The Toxicity of Border Patrol Culture and the Non-Kid Friendly Nature of ICE
By Kamila Lagraba Terceros
Graphic by Jas Calcitas
Content Warning: The following work contains sensitive content. Please be advised.
Do your rights matter? They should. Human rights are, after all, the basic rights and freedoms that every person should be entitled to, all the way from birth until death. They should apply regardless of where you come from and how you choose to live your life, but immigration laws and agencies have told us otherwise. In order to claim our freedom, we must appear in the way that the government wants us to, we must be legal. If you’re not, then you can forget about your rights completely. In 2018, in El Paso, Texas, border patrol officers forcibly separated a Brazilian mother from her son, and said to her, “you don’t have any rights here, and you don’t have any rights to stay with your son.” ICE is one of the most barbaric and despicable agencies in the United States. They rely heavily on fear mongering in order to achieve a discriminatory agenda and their disregard for human life is part of its very core. It only gets worse, because they’ve turned to privatized facilities in order to manage the growing migrant detainee population. These for-profit corporations like GEO Group, Core Civics and LaSalle Corrections are responsible for severe abuse and neglect towards those in their custody. There was even an instance in which GEO staff dealt drugs to adolescents in their care, and exposed some of them to brutal beatings, sexual exploitation and solitary confinement. All of these ghastly acts should have severe repercussions, but the truth of the matter is there are none.
When U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holds migrant children in custody, it should be treated swiftly, and with care – kids are supposed to be safe. New data shows that in the past four years, time spent in detention centers has plunged to almost half a million. Minors are held at increasingly long times in unsafe facilities that are designed to hold adults, not children. Hope Frye - an immigration lawyer - visited the detention centre in McAllen, Texas, where she witnessed kids that had not been fed, washed, or medically screened. She also saw mothers who were forced to feed their babies from unwashed bottles, and children stained with vomit because of the lack of access to water or bathrooms. In a 70 page report on the treatment of unaccompanied minors in CBP custody, interviews were conducted with children who had been apprehended by border patrol. Results found that in a group of 895 children screened, almost 1 in 10 had said they had been verbally abused by CBP officers, whilst 147 of them said they were victims of physical abuse. The last people on Earth that should be disaggregated from their rights are minors. In September a whistle-blower nurse at the Irwin County detention Center - run by LaSalle Corrections - revealed that women were subjected to hysterectomies without their consent. I repeat, women underwent forced sterilization without consent. People are still being kept in cages. While fewer families are being torn apart, it’s still within the realm of possibility for many. Detention and family separation – even if it is for a short period of time, have adverse consequences, especially for those who have already experienced severe trauma, which already includes a large majority of migrants fleeing from their countries. These are only some of the atrocities faced by migrants every day.
The toxicity of border patrol culture has been a problem for years now. Even coming into the U.S as a Latina with proper documentation, passing border control is one of the most intimidating experiences I’ve encountered. Immigration Nation is a must watch mini-series on Netflix, revealing how ICE upholds and perpetuates evil. What I found most shocking was the gross misconduct from patrol officials. ICE is populated by ruthless individuals who gloat over arrests, mock people in custody and constantly use “I’m just doing my job” as a means of justifying the terror they cause. ICE officers siphon off their work in a way that justifies their ‘day to day’ tasks, but when the time comes and we add up all of the people that are just ‘doing their jobs’, it becomes so clear that it’s a terrorizing system.
A private Facebook group called “I’m 10-15” is an online space for current and former border patrol agents and the exchanging of “funny and serious discussions about work with the patrol.” 10-15 is the border patrol code for ‘aliens in custody’ (ahem… aliens?). Some of their “funny” exchanges include members commenting on a news story about a sixteen-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in custody at a Border patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member responded with an GIF of Elmo with the quote “oh well”, while another responded with an image followed by the words “if he dies, he dies”. In another thread - which I find by far one of the more egregious examples, a group member posted an image of a father and his daughter laying face down in the Rio Grande. The member questioned the validity of the image by saying they’d never “floaters this clean”, while also claiming that this could be a ploy by “the dems and liberal parties' '. Human bodies are not disposable, and its demise should not be followed by some sick commentary. In 2017, immigration officials were planning nation-wide raids targeting hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. Records of emails show controversial language being exchanged by officers. In one correspondence an ICE official signed off his email with “happy hunting and target building!”, another said “it’s gonna be EPIC!” about the mass arrests to be made. These actions are part of the blueprint of the systemic issues within these agencies. They are constantly utilizing inhumane language aimed at dehumanizing detainees. It is this discriminatory anti-immigrant rhetoric that has perpetrated xenophobia and bigotry all throughout the United States, and what’s even more abhorrent is that it mostly stems from those in positions of power. These are only a handful of examples which reflect the pervasive cruelty culture aimed at immigrants, it is the quintessence of law enforcement personnel behaving badly in public and private digital platforms. No, I don’t think all border patrol agents are monsters... I do believe, however, that this behaviour is perpetuated by an institutional culture whose trajectory is pointing in a more abusive nature towards immigrants.
Let’s be honest, none of this is new or revelatory information. ICE is an agency that will continue to devalue humanity and the fundamental rights that come with it. They will continue to demonize people based on where they come from. It’s evolved to create a toxic culture which enables and perpetuates xenophobia and human rights violations. Let me also make it clear that although the U.S may seem to be the biggest culprit in terms of immigration issues, other nations are not innocent. The heinous immigration systems and the toxic cultures present within them are still very much alive throughout places like Europe and Australia. While global refugee issues are complex, a child's right to safety should never be up for question. In fact, nobody's right to safety should be challenged, and terrorizing people verbally and physically who “don’t belong” should be unlawful. It’s time to start remedying this cultural toxicity. It’s time to make it a priority.