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Research

All research has been conducted and paid for by Jenn Budd. Should you decide to use any of this research, please provide a link and credit to my work.  

USBP Critical Incident Teams

The US Border Patrol has run illegal coverup teams since 1987. There has never been a Border Patrol agent held accountable for killing any human being while in uniform. These teams are a significant reason why there is zero accountability. 

Podcasts: all podcasts are available on YouTube, PodBean and Apple Podcasts. 

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Articles: 

USBP Rape Culture

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The US Border Patrol has one of the most robust and well protected rape cultures in the federal service. While the agency claims to follow a no tolerance policy for sexual assaults of fellow agents, migrants and children, complaints against agents continue to mount with little justice for their victims and almost zero accountability for the agents committing the crimes.

 

To understand the Border Patrol's rape culture, you must go back to the very first female agents allowed to enter the academy in 1975. From the beginning, Border Patrol agent instructors and trainees were getting away with coerced sex and rape. Reveal New's latest podcast tells the story of Ernestine Lopez, the first Latina Border patrol agent who was told she would have to have sex with her instructor to pass and then was raped days before her graduation and fired. This podcast even has a male agent admitting to playing the Game of Smiles in the academy in the early 2000s. This is the first publicly documented account of the rape game being played in the Border Patrol academy.

 

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While most Border Patrol agents are not committing sex crimes, all Border Patrol agents know about the culture and condone it by their silence. The agency hides these crimes with cash settlements, long EEOC investigations that go nowhere, Union grievances that protect the predatory agents and not the victims, management who protect each other and have inside knowledge of internal investigations and warn each other.

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Academies are where the rape culture begins. Male agents are still taught in the academy that women do not belong in the Border Patrol. They are told the official line that the reason there are only 5% women in the service is because the work is too physically demanding and in isolated areas. This is a lie. Male trainees are also taught that female trainees who have difficulty in passing the rigorous physical fitness requirements will file fake sexual assault grievances with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in hopes this will make the agency pass them. This statement is also a lie. Women in the academy file sexual assault allegations against instructors and male classmates because they have been assaulted. Many female agents have reported being told they had to have sex with instructors to graduate. Female trainees who do not "play ball" are most often fired on their Spanish exams as they contain a verbal portion that is completely subjective. Other women have been fired for failing their physical fitness exams by less than a second.

The Game of Smiles is a rape drinking game sometimes played in Border Patrol academies. Male instructor agents get together with their favorite male trainee agents to party on graduation night. A female trainee who is drinking along with her classmates suddenly finds herself pushed under a table. Often, she has had her drinks drugged. The men sit around a table with their pants off and the female is forced to give the men oral stimulation. The first to smile has to drink. If the female passes out, she is sometimes gang raped. The men see this as a binding experience. It also sets the stage for the men to have dirt on each other and to thus keep the green code of silence. The following is an example of one such Game of Smiles incident as told by former CBP Internal Affairs Commissioner James Tomsheck: Newsweek.

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Border Patrol rape culture is not limited to sexual assaults. Other crimes that contribute and support rape cultures are domestic violence, physical assault of women and children, murder of sex workers or crimes against LGBTQ+, and managers pressuring agents for sex. Most sexual assaults committed by Border Patrol agents are not known as the victims are migrant women and children who are quickly deported. Their complaints are often considered unsubstantiated because the agency in charge of Border Patrol oversight, Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility (CBP-OPR), has many ex-Border Patrol agents as investigators. The man in charge of CBP-OPR investigations is himself an ex-agent, Daniel Altman. The oversight system for Border Patrol is rigged and most cases go nowhere.

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Yes, male victims do exist in Border Patrol Rape Culture. However, few if any have ever come forward. The extent of sexual assault complaints in the Border Patrol is not fully known because most are handled through state courts that do not allow for easy research.

 

Knowing how bad the rape culture is for female agents, imagine how much worse it is for victims who are migrants. This is just the tip of a disgusting iceberg.

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Articles:

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Border Patrol agent sex crime database: This database is the tip of an iceberg. Most sex crimes committed by agents are never reported. those that are are mostly unsubstantiated or unfounded if the victim fails to remember the date, get the offender's name, or even of they are not able to name the station where the assault occurred. Complaints are investigated by CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility which is led by former Border Patrol agent Daniel Altman. Most of Mr. Altman's investigators are ex-Border Patrol agents. There is no oversight into the investigations and reports are rarely released. 

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Border Patrol Agent Sex Crimes Database. 

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