-Free Workplace Plan (assuming one exists but who knows), CBP employees are prohibited from using, possessing, selling, or distributing illegal drugs persons for the purposes of prostitution and sex trafficking. CBP employees are also prohibited from using illegal drugs prostitutes or victims of sex trafficking in states or foreign countries where such use has been legalized. Users of illegal drugsprostitutes or victims of sex trafficking will not be selected for employment in CBP, and removal action will be initiated with respect to any CBP employee who is found to use, possess, sell, or distribute illegal drugs human beings for the purposes of sex trafficking and prostitution.

Why is it illegal for agents to engage in legal drug usage while in other countries, but not for prostitution? Why is this clearly not stated in CBP policy like the drug policy is?

The U.S. Border Patrol and CBP do not adequately address sexual abuse in any of their Standards of Conduct directives. The agencies also do not have a history of ever being accountable for their many, many allegations of sexual abuse. If the men who leaked about Chief Banks’ alleged sexual misconduct cared so much about victims of sexual assault and trafficking, why did they not protest when Trump announced he was dropping all charges against those who were accused of molesting immigrant children in government facilities when he took office this second time? Why are they not calling for investigations into the CBP officials who assisted Jeffrey Epstein in his sex trafficking empire? Why are they not calling out the sexual violence still happening to female agents? Why did they not object when Chief Banks changed the fraternization policy with junior agents so that future chiefs like Barker, Jr. and Martinez won’t have to fight allegations when they pressure female agents for sex?

The answer is because they don’t care about women and the sexual violence of the Border Patrol. Nothing is stopping them from picking up the phone or sending me an email to expose all the sexual violence condoned by the agency. They are not telling the truth about all of the rape culture because they are not angry about the rape culture. They are angry that they are not the chief getting away with rape culture!

Whether or not Chief Banks committed a crime or violated a policy, what this article demonstrates is that the rape culture of the U.S. Border Patrol is alive and well. It is not a one-off. This is acceptable in the agency. It is quite honestly, the bare minimum to be trusted in the green family. The fact that it involves the highest ranking Border Patrol agent is a given, and it explains agents like Bart Yager, Nereo Mejia Gomez, Jr., Harry Marvelle Peless III, John Daly III, Steven Holmes, Efrain Cornejo Lopez, Dana R. Thornhill, Fernando Saucedo III, William Michael Barends, Shane Millan, Vernon Lee Millican, Spencer Allen Cox, Salvador Contreras, Paul Casey Whipple, Orlando Gomez, Jason Christopher Davis, Carlos Rodriguez Morales, Esteban Manzanares, Roy Ramirez, Jr., Paul Adams, Jason Michael Drowns, etc.

It explains the “I’m 10-15” Facebook group of nearly 10,000 agents including former Border Patrol Chief and current CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. The private group was famous for agents posting memes of Trump playing the Game of Smiles Border Patrol graduation rape game with Representative Acasio-Cortez. CBP-OPR investigated them too, and once again Daniel Altman’s boys found they did nothing wrong. 

It explains how Border Patrol Agent Jaime Eduardo Cisneros (54) was found dead in a hotel in Medellin, Colombia on May 31, 2024 on a sex tourism trip and the agency has had no response. There has been no comment on why Cisneros’ fellow agent, Alexander Ahmed returned to the U.S. and instead of answering questions, promptly committed suicide. A month later, Border Patrol Agent Mathel Wasson (25) was also found dead in a Medellin, Colombia hotel. Both agents were said to have been seen with prostitutes the evening before. But like all these investigations, they are secret and Americans are not allowed to see them and know the official outcomes. 

So, I’m not buying any of this bullshit about male Border Patrol agents giving a crap about sex trafficking and prostitution. This is about a power struggle and male agents’ willingness to use the victims of sexual abuse as their weapon. It is just another example of how robust, vile, perverted and expansive the rape culture is within the agency.