The Border Patrol Is the Problem. It Always Has Been. (NY Times OpEd) A Must Read!
Jan. 29, 2026
By Reece Jones
Mr. Jones is the author of “Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States.”
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.
Today, there are about 20,000 Border Patrol agents, compared with some 1,500 in the 1970s. As the agency grew, it began to extend its policing methods far from the border itself. Some 50 million vehicles are screened every year at internal Border Patrol checkpoints miles from a border. From 2016 to 2020, 91 percent of drug seizures at interior checkpoints involved only American citizens. Americans have accused officers of assaulting and racially profiling them, even before Minneapolis. The Border Patrol has also raided religious and humanitarian organizations that provide aid to immigrants.
The Southern Border Communities Coalition counts 364 fatal encounters with Customs and Border Protection agents since 2010. Border Patrol agents have killed Mexican teenagers on the Mexican side of the border. In April, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that the U.S. government was responsible for torturing, killing and covering up the death of Anastasio Hernández Rojas while he was in Border Patrol custody.
[snip]
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/border-patrol-ice-minneapolis.html
There is more to the this OpEd.
If you don't have access to the NY Times online, you can listen to the entire article
at this Link Below.
https://static.nytimes.com/narrated-articles/synthetic/article-3c779d1f-c325-5331-94be-e339ba4b135e/job-1769813212447/article-3c779d1f-c325-5331-94be-e339ba4b135e-job-1769813212447.mp3
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Lawrence, Ms NOW interviews the author of the Op Ed and his book “Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States.” (I found a copy of his book at my public library)
The interview as at the last 5-min of this video. It starts @37:00 min into the video.
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I just think about how long the 'perpetual criminal' thought about doing this in our US cities.
Who told him about it in the first place?
It all must to stop! It is inhuman to treat people like this no matter what!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thanks for sharing - hope enough people read it and begin to get a better understanding of what is going on with THIS part of the tRump MIS-Administration.............. 
