Ex-official decries Border Patrol posts
Calls secret Facebook page comments ‘vile’
WASHINGTON — Before the rise of social media, Border Patrol agents gathered in parking lots at the end of their shifts for what was known as “choir practice” — a chance to share what they saw that day and anything else on their minds.
T.J. Bonner, who led the National Border Patrol Council during much of his 32-year career as an agent, recalled the defunct tradition while trying to explain a secret Facebook group for agents that included sexually explicit posts about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez and questioned the authenticity of a recent photo of a father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande.
“That outlet faded away and was replaced by social media, where people thought they had a safe place they could vent and process,” said
Bonner, whose career ended in 2010 and who does not belong to the group. “That would explain some of the callous comments. The vile stuff? There’s no excuse. I’m certainly not going to try to defend it.”
Billed as “fun, serious and just work related,” the group boasts about 9,500 members. “We are family, first and foremost,” it states, according to Propublica, which reported its existence on Monday.
A former agent who belongs to the group said Tuesday that members had to provide the administrator with their graduating class number from the Border Patrol Academy and have a current member vouch for their credentials. The agent, who retired last year in San Diego, spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared a public backlash.
The agent likened the forum to a bar where agents would gather after work and swap stories. He said any agent active on Facebook would have likely received an invitation to join.
The National Border Patrol Council
said that it “strongly condemns” the posts and that they do a “great disservice to all Border Patrol agents, the overwhelming majority of whom perform their duties honorably.”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin Mcaleenan has launched a probe into the Facebook posts.
“Any employee found to have compromised the public’s trust in our law enforcement mission will be held accountable,” Mcaleenan said.