Why immigration agents bust out car windows.

The act of busting car windows is a time honored tradition within the immigration enforcement agencies of ICE, Border Patrol and CBP. It is common to see agents return to their stations with migrant load vehicles and have the windows blown out. ICE and Border Patrol have the same violent and brutal culture as ICE was designed and filled with old Border Patrol agents after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. So, I am not surprised to see these ICE agents using their batons just as Border Patrol agents are trained to do.

In the academies, immigration agents are trained in the official CBP and Border Patrol policies about breaking car windows. The tactic of breaking out someone's windows is not one that CBP or Border Patrol policy or training condones. This tactic is only to be used during a rescue but is unofficially taught in the field by training agents to create fear in migrants.

There is no policy stating that if someone refuses to roll down their window or asks you to provide your credentials, you can break their window.

Breaking a window is a use of force event because the person inside the car can be physically injured. The act of breaking windows often causes those inside to panic and hit the gas. In response, Border Patrol agents and CBP and ICE officers have a documented habit of escalating the violence when conducting an interview to determine alienage. Breaking of windows exceeds the use of force chart response that agents are trained in at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers.

In other words, breaking a window in response to someone asking for identification violates their own use of force policy.

In 2014, The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), conducted an extensive review of Border Patrol and CBP use of force incidents. ICE was not included at the time of the report, but the training and tactics are the same. PERF is made up of senior former law enforcement and is considered to be the experts in policing policy. PERF found that Border Patrol and CBP agents were trained to escalate violence and often placed themselves in situations that then they used to justify their shootings.

With this in mind, now watch the video:

I can see that the agent putting his gloves on is wearing an ICE patch badge, but most people in this situation are terrified and often cannot see the badges. I cannot hear any officers identifying themselves. I do hear them ordering them to open the doors of the truck. When the occupants ask them to identify themselves, meaning to show their federal credentials that every federal agent has, that is when they bust the truck’s windows with their batons.

Note the panic caused by the breaking of windows. My experience as an ex-Border Patrol agent once again shows that the official academy training is completely different than what we were trained to do in the field. These accounts were detailed in my memoir released three years ago. In the old days, many agents would put rocks in their car and then throw them at the migrant load vehicles when they refused to stop. This caused many to panic and crash, sometimes killing people.

Here is another example of braking car windows for no apparent reason in a video of an agent chasing a migrant load vehicle in the Tucson sector from March of 2023. When the load vehicle finally stops, the agent jumps out and runs up to the car and without saying a word, uses his baton to bust out the windows. THIS is the in the field training that I and all agents are exposed to and given by their senior agents. These are the secrets we are never supposed to tell.

Watch the video. His busting of the windows causes the driver to try and escape. This in turn causes the agent to grab the man’s arm as he is trying to drive away. The agent runs with the car and then draws his weapon and shoots the man point blank in the neck. This agent’s use of force, his escalation with busting the windows led to the killing. I analyzed the killing of Noe Mejia here. His death was labeled a homicide. The civil lawsuit is on-going. No agent has been held accountable.

The unauthorized use of this tactic was also documented in theTachiquin case in San Diego in 2012. The victim happened to be leaving her boyfriend’s apartment, a man Border Patrol was looking for. Ms. Tachiquin became frightened when her window was shattered and hit the gas just as Mr. Mejia did. The agent in this case used the fear that he created by busting out Ms. Tachiquin's windows to then escalate and justify his use of deadly force just as the agent in Mejia’s case has done and just as the most recent case in L.A. will do.

Ms. Tachiquin was the mother of five children and a US citizen. The agent killed her after he ordered the breaking of her windows and her subsequent fear and attempt to escape him. He was not in uniform and not wearing anything with an identifiable agency on it just as agents are doing in L.A. today. The agent jumped on top of the hood of her car and put ten bullets in her chest. She had committed no crime. CBP paid the Tachiquin family $500,000 in a settlement. No agents were held accountable.

In 2019, CBP officers at the Nogales, Arizona DeConcini crossing shot at Angel Mendivil Perez as he drove into Mexico from the US because they said his license plate did not match his car. Mendivil Perez was hit in the head, and is now able to walk with a cane. He remembers nothing other than that he was picking up groceries for his girlfriend. Media reported what they admitted were “rumors” that the victim tried to run over officers before he was shot. CBP has not commented in all these years. Federal court case is #21-cv-00051-EJM. CBP paid an unknown amount to settle the case. No agents were held accountable.

Here’s a Border Patrol agent blowing out the window of a known border documentarian and activist as they are driving down a highway in Arizona. This agent used a pellet gun. No agents were held accountable.

When CBP and the Border Patrol finally release a statement about this latest incident in L.A., expect them to claim the officer’s lives were in danger. They will dig up any kind of dirt or criminal past they can find on the driver. They will not admit that their policies expressly forbid this action and that it actually causes shootings. They will claim they have worked diligently since the 2014 PERF report came out and that their agents and officers are the most professional.

And then nothing will be done about these agents because they have been behaving this way for generations. None of this behavior is new.