Customs and Border Protection fired four employees and suspended more than three dozen without pay after a year-long investigation into their involvement in Facebook groups with violent, sexist, and racist posts against Latino migrants and members of Congress.
CBP said in a statement to NBC News on Friday that after an investigation into 138 cases of “inappropriate social media activity,” four employees were removed from service, 38 were suspended without pay, 33 were disciplined with reprimands or advice, and 63 of the allegations were without foundation. The Los Angeles Times first reported the news of the layoffs on Thursday.
As of July 15, six of the cases remain open, CBP said in the statement.
A year ago, authorities initially announced that 70 current and former CBP employees were under investigation for participating in a secret Facebook group in which users joked about the dead immigrants and made sexist and derogatory comments about Latino lawmakers.
The group, which at one time had approximately 9,500 members, shared comments on the member of Congress, including representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y. and Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, ProPublica reported last year. The group was called “I Have 10-15,” the code used by the Border Patrol for migrants in custody.
“The internal investigation by Customs and Border Protection on the Facebook group that featured violent, racist and sexist posts is not enough,” Escobar told NBC News on Friday. “The secret Facebook group scoffed at the trauma and death of the migrants, and as a member of Congress the group is targeting, I never received the results of their findings. CBP must continue to investigate the situation and determine why group members they never reported these hate attacks. “
Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A CBP spokesperson confirmed that the data in his statement represented investigations related to Facebook pages revealed last year.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, president of the Hispanic Assembly of Congress, said in a statement to NBC News that, “For too long, there has been a stale culture and systemic problems within Customs and Border Protection.”
“Firing four border patrol officers on racist and sexist charges against immigrants and members of Congress is a step in the right direction to demonstrate that federal law enforcement officers cannot act with impunity,” it said in the statement.
Castro said the group would request more information from the Department of Homeland Security, of which CBP is a part, about why “so few individuals were fired and held fully responsible.”
