Customs and Border Protection (CBP) failed to disclose information as required by law regarding its deployment to national protests following the police killing of George Floyd earlier this year, so a coalition of leading civil and immigrants’ rights organizations have now sued the out-of-control federal immigration agency in order to force it to release the records.
“We should all ask ourselves why a federal agency whose purported role involves border enforcement is deployed to police peaceful protests in U.S. cities nationwide,” American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (ACLU) of San Diego & Imperial Counties attorney Mitra Ebadolahi said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “There is an urgent need to ensure that the American public understands CBP’s mission ... and role in repressing Americans’ constitutional rights.”
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“Members of Congress, local officials, and the public have expressed concerns about CBP’s presence and questionable actions—especially given the agency’s track record of abusive policing tactics and use of excessive force,” the American Immigration Council, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the ACLU of Texas, and the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties said.
In just one recent example, among the wholly untrained federal agents unleashed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on protesters in Portland, Oregon, were members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC. Just days after wreaking havoc there, the unit then assisted in a raid against a humanitarian organization with an established mission of preventing the agonizing deaths of migrants in the deserts of the U.S./Mexico border.
Jenn Budd, a former senior Border Patrol agent turned whistleblower, has referred to the tactical unit as among “the most violent and racist in all law enforcement,” The Guardian reported in July.
“CBP's xenophobic language and actions have long made this agency a threat to Black migrants,” Black Alliance for Just Immigration legal manager Tsion Gurmu said in the statement. “CBP's expanded law enforcement role policing Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests places the larger U.S. public in danger as additional targets of its racist, sexist, and homophobic abuse. BAJI stands with Black people and immigrants in this country demanding transparency and accountability for CBP's ongoing abuses.”
The lawsuit comes as DHS has also reportedly been preparing to again unleash CBP, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), on communities in case of “civil unrest” amid the election, CNN reports, even though a top DHS official has said there’s been no “specific intelligence that suggests any particular threat of violence."
There has been, however, right-wing violence and crystal clear statements from impeached president Donald Trump that he wants to steal the election and is expecting the Supreme Court to intervene if he’s losing. So it’s obvious that it’s not some alleged violent threat that DHS wants to tamp down, it’s Americans outraged by the possible theft of an election.
