Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, has refused to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request and release video footage of an altercation between New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Border Patrol personnel during a July tour of a Texas facility. CBP claims the video does not exist, even though a supervisor at the facility said over the summer that it did.
The Washington Examiner submitted a FOIA request July 1, hours after a congressional tour of a Border Patrol station in El Paso, Texas, turned tense. Several Border Patrol personnel present during the Congressional Hispanic Caucus tour said at the time that the congresswoman confronted them in a way they considered inappropriate.
After the tour, the Washington Examiner contacted Border Patrol’s El Paso Station to obtain a copy of the video. El Paso Station Special Operations Supervisor Michelle Perez said in two phone calls in July that the cameras were recording in the area where the exchanged happened. Perez said she pulled the footage so it would be ready to share if CBP headquarters in Washington approved the FOIA request.
In late November, CBP’s FOIA arm responded to the request, saying it did not have video, and instead released nine pages of related documents.
CBP FOIA Analyst L. Beasley wrote in a letter dated Nov. 19, “It has also been determined at the time of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ visit the station’s DVRs were not operational at the time and as such no videos were recorded and no videos exist of the visit.”
Two Border Patrol employees present during the exchange spoke with the Washington Examiner last week and said the 11-year-old station — where migrants are temporarily detained after being arrested for illegally entering the country — is “new” compared to others in the region and had working cameras and recording equipment when the lawmakers visited.
The redacted CBP documents include the accounts of five employees who were present during the incident. The five memos were written within a day of the incident and depict how Ocasio-Cortez became upset as the result of what she said was a female Border Patrol agent secretly taking her photo on a cellphone. No proof was provided that a photo was taken by the agent of Ocasio-Cortez.
It is unclear whether the video exists or whether it is being withheld. One official said CBP headquarters may be refusing to release footage because the video would make them look bad for how it showed then-El Paso Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull “getting run over” by lawmakers. The second person said it could look bad for an official who berated the female agent whom Ocasio-Cortez thought was taking a photo.
“During the briefing which was presented by El Paso Sector Command Staff, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez abruptly voiced an allegation that a female agent outside of the [REDACTED] had just taken a selfie with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez in the background. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez not only verbally voiced this concern, she became agitated and animated as she began to bang on the glass, pointing and screaming at the agent,” according to the memos.
A senior border official walked over to the female agent, seized the agent’s phone, and found a “web-based” image that “had nothing to do with interior photos of the detention area.”
A second witness said Ocasio-Cortez “pointed to the agent and began to bang on the glass and yell from inside the [REDACTED] to the agent.”
The same person recalled: “Ms. Ocasio became more animated and began to stomp her foot she then said, “I as a woman of color do not feel safe here, as women of color none of us feel safe here, nobody of color feels safe here.” Ms Ocasio then stormed out of the processing [REDACTED] to the processing area to confront the agent who allegedly took the picture of Ms. Ocasio.”
A third account was similar to the first two. The fourth and fifth accounts, those of the female agent in question and another agent who had been next to her, separately recalled the incident.
“On July 1, 2019, I heard loud banging on the window behind me while I was working inside the processing area. I turned around to this lady shaking her finger at me, I was not sure why she was trying to attract my attention until Patrol Agent in Charge (PAIC) [REDACTED] came to me and told me that they were accusing me of taking ‘selfie shots’ of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. At this time, I immediately handed my phone to PAIC [REDACTED] to show him I had no photos of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on my phone and he confirmed there were no photos of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Although my phone was out, I was not taking any photos,” she wrote.
The other agent also reported a “loud banging” on the window and seeing a “lady yelling and pointing her finger” at the other agent.
The CBP documents do not address why the agent had her phone out. One Border Patrol official present that day told the Washington Examiner that the agent accused of taking a photo had raised her phone to unlock the screen by using facial recognition technology, putting the phone in a position that could have made it look like she was taking a photo.
Border Patrol personnel told the Washington Examiner in July that Ocasio-Cortez also became upset about detainees’ lack of suitable drinking water, but that was not documented in the memos.
CBP and the office of Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to emails. Perez was unable to be reached.
