The Border Patrol Is the Problem. It Always Has Been.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/border-patrol-ice-minneapolis.html

The violence, racial profiling and disregard for the Constitution that have burst into public view in Minneapolis are not new or unusual for the Border Patrol. This is how the agency has operated since it was created, though for decades those activities have been hidden in the remote borderlands. If you are uncomfortable with what the Border Patrol is doing in Minneapolis, you are uncomfortable with the Border Patrol, full stop.

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the umbrella term for all immigration agents, the Border Patrol is the larger force with a longer history. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents have the job of finding, detaining and deporting people. Border Patrol agents police areas in between ports of entry. Alex Pretti was shot by the Border Patrol; Renee Good was shot by ICE.

The Trump administration’s decision this week to replace the Border Patrol commander in Minneapolis, Gregory Bovino, suggested that the problem was limited to leadership mistakes. But this move, and other possible solutions offered by the Trump administration and Democrats alike, does not adequately address the depth of the problem.

The tactics in Minneapolis have been used both on the border and beyond — against immigrants and citizens alike — during the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden presidencies.

Reform isn't possible. Abolish it all.

[GusBob]

1. My best friend since age 6 is a Game Warden in Arizona, working the border

He is also a big game hunter and hunting guide on and across the southern border.

He has nothing but disdain for BP officers, he describes them as more corrupt and criminal than the cartels. And he has had run-ins and is well known with both.

[GCG]

2. Well

I used to work at the county jail in Tucson. It was thought that the Border Patrol were divided into 3 different groups...1 worked with and for the Cartels, 1 worked with and for the traffickers, and the last group sat on a fence "not seeing" anything that was done by the other two!


I personally knew a member of the BP in Arizona who was arrested for raping a woman that he caught crossing the border...he was tried and convicted...turned in by the woman he raped!

[leftstreet]

4. +1

[Historic NY]

3. Reported arrests of Border Patrol fiscal years.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/reported-employee-arrests]