The U.S. Border Patrol’s national museum expects to reopen Wednesday, 10 days after a group of masked protesters vandalized the facility, according to museum director David Ham.
In the week after the Feb. 16 incident, federal investigators combed over the scene to document the damage left behind. The museum had to wait to make repairs until law enforcement was done taking pictures and taking fingerprints.
Ham then brought in a professional remediation company to remove the 110 pictures that were pasted onto items throughout the 10,000-square-foot building, which houses cars, a helicopter, and a room where fallen agents are memorialized.
“They did a good job removing the stickers from the memorial wall, but did not have much luck with the other stuff in the memorial room,” Ham said.
Between 12 and 15 stickers could not be removed so the items they are on will have to be replaced. Ham said the museum is now working to get estimates on those dozen or so pieces.
Yesterday, masked protestors “occupied & reclaimed” (whatever that means) the #BorderPatrol museum (non-profit entity run by volunteers) & defaced our fallen agent memorial (a very sacred monument).
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the hypocrisy of their actions…? pic.twitter.com/VUmMmwAIqO
— Jason Owens, Chief Patrol Agent (@JOwensUSBP) February 17, 2019
Employees have continued work since the incident, and those who were working at the time it was vandalized will give statements to the El Paso Police Department this week.
“We are very anxious to get back to work,” said Ham.
A retired Border Patrol chaplain will visit Tuesday afternoon and speak with staff members who are still shaken up from the incident.
