Sen. McSally condemns postings on Facebook by Border Patrol officers
Antolin Rolando Lopez-Aguilar was running.
He had just crossed the border illegally near the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, and the sound of a Border Patrol F-150 was close behind him. He reached back and touched the hood of the moving vehicle, trying to push off from the truck that was chasing him.
The truck accelerated again, knocking Lopez-Aguilar to the ground before grinding to a halt. Court documents filed in a federal case against the truck’s driver, Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen, allege the vehicle was inches from running Lopez-Aguilar over when it stopped.
Lopez-Aguilar, a 23-year-old migrant from Guatemala, was taken to a local hospital in Nogales, Arizona, where staff recorded abrasions to his right hand and both of his knees, according to court documents. There was gravel on his face.
Prosecutors in the case argued in court documents that to understand Bowen’s actions on that mild morning in December 2017, the court must consider his past conduct, and also the words he used to describe undocumented migrants like Lopez-Aguliar.
Text messages cited in court documents show that in the weeks before Dec. 3, Bowen called the migrants “mindless murdering savages,” “tonks,” “s--tbags,” and “subhuman s--t unworthy of being kindling for a fire.”
In texting another agent about his dissatisfaction with Border Patrol policies, Bowen said he would “miss certain aspects” of being an agent if he left.
Among the aspects he’d miss: “The chase of hunting down s--tbags with your crew, defeating somebody who thought they were faster than you,” he wrote.
Bowen goes on trial on Aug. 13, according to the Associated Press. He is accused of intentionally assaulting Lopez-Aguilar with a dangerous weapon, the truck, and with depriving the man of his right to be free of unreasonable seizures or excessive use of force by a law enforcement officer, and making false statements to the chief patrol agent of the Tucson Sector, saying that “he never intended to strike or otherwise come into contact” with the man.
On Monday, ProPublica published an investigation into a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. There were echoes of the offensive text messages Bowen sent to fellow agents in the Facebook group, which was called “I’m 10-15,” a reference to the Border Patrol code for “aliens in custody.”
ProPublica reported that in the group, created in August 2016, members “joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant.”
Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., condemned the posts by current and former Border Patrol agents, calling them “disgusting” and “unacceptable.” She made the comments Tuesday while speaking to reporters after spending time with veterans in Phoenix.
“When I saw what was reported, it was nauseating to me and it needs to be fully investigated and people need to be held accountable for their actions,” McSally said. “Just like in the military, on- or off-duty, online or in person, you wear the uniform — that represents something, and it should not be acceptable.”
One post in the group also questioned whether a widely publicized Associated Press photo showing the bodies of a migrant father and daughter who died crossing the Rio Grande last month was doctored.
“I HAVE NEVER SEEN FLOATERS LIKE THIS,” the person wrote, saying the bodies were too “clean.”
After the ProPublica report was published, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it was opening an investigation into the Facebook group.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost called the posts “completely inappropriate” in a statement.
“Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable,” she wrote.