U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are under investigation after the agency became aware of a secret Facebook group where the members made vulgar posts, including posting an image of the president sexually assaulting a freshman member of Congress.
The investigation was opened after a Monday ProPublica report revealed the social media activity in the three-year-old group.
‘U.S. Customs and Border Protection was made aware of disturbing social media activity hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees,’ the head of CPB’s internal affairs unit Matthew Klein said Monday.
He also said investigators with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General were ‘immediately informed’ of the investigation.
Customs and Border Protection agents are under investigation after a report emerged of a secret Facebook account made up of agents where vulgar, misogynistic and homophobic posts are shared
Some recent posts call U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe (left) a ‘man’ and another is a meme that mocks CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (right), who is gay, for his sexual orientation
The group, called ‘I’m 10-15,’ has about 9,500 members and posts offensive images, including discussing plans to disrupt a planned congressional visit to a Border Patrol facility and jokes about migrant deaths.
’10-15′ is the code for a migrant in custody.
One user posted an illustration of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic representative from New York, being sexually assaulted by President Donald Trump.
Another recent post shared with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism, was a meme mocking CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s sexual orientation – and one other showed a commenter calling U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe a ‘man.’
Rapinoe garnered national attention after saying, ‘I’m not going to the f*****g White House,’ when asked if she would accept Trump’s invitation if USA wins the World Cup.
Ocasio-Cortez invited Rapinoe and the rest of the U.S. women’s Soccer Team to tour the Capitol instead.
‘It may not be the White House, but we’d be happy to welcome @mPinoe & the entire #USWMNT for a tour of the House of Representatives anytime they’d like,’ she tweeted Friday.
Rapinoe accepted, tweeting back, ‘Consider it done.
Klein said the code of conduct for CBP employees bars them from making hateful or abusive comments on social media.
That didn’t stop users from making fun of a video of a migrant man trying to pull a child through a river in a plastic bag.
‘At least it’s already in a trash bag,’ one poster said of the child.
Another post was an illustration of freshman Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being sexually assaulted by President Trump. She responded to the reports of the Facebook activity on Twitter
The Democrat from New York said the CBP Facebook group wasn’t just exhibiting a ‘few bad eggs’ but was showing the true ‘violent culture’ of the agency
‘Sous-vide? Lol,’ another wrote, referring to a method of cooking where the food is placed in a plastic pouch.
Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said ‘any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.’
‘These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out,’ she said in a statement.
ProPublica also shared so other outlandish posts on its Twitter.
One of the screen grabs were gifs members put up in response to someone posting a news story about a Guatemalan migrant who died while being held at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas in May.
“Oh well,” one gif portrayed, and another was a gif of Ivan Drago’s quote, “If he dies, he dies,” from boxing movie Rocky IV.
In another, a member of the group posted about throwing burritos at Latina members of Congress Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas.
“Let’s start a go fund me for one CTX agent brave enough to throw a 10-15 burrito at one of these b*****s,” the user posted. “Who ever does it takes the pot of $$.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who is a common target of the misogynistic and offensive posts on the page, responded to the report on Twitter.
‘This isn’t about ‘a few bad eggs.’ This is a violent culture,’ she wrote, adding the CBP is a ‘rogue agency.’
‘When you pair: – 9,500 current + former CBP officers are part of a violently racist & sexually violent secret Facebook group – Corroborating accounts of abuse – CBP couldn’t control their own officers for a Congressional tour. What else do you call that but a rogue agency?’ she continued in another post.
As of 2017, only 5 per cent of the CBP workforce was female.
National Border Patrol Council, the union representing CBP, said the ‘handful of people who posted inappropriate content out of 9,500 members of the Facebook group’ is ‘not representative of our employees and does a great disservice to all Border Patrol agents, the overwhelming majority of whom perform their duties admirably.’
It added that not all of the members in the group ‘are active active duty agents.’
Ocasio-Cortez visited a Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas Monday, and said she witness officers being ‘brazen’ and treating detainees like ‘animals’
In one post a member of the group said he would give money to someone if they threw burritos at Latina members of Congress Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas
A current CBP agent told ProPublica that the issues with the Facebook page has been ‘going on for years.’
‘No one has done anything about it,’ the agent said.
He said that ‘nobody seemed to care’ when group members in 2016 attacked an openly gay agent with homophobic posts when he voiced support for then-candidate Hillary Clinton.
CBP and other immigration enforcement have come under fire during the Trump administration’s crack-down at the border – especially regarding the treatment of migrants seeking asylum.
On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez toured a Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas and said the detainees were treated like ‘animals’ by ‘brazen’ officers.
The trip to the center was organized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus after a handful of lawmakers running for president in 2020 were denied access to the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in Florida last week.
Actress and activist Alyssa Milano mused that those at the facilities denied access so it would give them time to stall and ‘clean up’ the place.