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NEW DOCUMENTS obtained by #FOIA request indicate the US Border Patrol union—a pro-Trump, anti-immigrant extremist organization—provoked the agency to raid our humanitarian aid camp and clinic in 2017. The documents also reveal #BORTAC’s involvement in the raid (1/x)
The documents include an email to top level CBP commissioners, urging the agency to crack down on @NoMoreDeaths. While the sender is redacted, we deduce that the author is Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council and notorious anti-immigrant fanatic.
The BP Union is one of the most powerful law enforcement unions in the country. It is a notoriously anti-immigrant extremist group. Judd regularly associates with other hate groups (like @FAIRImmigration) and acts as Trump's unofficial advisor. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/at-trumps-side-border-patrol-union-leader-in-spotlight
"National Border Patrol Council representatives have coördinated with anti-immigrant activists...giving them tours of the borderlands, leaking information and data about migrants...and delivering testimony at their behest before Congress." @JonathanBlitzer https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-border-patrol-was-primed-for-president-trump
Their website is straight out of the Breitbart/Fox News playbook + is mostly unhinged statements from Judd like “Border Wall Only Humanitarian Way to Prevent Deaths like Migrant Girl” or “BP Agents have been unfairly attacked by radical groups!” https://bpunion.org/
As calls to #DefundPolice + #AbolishThePolice grow, the power of cop unions cannot be minimized.
That the BP Union may have goaded the agency into raiding an aid station is further proof that Trump is increasingly using @DHSgov thugs as his personal army https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/27/trump-border-patrol-troops-portland-bortac
That the BP Union may have goaded the agency into raiding an aid station is further proof that Trump is increasingly using @DHSgov thugs as his personal army https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/27/trump-border-patrol-troops-portland-bortac
“Trump has ratcheted up political ties to border patrol to another level,” @memomiller said... "These are his people.”
"Of the top 20 posts on its Twitter feed, all but three are retweets of Trump’s personal or campaign messages." ( @Edpilkington)
"Of the top 20 posts on its Twitter feed, all but three are retweets of Trump’s personal or campaign messages." ( @Edpilkington)
Not that Border Patrol wasn’t already destroying our water supplies, raiding our camp, intimidating our volunteers, harassing border residents, and abusing and killing people crossing the desert before Trump came to power. They definitely were...
No More Deaths has documented Border Patrol’s culture of cruelty for over 10 years. We will be releasing Part 3 of our latest report series, “Left to Die: Border Patrol, Search and Rescue, and the Crisis of Disappearance,” later next month. https://nomoredeaths.org/abuse-documentation/
“Long before @DHSgov deployed masked paramilitary agents to the Pacific Northwest, the agency was directing its intelligence efforts against opponents of the president’s policies on the southern border,” explains @rdevro in @theintercept. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/25/portland-federal-agents-antifa-border/
“We were raising the alarm about it,” says @NewSanctuaryNYC’s @KajiDousa. “It feels like we’ve been screaming into a vacuum."
To the extent that there have been any radical shifts in the past few weeks it’s the fact “that white people are starting to care.”
To the extent that there have been any radical shifts in the past few weeks it’s the fact “that white people are starting to care.”
The new documents also indicate BORTAC’s involvement in the raid. #BORTAC is BP's special forces cosplay unit, formed in 1984 to repress uprisings in INS detention centers. See @memomiller on @democracynow https://www.democracynow.org/2020/7/23/federal_agents_paramilitary_tactics_us_imperialism
BORTAC was also deployed in LA following the police murder of Rodney King. They assisted in US drug war operations in South America, were in New Orleans after Katrina, + were sent by Trump to help @ICEgov terrorize sanctuary cities in 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/us/Border-Patrol-ICE-Sanctuary-Cities.html
Now, Trump is deploying BORTAC and other violent federal police to US cities to repress uprisings in defense of Black lives. @kenklippenstein in @TheNation https://www.thenation.com/article/society/border-patrol-portland-arrest/
"Many...believe that such violence by agents of the state are what one might witness in Pinochet’s Chile, but the truth is that the scenes from #Portland are all too American" @karl_jacoby
(And of course, Pinochet's terror was made possible by US support) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-22/border-patrol-portland-protests-trump
(And of course, Pinochet's terror was made possible by US support) https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-22/border-patrol-portland-protests-trump
Remember how US police emerged from slave patrols and the repression of labor strikes + riots?
How—as @prisonculture + others have explained—"There is not a single era in US history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html
How—as @prisonculture + others have explained—"There is not a single era in US history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html
Well, Border Patrol has a similar legacy. As historian @GregGrandin explains.
Border Patrol's legacy of racist violence, murdering Mexicans, and inculcating agents into a culture that dehumanizes and abuses the undocumented is alive and well. https://theintercept.com/2019/01/12/border-patrol-history/
Border Patrol's legacy of racist violence, murdering Mexicans, and inculcating agents into a culture that dehumanizes and abuses the undocumented is alive and well. https://theintercept.com/2019/01/12/border-patrol-history/
And Border Patrol's legacy of racist violence lives on...
Attacks against white humanitarians and white protestors is an escalation, not an aberration.
Attacks against white humanitarians and white protestors is an escalation, not an aberration.
Full press release available here: https://mailchi.mp/nomoredeaths/bortac
And keep an eye out for the forthcoming Part III of @NoMoreDeaths' DISAPPEARED report series:
Part III: "Left to Die: Border Patrol, Search and Rescue, and the Crisis of Disappearance.” https://twitter.com/NoMoreDeaths/status/1278852226149044224?s=20
And keep an eye out for the forthcoming Part III of @NoMoreDeaths' DISAPPEARED report series:
Part III: "Left to Die: Border Patrol, Search and Rescue, and the Crisis of Disappearance.” https://twitter.com/NoMoreDeaths/status/1278852226149044224?s=20
#DefundThePolice #DefundCBP #DefundDHS #AbolishICE #FreeThemAll
@UNITEDWEDREAM @CosechaMovement @ConMijente @Puenteaz @RAICESTEXAS @Border_Angels @DetentionWatch @tqpueblo @stewartschrad @stschrader1 @PuebloSF @SOAWatch @NeverAgainActn @IGD_News @UR_Ninja @democracynow
@UNITEDWEDREAM @CosechaMovement @ConMijente @Puenteaz @RAICESTEXAS @Border_Angels @DetentionWatch @tqpueblo @stewartschrad @stschrader1 @PuebloSF @SOAWatch @NeverAgainActn @IGD_News @UR_Ninja @democracynow
And a big thank you and shout out to @skittishprey and @MatthewStrugar for suing CBP and getting these documents released.
We suspect there will be much more to come...
We suspect there will be much more to come...
