The Trouble for Donald Trump and his Support by the Border Patrol Union

Donald Trump happily tweeted the endorsement he received by the National Border Patrol Council on Memorial Day 2016. Never mind that the endorsement was extremely controversial from within the rank-and-file of the agents that makeup the membership of the union. Many of the agents have expressed their displeasure at their leadership for making the endorsement. Never mind that only 11 individuals voted for the entire union comprised of over 16,500 agents. That is right, according to a May 12, 2016 Los Angeles Times newspaper article, only eleven individuals made the choice for the union without asking the membership what they thought. None of that matters in political caricature that is Donald Trump.

Unfortunately for Donald Trump, his gleeful proclamations about the border enforcement agency union’s endorsement is that it proves how little understanding he has about the issues of immigration. As I have written previously, the underlining issue is that the immigration system is broken. It is so broken that the eleven individuals that voted to endorse Donald Trump went not only against their membership but even against their own stated longstanding positon on walls and fences along the border.

That is right, the union that endorsed Donald Trump, because of his wall rhetoric, fully agrees and understands that a wall will not solve the underlying problem. Talk about political rhetoric.

Look carefully at the screen capture above. It comes directly from the union’s website. I took a screen shot of it on May 31, 2016. You can clearly see that the union believes building a wall is “wasting taxpayer money.” The union even tells you that building a wall will only be a “speed bump” towards solving the immigration issue. In other words, a border wall will not solve the problem of immigration even though Donald Trump gleefully proclaims that it is “very necessary!” (it is his explanation point)

Unfortunately, the problem runs deeper than that. Forget that the union contradicts itself by endorsing Donald Trump and look at how the agency represents that values of the law abiding US citizens.

The National Border Patrol Council clearly understands that it has a corruption problem within its ranks. It says so right on their website because they cannot hide the fact that many of its own agents are involved in drug running and immigrant smuggling. Here is a quick list of just a few cases in order to bring you up to speed.

In August of 2012, former Border Patrol Agent Abel Canales pleaded guilty to taking bribes in exchange for allowing contraband through. In August of 2014, former Border Patrol Agent Raimundo Borjas pleaded guilty to money laundering.

In November of 2014, former Border Patrol Agent Roberto Cantu Rodriguez pleaded guilty to harboring undocumented immigrants. In November of 2015, former Border Patrol Agent Adam S. Garibay pleaded guilty to murder for killing a man that was romantically involved with his wife. Also, in November of the same year, former Border Patrol Agent Luis Lozada pleaded guilty and was jailed on three counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual performance on a child. Lozada had an affair with a 15-year old girl.

On May 14, 2015, former Border Patrol Agent Armando Gonzalez pleaded guilty for secretly placing a camera in a women’s restroom at the border patrol station he was working from. Yup, he admitted to video taping his fellow female agents while they were in the bathroom.

On November 18, 2015, Border Patrol Agent Juan Pimental was arrested after 110 pounds of cocaine were found in a rental car he was driving. Last month, border patrol agent Daniel Polanco was indicted for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. The case involves 15 individuals that have been charged with drug trafficking charges.

In late 2015, former Border Patrol Agent, Joel Luna was arrested in a case involving the beheading of an Honduran national in Edinburg, near Brownsville. Luna was found with $90,000, over a kilo of cocaine and with two birth certificates in his name, one making him a US citizen and another a Mexican citizen. Border patrol agents are required to be US citizens. In court papers, Luna has been tied to a Mexican cartel.

On April of 2016, former Border Patrol Agent Julio Cesar Trujillo pleaded guilty to bribery. Trujillo accepted $3,600 in bribe money to extend the date of a visa and obtain another visa for someone.

You might note that none of the cases I have pointed you to involve any of numerous allegations of civil rights violations that Border Patrol Agents are routinely accused of. I have pointed out to you cases in which it is clear that there are numerous cases of border patrol misconduct and corruption within its ranks.

I have only shared a small number of cases involving corruption and drug trafficking charges against border patrol agents. I also shared with you examples over the last three years so that you can clearly see that this is an engrained problem within the Border Patrol. Just Google “border patrol corruption” and you will see a long list of problems within the border patrol over a long-span of time.

Politicos like Donald Trump gloss over the underlining problems and use imagery and distorted information to get elected. Trump, for his part, has called Mexicans, like me, criminals and rapists. I am neither and many of my fellow immigrants are not either.

Like I have pointed out numerous times before, the whole immigration apparatus is broken, starting from the laws on down to the enforcement of them. The union agrees with me that Donald Trump’s wall will not solve the underlining problem. Yet, Donald Trumps writes that they agree with his wall rhetoric.

More importantly, Donald Trump gleefully proclaims the support of border patrol agents that as evidenced by the list I compiled above includes drug traffickers, rapists and criminals. I wonder if Donald Trump knows this little inconvenient fact.