Remember the piles of wedding rings taken from holocaust victims

[haele]

51. Agreed, he began collecting these items in 2007. ICE has been hyper-agressive since it was formed.

Border Patrol hasn't been much better - the screening of border agents has always been abysmal. There might have the few guys or gals who really do think they're protecting America, but there's way to many cynical tools who are more inclined to bully someone who can't legally fight back than do their jobs in a professional manner - or stand off and laugh as their co-workers dehumanize the people they catch.

NPR had a story on the screening of ICE agents that a few years ago I remember hearing about when MS-13 started being talked about to gin up white fear - apparently DHS's background checks are 2 to 5 years lagging even back around 2005, so over the years there have been quite a few gang members, abusers, and racists hired based on whatever they put down on their clearance surveys that should never have been near the border - either they turn a blind eye to smugglers who are associated with the gang or cartel the agent belongs to, or the agent use their guise of official authority to hunt down brown people for their own pleasure in relative isolation and with tacit approval from their management.

Back when I lived in the East County, the sheriff's deputies I was acquainted with have said that Border Patrol tends to get the wash-outs and burn-outs they wouldn't hire - and that's really telling, as way too many sheriff's deputies are still authoritarian a-holes who pick and choose who they're going to "apply the law to" (in their words).

Haele