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Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019

Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes

Author:     A.C. Thompson
Source:     ProPublica
Publication Date:     July 1, 10:55 a.m. EDT
 Link: Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes
Stephan:   When you read this story I want you to keep a sense of proportion about what the story is saying. Here are the facts: This Facebook group discussed in this article numbers about 9,500 out of a labor force of roughly 20,000. That means that nearly fifty percent of the Border Patrol, a component of the  Customs and Border Protection agency, are racist thugs. That doesn't happen randomly. You create it, and this is what the United States has become as a result. Trump is doing this with strong intention, speaking to the 42.3% of Americans who want and support it. You see the same thing I do on television. As you see those scenes, those desperate people, ask yourself what kind of person would actively create this, and authorize it?

U.S. Border Patrol

The three-year-old group, which has roughly 9,500 members, shared derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers who plan to visit a controversial Texas detention facility on Monday, calling them “scum buckets” and “hoes.”

Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.

In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If he dies, he dies.”

Created in August 2016, the Facebook group is called […]

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