TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
BY MARIA SACCHETTI
AND NICK MIROFFA U.S. C ustoms and B order Pro-
tection internal affairs office
found that 60 agents “committed
misconduct” by sharing violent
and obscene posts in secret Face-
book groups, but the agency fired
only two — far f ewer t han an i nter-
nal discipline review board had
recommended, according to a
House Oversight and Reform
Committee report released Mon-
day.
The report found “significant
shortcomings” in the agency’s
handling of the incidents and said
most agents who engaged in mis-
conduct are back on the job work-
ing with migrant adults and chil-
dren.
They include a Border Patrol
agent who posted a “sexually ex-
plicit doctored image” about a
member of Congress, and a super-
visor who “improperly” shared an
internal video of a migrant falling
off a cliff to their death, according
to the r eport.
“These outcomes were the re-
sult of a number of failings at
CBP, including an inconsistent
disciplinary process, a failure to
train o n and enforce social media
policies, and senior leadership’s
failure to take appropriate ac-
tions despite knowledge of these
Facebook groups,” said the re-
port, which w as p repared by s taff
from the c ommittee’s D emocratic
majority.
The House investigation began
in 2019 after explosive reports by
ProPublica and others detailed vio-
lent, racist and sexist postings in
private CBP Facebook groups on-
line. Committee investigators said
that they had tried for more than a
year to obtain access to witnesses
and unredacted disciplinary rec-
ords but that the Trump administra-
tion refused to hand them over, even
when the chair issued a subpoena.
The records finally became
available in February, after Presi-
dent Biden took office, the com-
mittee said.
House investigators reviewed
135 case files of CBP employees
alleged to have committed mis-
conduct i n Facebook groups.
Allegations of misconduct were
“not substantiated” for 54 CBP
employees. But the Office of Pro-
fessional Responsibility, the inter-
nal affairs division, found 60 in
violation of agency rules.
Of these, two were fired, 43
were suspended without pay, a
dozen were handed letters of rep-
rimand, and three were suspend-
ed with pay or some other disci-
pline. Te n others r etired b efore the
investigation ended, and 11 re-
ceived warnings.
The House report found CBP’s
Discipline Review Board recom-
mended firing as many as 24
agents for “serious misconduct,”
and two retired. The rest received
“significantly lighter” punish-
ments instead, the report said.
Eighteen were suspended, an-
other got a reprimand letter andstill another an “oral admonish-
ment.”
For instance, the report said,
the board had recommended the
firing of the Border Patrol agent
“who posted a sexually explicit
doctored image and derogatory
comments about a Member of
Congress.” Instead, he was sus-
pended for 60 days and awarded
back pay.
The Border Patrol supervisor
“who improperly posted an inter-
nal C BP video” o f a migrant falling
to their death, as well a s “an explic-
it and offensive comment” about a
member of Congress, was sus-
pended for 30 days instead of be-
ing fired.
And an agent “with a history of
multiple infractions” was allowed
to retire with disability benefits
after posting a photograph of a
drowned father and child “and
referring derisively to them as
‘floaters,’ ” the report said.
I n a statement, CBP spokeswom-an Stephanie Malin said the agency
“will not tolerate hateful, misogy-
nist, or racist behavior or any con-
duct that is unbecoming of the hon-
or we hold a s public servants.”
The Department of Homeland
Security, including CBP, is under-
going an internal review directed
by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
“to identify and t erminate intoler-
able prejudice, and to reform pol-
icies and training,” said Malin.
The agency has increased pub-
lic access to information about
employee misconduct and has or-
dered the development of annual
social media training mandatory
for C BP’s e ntire w orkforce, among
other measures, officials said.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney
(D-N.Y.), the committee chair-
woman, said the report’s findings
detail what she called a “broken
disciplinary p rocess” at C BP.
“CBP’s failure to prevent these
violent and offensive statements
by its own agents or impose ad-equate discipline creates a serious
risk that this behavior will contin-
ue,” Maloney said in a statement.
“A s we saw with the mistreatment
of migrants by Border Patrol
agents in Del Rio, Te xas last
month, systemic behavior prob-
lems within C BP persist.”
One of the two fired Border Pa-
trol agents had posted offensive
images of a “white supremacist
symbol and sexualized images of a
Member of Congress”; the final
removal of the agent is pending
arbitration with the Border Patrol
union, according to the report. The
second dismissed agent shared
“multiple offensive and abhorrent
posts, including a doctored picture
of a Member of Congress being
violently sexually abused and
raped,” and graphics and com-
ments bullying subordinates.
The most prominent private
group had more than 9,500 fol-
lowers and was known as “I’m
10-15,” Border Patrol lingo for“aliens i n custody.”
The report found that CBP lead-
ers had been aware of the miscon-
duct on “I’m 10-15” since August
2016, at the end of the Obama
administration, but took “mini-
mal action” to improve social me-
dia training and failed to quickly
hold people accountable.
Facebook also d eclined to allow
CBP’s internal affairs unit to ex-
amine the posts in the secret
group, so investigators had to rely
on media reports, the r eport said.
Of the 60 agents who commit-
ted misconduct, the report found,
57 of them are working with mi-
grants today, the House report
said. “The vast majority of agents
— including those who made de-
grading and even threatening
comments about migrants — re-
ceived only minor discipline,” the
report s aid.
It notes that former Border Pa-
trol chiefs Carla Provost and Rod-
ney Scott were members of the
Facebook group but d id not r eport
misconduct. The officials have
stated they joined the group to
gather feedback from the CBP
workforce.
“Multiple C BP employees inves-
tigated for their actions on ‘I’m
10-15’ s tated that t he p articipation
of Chief Provost, Acting Deputy
Chief Scott, a nd o ther senior man-
agers in the group gave them the
impression that CBP leadership
was aware of the group and the
nature of its posts,” according to
the report. CBP internal reviews
did not recommend administra-
tive action against Provost, Scott
or other senior officials who be-
longed to the group, i t noted.
The report recommended that
CBP leaders hold social media vio-
lators accountable, strengthen so-
cial media training, reform hiring
processes to screen out applicants
with “records of discrimination”
and take such violations into ac-
count when d eciding future promo-
tions. Officials should also prevent
employees who display bias from
working with “vulnerable” popula-
tions such as children and address
poor morale, the r eport s aid.
Agents told CBP internal inves-
tigators that the “I’m 10-15” Face-
book group was a way to commis-
erate over “job dissatisfaction”
and low morale, t he report said.
[email protected]
[email protected]House report: Border agents f aced flawed discipline
BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES
Border Patrol agents and National Guard troops patrol a checkpoint entry n ear a b ridge on Sept. 22 in Del Rio, Tex.C BP office found 60 h ad
made improper posts on
Facebook; a gency fired 2WE BRING THE
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