Protesters for the release of migrant children stand in front of a detention center with signs spelling out 'shut it down.'

Border Patrol Agents Have a Disturbing Secret Facebook Group to Laugh About Migrant Deaths & Post Misogynistic Memes

AOC was directly targeted.
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**Content warning: racism, sexual assault.**

ProPublica, an independent journalistic watchdog monitoring abuses of power, has published an exposé on a private Facebook group for Border Control agents. Members post memes and messages about detainees, mocking the deaths of immigrants and asylum-seekers in custody and joking about throwing burritos at Latinx lawmakers, whom they refer to as “hoes,” visiting the camps.

One member posted a photoshopped image of Donald Trump forcing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to perform oral sex and as a warning, that disturbing image appears in the ProPublica article. There is apparently also another image in the group of AOC performing oral sex on an immigrant with the caption “Lucky Illegal Immigrant Glory Hole Special Starring AOC.”

The group boasts 9,500 members—nearly half the number of Border Patrol agents in the country.

The Border Patrol has the lowest percentage of female members of any federal agency. Just 5% of agents are women—less than the Marines. And after being given such a clear window into the mindset of the agency’s members, we can’t wonder why.

According to Ocasio-Cortez, who joined fellow Democrats to tour migrant camp facilities even after the article dropped, these attitudes aren’t relegated to the internet. This isn’t just dudes blowing off steam. The pervasive racism and misogyny are on full display in the camps.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told ProPublica that the behavior in the Facebook group “confirms some of the worst criticisms of Customs and Border Protection. These are clearly agents who are desensitized to the point of being dangerous to migrants and their co-workers,” he said.

Rep. Castro has called for the removal of the Border Patrol agents who took part in the “derogatory and sexist comments regarding immigrants and members of Congress.” House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson seconded the sentiment, saying in a statement, “The agents found to be responsible for these vile comments should no longer have the privilege of representing the United States of America in uniform.”

We’ll have to wait and see if anything actually comes of this. When it comes to the Trump administration—especially regarding immigration policies—accountability is a rare thing.

Meanwhile, activists are being arrested for trying to bring supplies to these captive children.

And others’ donations are being turned away.

That’s because the torturous conditions being reported in these camps aren’t about funding. If there was any doubt whatsoever that this was deliberate cruelty, well, 9,500 agents have now disproved that notion for good.

(via ProPublica, image: RHONA WISE/AFP/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.