- A former senior border patrol agent described a federal unit deployed in Portland, Oregon, as “one of the most violent and racist of all law enforcement.”
- Jenn Budd, who worked at the agency for six years before leaving in 2001, recalled her experiences with the elite Border Patrol unit, also known as Bortac, to The Guardian.
- “They don’t make normal vehicle stops. They will rip drivers out of their seats, throw him against the side, put him in handcuffs, the same tactic he is now seeing Bortac’s agents use in Portland,” Budd said.
- Bortac, short for the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, is generally summoned for high-risk missions such as drug raids.
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A former border patrol agent described an elite federal unit deployed by the Trump administration to quell the protests in Portland, Oregon, as one of the “most violent and racist of all law enforcement.”
Jenn Budd, who worked at the agency for six years until 2001, recalled her encounters with the United States Border Patrol’s unique unit, known as Bortac, to The Guardian in a story published Monday.
Specially trained officers are the “biggest guys, like athletes on a soccer team,” Budd told The Guardian. “They live in tight groups like the Navy Seals, and they spend their time in military-style training.”
“They don’t exist in the realm of civil law enforcement,” Budd said. “They see the people they meet in the military sense as enemy combatants, which means they have virtually no rights.”
Bortac, which was first established in 1984, often functions as the Border Patrol SWAT team and is responsible for conducting missions related to drug trafficking, human trafficking, and other high-risk operations. Members receive advanced training, are equipped with special weapons, and are deployed both nationally and internationally, as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq. The unit is based in El Paso, Texas, and officials often work in desert areas of the border.
“They don’t make normal vehicle stops. They’ll rip drivers out of their seats, toss him aside, put him in handcuffs, the same tactic he is now seeing Bortac’s agents use in Portland,” Budd told The Guardian.
Bortac agents have been among at least 110 federal law enforcement officials dispatched by President Donald Trump earlier this month to protect federal buildings in Portland, where protests have been ongoing since the assassination of George Floyd. May 25. Countless violent clashes between officers and civilians have unfolded in recent weeks, involving the use of tear gas and non-lethal ammunition.
Many state and local officials, along with DHS employees themselves, have condemned the actions and the presence of federal agents in Oregon’s largest city as “unconstitutional.” Congressional lawmakers in response have introduced legislation to block Trump, who has tried to increase the number of federal forces in Portland, from using them as “shadow paramilitaries against the Americans.”
Rodney Scott, who has served as chief of the Border Patrol since January, said he offered to deploy Bortac to the scene after the Federal Protection Service, the agency in charge of protecting federal civilian facilities, asked for help from other DHS departments. , according to reports from the Wall. Street Journal.
Budd, who describes herself as a whistleblower, criticized the boss on Monday after tweeting that “officers are assaulted with laser weapons in #Portland every night.”
“Something you should know about @USBPChief is lying. A lot. I really like it, a lot,” Budd wrote on Twitter.
—Jenn Budd ✊🏻 (@BuddJenn) July 27, 2020
Budd also told The Guardian that an instructor during her training as a Border Patrol agent in 1995 used racial slurs such as “tonks” and “wetbacks” to refer to Latino immigrants, who she said were often considered “criminals. “by the agency.
Border Patrol officials have long been accused of discriminatory practices by civil rights groups, highlighting the investigation into the division’s use of force and specific attacks on people, namely Mexicans. and Central Americans.
