One of the recurring themes regarding the current debacle with Homeland Security in Minneapolis has been that the big problem is new recruits. Everyone knows Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a massive hiring campaign going on, complete with bizarre ads that look like they've been lifted straight from the Third Reich, so the collective assumption is the Big Problem is poorly trained new recruits. When an ICE agent murdered Renee Good there was lots of confidence that it would turn out the agent was a newbie, an inexperienced rookie who had been rushed through an extremely superficial training program.
Except it wasn't. Turned out the man who murdered Good had 18 years experience with Customs and Border Patrol. He was about as thoroughly trained as it was possible to be. He shot an unarmed woman basically because he believed could. He believed he would suffer zero consequences on the job. No review, no administrative leave, he thought it would be business as usual, perhaps a commendation from his supervisors.
And then Alex Pretti got shot in the back multiple times while being pinned face down to a sidewalk by half a dozen ICE agents. More inexperienced trigger happy rookies? Nope. Once again the shooters had multiple years of experience.
These two shootings have me thinking a rather uncomfortable thought: all three men have worked for years along the Texas-Mexico border. How many dead mojados are out there in the sagebrush? How common is it for CBP and ICE to eliminate processing paperwork by dropping illegal immigrants in the desert rather than apprehending them and dealing with filling in forms? Maybe it was so easy for Good and Pretti's killers to shoot a couple of unarmed people because they already had lots of practice.
CBP has had a shit reputation for decades. It's known for corruption and brutality. But what if it's even worse than we thought?
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