Border Patrol Leaders: Stop Throwing Agents Under the Bus!

The Coloradoan (part of the USA Today Network) may have hit a new journalistic low with one of its recent articles. Titled “Border Patrol Accused of Vandalizing Water Aid Stations in the Desert,” it clearly implies that agents of the U.S. Border Patrol have engaged in criminal acts aimed at harming illegal aliens.

But that isn’t even close to being accurate. The article should have been called, “Border Patrol Agents Thwart Attempts to Aid and Abet Illegal Aliens.”

What really happened? A private advocacy group called No More Deaths obtained pictures of border agents disassembling supply caches found in the desert. That’s hardly “vandalism.” Nor, in fact, is it any other type of crime.

For enforcement agents in the field, there is virtually no way to distinguish between ad hoc aid stations set up by ostensibly well-meaning aid organizations and supply dumps established by drug cartels and smuggling rings. And removing food and water from hazardous sections of the border often keeps illegal aliens from unwittingly wandering into danger.

It’s also worth noting that, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1324 encouraging aliens to illegally enter the United States is a crime. Not to mention that dumping food and supplies unattended on federal lands violates hundreds of Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, National Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture regulations. So it appears that it’s No More Deaths breaking the law, not the Border Patrol.

It’s shocking to see a major news outlet unsubtly implying that Border Patrol agents were maliciously “tampering” with “water and food aid stations.” Especially when the source of the accusations is inherently biased.

Far from being a legitimate watchdog organization, No More Deaths is a radical open-borders group that doesn’t believe in any form of immigration enforcement. In the past, the organization has attempted to prevent the Border Patrol from taking suspected alien smugglers into custody. No More Deaths has also called for human rights investigations of the Border Patrol by the United Nations and the Inter American Court for Human Rights, in addition to requesting that Congress totally dissolve the agency.

What’s even more shocking is the manner in which Customs and Border Protection immediately kowtowed when its employees were criticized, sternly noting that agents “have been instructed not to remove or destroy water stations, food or other resources left along the trails in the desert.” In essence, the Border Patrol is telling everyone that keeping radical agitators happy is more important than enforcing laws its agents are sworn to uphold.

But pursuing those kinds of foolish policie merely gives credence to false allegations made by radical organizations like No More Deaths. President Trump has made it clear that he supports immigration enforcement officers in the pursuit of their duties. It’s time the bosses at the Border Patrol started doing the same thing and pushing back against the type of malicious falsehoods being pushed by the likes of The Coloradoan.