[News] US Border Patrol FB Group: Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths, Post Sexist Memes

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Border-Patrol-FB-Group-Agents-Joke-About-Migrant-Deaths-Post-Sexist-Memes-20190701-0022.html 



  US Border Patrol FB Group: Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths, Post
  Sexist Memes

Published 1 July 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A secret Facebook group has been exposed where roughly 9,500 current and 
former members from the United States (U.S.) Border Patrol joke about 
the deaths of migrants, and share derogatory comments and sexists posts 
about women, according to an exposé 
<https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes>made 
by ProPublica on Monday.

    /*RELATED:
    ‘US Running Concentration Camps at the Border’: Expert
    <https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Running-Concentration-Camps-at-the-Border-Expert-20190616-0013.html>*/

The three-year-old Facebook group is called “I’m 10-15”, which is a 
Border Patrol code for “aliens in custody,” and it describes itself in 
the “about” section, as a forum for “funny” and “serious” discussion 
about work with the patrol.

ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, received images of several recent 
discussions in the Facebook group. These show xenophobic, sexist and 
racist comments made against Latin American migrants and Latino 
congresswomen.

In a post, for instance, members joked about the death of a 16-year-old 
Guatemalan boy who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol 
station in Weslaco, Texas. A member posted a GIF of Sesame Street 
character “Elmo” with the quote, “Oh well.” While another responded with 
the words “if he dies, he dies.”

After checking the images, ProPublica was able to link the participants 
to legitimate Facebook profiles belonging to Border Patrol agents, 
including a supervisor based in El Paso, Texas, and an agent in Eagle 
Pass, Texas.

Another post regarded the latest internationally-known case about Oscar 
and Valeria Martinez, a father and two-year-old daughter from El 
Salvador who drowned while trying to cross the Mexico-U.S border. A 
member posted the picture while asking the group if this “could be 
another edited photo” as he has "never seen floaters" so "clean."

“It confirms some of the worst criticisms of Customs and Border 
Protection...these are clearly agents who are desensitized to the point 
of being dangerous to migrants and their co-workers,” The head of the 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Joaquin Castro, said after reviewing the 
images.

Customs and Border Patrol has announced it is launching an investigation.

In a series of latest posts, reviewed by ProPublica, members focused on 
the planned visit on Monday by Democratic congresswomen Alexandria 
Ocasio-Cortez and Veronica Escobar to the denounced Border Patrol 
facility outside of El Paso.

The Border Patrol agents discussed throwing burritos at the women, due 
to their Hispanic background. Another, apparently the patrol supervisor, 
wrote, “F*ck the hoes.” While a third member said that “there should be 
no photo ops for these scumbuckets.”

Also, at least two posts featured tampered images of Ocasio-Cortez 
engaging in degrading oral sex positions with a detained migrant and 
U.S. President Donald Trump, the latter’s caption read “That's right 
b*tches...This is what I have to say.”

This latest controversy comes as a June 20 Associated Press report 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Migrant-Children-in-US-Detention-Center-Face-Inhumane-Conditions-20190624-0019.html> 
showed that more than 250 migrant children, including teens, infants, 
and toddlers, are locked up in "horrendous" conditions at a Border 
Patrol station in Texas near the city of El Paso.

The experts who visited the facilities were left aghast when faced with 
scenes of children enduring traumatic and dangerous situations, lacking 
basic human needs including adequate food and water as well as medical 
care.

Many academics, experts, and even Holocaust survivors have condemned the 
conditions of the Border Patrol’s detention centers dubbing them 
“concentration camps 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Running-Concentration-Camps-at-the-Border-Expert-20190616-0013.html>,” 
as they meet the international criteria to define them as such. 
Meanwhile, Trump continues his anti-migrant rhetoric as the main 
proposal in his 2020 reelection campaign.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20190702/14cd9f19/attachment.htm>