{"id":177683,"date":"2019-07-12T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T23:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/07\/12\/you-remember-that-racist-group-that-the-border-patrol-management-just-discovered\/"},"modified":"2019-07-12T18:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T23:44:00","slug":"you-remember-that-racist-group-that-the-border-patrol-management-just-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/07\/12\/you-remember-that-racist-group-that-the-border-patrol-management-just-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"You Remember That Racist Group that the Border Patrol Management Just “Discovered?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Well, the new head of CBP as well as senior staff have been posting to the Facebook group for years<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Yet again the old proverb, “A fish rots from the head,” is spot on:<\/p>\n

When news broke that thousands of current and former Border Patrol agents were members of a secret Facebook group filled with racist, vulgar, and sexist content, Carla Provost, chief of the agency, was quick to respond. \u201cThese posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see \u2014 and expect \u2014 from our agents day in and day out,\u201d Provost said in a statement. \u201cAny employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.\u201d <\/p>\n

For Provost, a veteran of the Border Patrol who was named head of the agency in August 2018, the group\u2019s existence and content should have come as no surprise. Three months after her appointment to chief, Provost herself had posted in the group, then known as \u201cI\u2019m 10-15,\u201d now archived as \u201cAmerica First X 2.\u201d Provost\u2019s comment was innocuous \u2014 a friendly clapback against a group member who questioned her rise to the top of the Border Patrol \u2014 but her participation in the group, which she has since left, raises serious questions.<\/p>\n

Provost is one of several Border Patrol supervisors The Intercept has identified as current or former participants in the secret Facebook group, including chief patrol agents overseeing whole Border Patrol sectors; multiple patrol agents in charge of individual stations; and ranking officials in the Border Patrol\u2019s union, who have enjoyed direct access to President Donald Trump. (It is technically possible that someone else posted in the group using the individuals\u2019 accounts.) The group\u2019s existence has already generated at least two investigations from lawmakers and internal Department of Homeland Security oversight bodies.<\/p>\n

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter<\/a> to the DHS Inspector General\u2019s office last week specifically requesting that investigators examine whether Provost and Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan knew about or had previously addressed the problem of government personnel posting \u201cviolent, racist, misogynistic comments and pictures\u201d in the \u201cI\u2019m 10-15\u201d group.  <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CBP needs a thorough cleaning, from top to bottom, or, to paraphrase Aliens<\/i>, “Nuke the entire agency from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, the new head of CBP as well as senior staff have been posting to the Facebook group for years. Yet again the old proverb, “A fish rots from the head,” is spot on: When news broke that thousands of current and former Border Patrol agents were members of a secret Facebook group filled with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[506,469,364,438,526,374,398],"class_list":["post-177683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-bigotry","tag-bureaucracy","tag-evil","tag-immigration","tag-law-enforcement-misconduct","tag-politics","tag-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}