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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Former Border Agent, at Risk of Deportation Himself
One afternoon in April 2018, Raul Rodriguez was working on his computer at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in Los Indios, Texas, when two managers entered the building. Somebody must be in trouble, he thought. The managers usually arrived in pairs when they needed a witness.
For nearly two decades, Rodriguez had searched for people and drugs hidden in cargo waiting to get into the United States. He was proud of his work as a Customs and Border Protection officer; it gave him stability and a sense of purpose. Even in the spring of 2018, when public scrutiny of CBP began to intensifythe agency had officially started separating children from their parentsRodriguez remained committed to his job. Though he wasnt separating any families at the border, hed canceled the visas and initiated the deportations of thousands of people in his years of service.
Hey, Raulito, one of the managers said, calling him over. Rodriguez walked past agents who were trying to look busy on their computers. Just two years from being eligible to retire, Rodriguez says he had an unblemished record. He couldnt imagine what the managers wanted.
(snip)
Days later, he sat down with investigators at a federal building in nearby McAllen, Texas. They told him his career in immigration and his military service before thathis identity as a veteran, an agent, and an Americanwere based on a lie. His United States citizenship was fraudulent. He was an undocumented immigrant himself.
For nearly two decades, Rodriguez had searched for people and drugs hidden in cargo waiting to get into the United States. He was proud of his work as a Customs and Border Protection officer; it gave him stability and a sense of purpose. Even in the spring of 2018, when public scrutiny of CBP began to intensifythe agency had officially started separating children from their parentsRodriguez remained committed to his job. Though he wasnt separating any families at the border, hed canceled the visas and initiated the deportations of thousands of people in his years of service.
Hey, Raulito, one of the managers said, calling him over. Rodriguez walked past agents who were trying to look busy on their computers. Just two years from being eligible to retire, Rodriguez says he had an unblemished record. He couldnt imagine what the managers wanted.
(snip)
Days later, he sat down with investigators at a federal building in nearby McAllen, Texas. They told him his career in immigration and his military service before thathis identity as a veteran, an agent, and an Americanwere based on a lie. His United States citizenship was fraudulent. He was an undocumented immigrant himself.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/a-former-border-agent-at-risk-of-deportation/606418/
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A Former Border Agent, at Risk of Deportation Himself (Original Post)
WhiskeyGrinder
Feb 2020
OP
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)1. In drumpf world the investigators investigate the investigators,
so border agents deporting border agents makes perfect sense. America has gone totally insane.
SharonClark
(10,014 posts)2. I heard the story yesterday on This American Life
It will be available tonight [link: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/694/get-back-to-where-you-once-belonged|
Nature Man
(869 posts)3. The Nazis had a bureaucracy to police racial purity issues and status