It has been two years and six months since the release of my memoir, Against the Wall. In that time, the book has been responsible for outing the rampant rape culture that has existed in the agency since its inception. More specifically, it broke the truth about how female agents are often required to have sex with Border Patrol instructors in order to graduate the academies, how others are raped into the Border Patrol by classmates, and how those crimes are then covered up by an elaborate system.
This system began in 1975 when the first Latina agent, Ernestina Lopez, was raped in the 107th academy. She was fired for complaining about being raped, and so the culture began. Twenty years later, I would be raped into the 288th academy. I kept my job by not filing a complaint and trying to move on. Twenty-four years after that, another female agent was raped into her academy class in 2019. Like most victims, she remains unknown, resigned immediately, and did not press charges for fear of her fellow agents retaliating. All of our rapists were allowed to continue in their careers as federal law enforcement agents, possibly sexually assaulting others.
Against the Wall spawned investigations into the Border Patrol's rape culture through the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). Beyond written articles, POGO created an award winning podcast called "Bad Watchdog" that explored how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the US Border Patrol hides sexual assaults committed by employees against other employees. This led to several congressional leaders calling for investigations, yet none have materialized. Additionally, Erin Siegel-McIntyre, assistant professor at University of North Carolina and journalist exposed the Border Patrol's rape culture in a podcast with Reveal News in "The Border Patrol's Fearless 5%."
The Border Patrol's response to my memoir and outing of the rape culture has been to create "The Fearless 5%" campaign honoring those of us who could set our assaults aside and still wear the green uniform. Former CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus then created the "30 by 30" campaign meant to bring CBP and Border Patrol female agent staffing to thirty percent by 2030. This will never work because the agencies refuse to hold employees accountable when they sexually assault or harass female employees or those in custody.
The Border Patrol, it's parent agency (CBP) and DHS all continue to warn high-ranking agents of when they are being investigated so that they may retire and save their pensions, and refuse to allow outside, independent investigations into their use of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to buy victims' silence. Sex offenders with badges continue to enjoy privacy clause protections, continue to be moved from sector to sector like Catholic priests, and continue to be promoted. When agents are caught up with actual consequences for their actions, courts continue to hide cases from databases and the press to prevent the public from knowing that many known predatory agents lurk within their communities. According to discussions I have had with cops along the southern border, Border Patrol management has quietly demanded local law enforcement stop making agent arrests public since I began writing on the subject. Even when charged with horrible child sexual assault, agents continue to get preferential treatment in courts with the majority of heinous crimes being dropped by prosecutors who regularly work with agents.
And so, men in the US Border Patrol continue to rape and harass while being protected by the badge.
Against the Wall was also responsible for exposing the illegal and secret Border Patrol Critical Incident Teams used by the agency to hide agent crimes and misconduct since 1987. This led to a complaint filed by the Southern Border Community Coalition. Six months later, CBP agreed the teams could not legally exist within the Border Patrol and they were disbanded. Unfortunately, negotiations between the NGO making the complaint and CBP allowed the teams to continue under CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility investigations which is run by former Border Patrol agent Daniel Altman and is staffed with a majority of ex-Border Patrol agents who strangely enough rarely find complaints substantiated. Members who had been trained improperly and engaged in the Critical Incident Teams' coverups were allowed to resign the Border Patrol and be rehired under CBP.
The federal government has effectively swept the coverup teams under the rug. Only one investigation has been conducted by the Government Accountability Organization (GAO) which found little fault with the illegal and secret teams. The report failed to interview any victims of the teams for the past thirty years and blamed the lack of resources for why the teams were created without bothering to address that they had plenty of money to create the teams in the first place. Although over ten congressional committees demanded hearings at the time of the complaint, without the much needed pressure from NGOs, there is no intention of having any further investigations of the prior coverups or holding anyone accountable.
For their part, the Southern Border Community Coalition that once helped out the illegal teams and demanded accountability is now suddenly praising CBP and Border Patrol for their progress in human rights stating recently on their website:
We take this moment now to recognize the progress that CBP has made over the last 15 years as a result of personnel inside the agency who have responded to the call for reforms and worked hard to enact them.
For my part, I will continue to hold the agency accountable. In this next year, I will continue the series of how the illegal teams were used to intentionally destroy evidence, obstruct justice, while denying victims and their families any justice. Some of these stories even involve agents as victims as the teams worked to protect the agency above all else. My hope is to eventually write the book on the Critical Incident Teams.
By far, the largest influence my book has had was to cause the Border Patrol to finally address agent suicides. Though they are still unwilling to address why the agency has an epidemic of agents with mental health issues and instead chose to blame Biden for their own failures, they have at the very least admitted there is a problem. The fact is that enforcing inhumane laws that send asylum seeking families to their inevitable deaths causes trauma in agents as well as migrants.
Sadly though, agents are currently telling me that little has changed for them. The feeling is that this is more of a public relations campaign to make Americans feel sorry for the agents than to actually address the causes. This reaction by management is common and why the agency is constantly failing. Agents who come forward about mental health issues are still being forced into peer counseling sessions with agents assigned as chaplains. This is in an effort to prevent agents from receiving professional counseling from outside therapists that would expose the management and the agency to liability. Agents are still reporting to me that when they seek help, everyone they work with suddenly knows they are seeking help and they are labeled as not being able to "hack it." Agent suicides will continue as the agency still orders agents to intentionally funnel asylum seeking families into the most dangerous terrains to cross knowing it will cause them severe injuries and even death.
But the one lesson I wish people would get from my memoir is that when we build walls to our own experienced trauma, it allows us to ignore the trauma others are experiencing, and it can often cause us to traumatize those around us. Primary trauma to the migrants, secondary trauma to the agents and on down the line, our immigration policies are about traumatizing everyone involved while a select few, including some NGOs, get rich. Deterrence policies have caused much of this trauma, and yet the Border Patrol continues to insist they work while providing zero evidence. Thirty years after deterrence began, we are still arguing over too many people crossing illegally, too many agents committing suicide, and too many migrants being sent to their inevitable deaths.
Please consider giving Against the Wall a read or listen and a review.