U.S. Customs and Border Protection has proposed firing and disciplining dozens of federal agents for posting vulgar comments and offensive memes on a private Facebook page that was exposed in July, according to a senior agency official.
As of Thursday, an internal review board had proposed terminating seven employees, but that figure could go up to 20 in the coming days, according to the official, who has firsthand knowledge of the recommendations.
The agency has proposed that 20 other agents who belonged to the famous “I’m 10-15” Facebook group, Border Patrol’s code for when an agent has taken an illegal crosser into custody, be disciplined, which could mean suspension, administrative duties, loss of vacation days, and other things. That figure could double to 40.
On July 1, ProPublica reported on the digital group and shared screenshots of instances where some members joked about heinous incidents involving Democratic lawmakers and immigrants who had recently died on the border, among other things.
Exactly 59 employees have been sent cease and desist letters, threatening future legal action if they continue inappropriate social media activity that degrades people in custody, lawmakers, or others.
Agents who have been recommended for termination or discipline are given the chance to respond to the accusations before a final determination is made, the official explained.
It’s not clear how many of the 9,500 members of the Facebook group in question posted pictures or comments that would be considered a punishable offense since the secret site was created in August 2016.
Posts included memes that depicted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offering to give oral sex to men in Border Patrol custody and President Trump forcibly pushing the same congresswoman’s head down toward his crotch. Other posts discussed throwing burritos at Democrats such as Ocasio-Cortez, who had described the facilities as concentration camps, during a recent tour of El Paso Border Patrol stations. Some group members made fun of the migrant father and young child whose bodies were found on the banks of the Rio Grande River in Texas.
CBP, a Department of Homeland Security comprised of roughly 60,000 employees, vowed within a day of the ProPublica story to investigate.
Two weeks later, its Office of Professional Responsibility, which looks into internal concerns, said it had determined 62 current employees, primarily Border Patrol, had belonged to the page.
Matthew Klein, who has served as assistant commissioner of this internal affairs office since 2015, said at the time that membership in the group did not necessarily mean the agent would be punished or fired. Klein said internal reviewers were looking at who knew about the comments.
Days later, Border Patrol’s national chief, Carla Provost, was named by the Intercept as a group member. The story claimed she was active on the page and included a screenshot of a comment she made on a post in late 2018.
It is not clear if Provost or other senior Border Patrol officials who were named by the Intercept as page members will be punished or fired.
The senior CBP official expressed disappointment in the limited punishments and said the disciplinary measures were only touching a fraction of those in violation of social media policies.
“Everybody throughout the agency is going to see this and know it’s a joke and they just touched the surface. And that’s the problem: they just scratched the surface. They didn’t change the culture,” the official said.
