# Secret Border Patrol Facebook Page **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 1, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358 "2019-07-01T18:30:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/1 "2019-07-01T18:30:30Z")
[9500 current and former Border Patrol agents](https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes#), and the hatred they spew when they think no one can see them. How has this gone on for three years without one agent spilling the beans, and should they face recrimination? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/2 "2019-07-01T18:36:19Z")
According to the article, there are 9,500 participants in that page. CBP has 20,000 officers, iow, assuming that all 9,500 were CBP officers, _about half the agency_ participated in this. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/3 "2019-07-01T18:36:22Z")
> [@](#): > > 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.” And this isn’t even close to the worst they have posted. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/4 "2019-07-01T18:40:59Z")
This is utterly despicable. I’m not sure how much more of this awfulness I can stand. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/5 "2019-07-01T18:42:37Z")
_The thin veneer of civil society._ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/6 "2019-07-01T18:46:16Z")
Doesn’t Facebook have rules against pages that post shit like this? Maybe they get the same exemption that Trump gets regarding his tweets. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/7 "2019-07-01T18:48:04Z")
Yet another demonstration that a significant portion of America is at least partially driven by hatred and bigotry, and such folks are in control, or in positions of power, of many parts of our government and society. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/8 "2019-07-01T18:54:39Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Yet another demonstration that a significant portion of America is at least partially driven by hatred and bigotry, and such folks are in control, or in positions of power, of many parts of our government and society. As if we needed one. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/9 "2019-07-01T18:56:13Z")
I would love for the entire membership list to leak out to see if any familiar names pop up. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/10 "2019-07-01T18:57:51Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > According to the article, there are 9,500 participants in that page. CBP has 20,000 officers, iow, assuming that all 9,500 were CBP officers, _about half the agency_ participated in this. Not quite accurate. The article (and the OP) note that the membership of the FB group includes ‘former’ agents. So we really don’t know just how pervasive such sentiments are among current (or former) Border Patrol agents. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/11 "2019-07-01T19:06:10Z")
I won’t be able to check out the article until later, so for now I’m keeping my mind open to the possibility that it’s just a few thousand bad eggs trying to ruin it for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/12 "2019-07-01T19:10:51Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I won’t be able to check out the article until later, so for now I’m keeping my mind open to the possibility that it’s just a few thousand bad eggs trying to ruin it for everyone. …and the rest of the “Good Eggs” that knew about it and looked the other way. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/13 "2019-07-01T19:16:52Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I won’t be able to check out the article until later, so for now I’m keeping my mind open to the possibility that it’s just a few thousand bad eggs trying to ruin it for everyone. Not too sure that sentence really says what you’re trying to impart, bobot, because I read: “I won’t be able to check out the article until later, so for now I’m keeping my mind open to the possibility that it’s just a few thousand bad eggs trying to ruin _concentration camps_ for everyone.” Please clarify: what is the “it” that these people are trying to ruin? The camps? The Facebook group? Facebook itself? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/14 "2019-07-01T19:17:10Z")
This is vile. FB needs to shut down this group, after the members are identified. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/15 "2019-07-01T19:28:34Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Not too sure that sentence really says what you’re trying to impart, bobot, because I read: > > “I won’t be able to check out the article until later, so for now I’m keeping my mind open to the possibility that it’s just a few thousand bad eggs trying to ruin _concentration camps_ for everyone.” > > Please clarify: what is the “it” that these people are trying to ruin? The camps? The Facebook group? Facebook itself? The reputation of the border patrol. (And my just a few thousand was sarcastic. It’s usually just a few, not a few thousand. Sarcasm officially ruined by this explanation.) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/16 "2019-07-01T19:51:50Z")
Not even a little bit surprising. The fascists (I’m going to stop calling them “alt-right”. They’re not alt- anything) have been urging their members to get involved in law enforcement and the military for close to 20+ years now. A law enforcement agency where they routinely get to thump on brown people is pretty much heaven for their ilk. And if anybody here didn’t see this shit coming a mile away, you \*really \*haven’t been paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/17 "2019-07-01T20:12:40Z")
It’s obvious how this kind of thing happens under Trump. What I don’t get is why Obama let things get to this point back when he was president. It looks like the Homeland Security secretary was Jeh Johsnon during Obama’s second term. Do he and Obama deserve part of the blame for letting things get to this point? Let’s say that the Democratic nominee wins in 2020. Could the new POTUS just appoint a secretary of Homeland Defense who then appoints a director of CBP with specific orders to fire all the offending officers? Could the current contenders all run on the platform that they will appoint such a person to be the secretary of Homeland Defense? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/18 "2019-07-01T20:23:58Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > It’s obvious how this kind of thing happens under Trump. What I don’t get is why Obama let things get to this point back when he was president. It looks like the Homeland Security secretary was Jeh Johsnon during Obama’s second term. Do he and Obama deserve part of the blame for letting things get to this point? Let’s say that the Democratic nominee wins in 2020. Could the new POTUS just appoint a secretary of Homeland Defense who then appoints a director of CBP with specific orders to fire all the offending officers? Could the current contenders all run on the platform that they will appoint such a person to be the secretary of Homeland Defense? We have no idea what the nature of the posts were when it began 3 years ago or how many were members back when Obama was President, so there may have been nothing to report to him back then. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/19 "2019-07-01T20:36:19Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > should they face recrimination? At the very least: if any of them hold a security clearance, said clearance should be revoked. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358/20 "2019-07-01T20:46:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [9500 current and former Border Patrol agents](https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes#), and the hatred they spew when they think no one can see them. How has this gone on for three years without one agent spilling the beans, and should they face recrimination? As far as should the face recrimination, I would be in favor of firing every single member of that group and making them ineligible to be hired back into any government position as a lifetime ban. Of course that won’t happen under Trump, but I do hope the Democratic candidates make this part of their platforms. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/secret-border-patrol-facebook-page/836358.md?page=2)