CBP Wants to Destroy Records of Misconduct. We Can鈥檛 Let Them.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the nation鈥檚 largest federal law enforcement agency, operates with routine impunity. Now, the agency has asked the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which maintains federal agency records, to approve destruction of internal CBP records of misconduct.
An agency rife with abuse should not be allowed to purge its own paper trail of wrongdoing. That鈥檚 why this week, the 老澳门开奖结果 of Texas Border Rights Center, along with more than 100 partner organizations, filed a public comment urging NARA to reject CBP鈥檚 proposal. The principal reason: CBP鈥檚 own oversight system is a disaster, and future study of the agency鈥檚 failures of accountability will be stymied by the documents鈥� destruction.
The documents CBP seeks to ultimately destroy 鈥渞ecords developed to track and monitor complaints that are or will be investigated by DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) regarding alleged violations of civil rights and civil liberties鈥�; 鈥渞ecords pertaining to administrative and criminal investigations on [CBP] employees, contractors, and those in CBP custody鈥�; and records and reports of Prison Rape Elimination Act allegations.
Today, CBP employs more than Border Patrol agents and CBP officers, and maintains a budget of nearly . Despite the agency鈥檚 massive workforce and budget, accountability mechanisms have failed to ensure any semblance of accountability. For example, a Cato Institute found that between 2006 to 2016, CBP 鈥渕isconduct and disciplinary infractions outstripped all other federal law enforcement鈥� and 鈥渋t is virtually impossible to assess the extent of corruption or misconduct 鈥� because most publicly available information is incomplete or inconsistent.鈥� Just this year, instead of purchasing medical supplies for immigrants, CBP the allocated funds on dog food and dirt bikes.
The agency鈥檚 complaint and disciplinary systems are broken. According to data obtained by the American Immigration Council in 2017, the agency took of complaints filed against the agency between 2012 and 2015. Despite independent advisory panel recommendations issued in 2016, CBP has still its disciplinary system. The panel recommended CBP hire 350 internal affairs investigators and appoint a discipline czar to coordinate internal accountability. The agency has done neither.
CBP records related to CRCL investigations would, under this proposal, be destroyed after four short years. and filed at least with CBP鈥檚 joint intake system in 2019 alone (See additional examples , , and .). Those complaints contained numerous individual examples of CBP abuse and were built on hundreds of interviews. Only one resulted in a confirmed DHS Office of Inspector General investigation, while others received form letter responses from CRCL ensuring inquiry into the allegations with no further communication about the complaint. Documentation collected by CBP stemming from these complaints could prove vital to future examinations of a particularly abusive period in the agency鈥檚 history.
Moreover, CRCL whistleblowers have also raised alarm bells about the oversight body鈥檚 diminishing ability to hold CBP accountable. Last year, former CRCL staff attorney and advisor Ellen Gallagher said the agency seemed to 鈥溾�� by soliciting complaints of alleged violations 鈥渋f [CRCL had no intention of specifically investigating or resolving those individual complaints.鈥� Just last month, CRCL staff claimed publicly that CBP was about the development of a new use-of-force policy and the agency鈥檚 intention to use 鈥渃hemical deterrents鈥� at the border.
CRCL鈥檚 frequent inaction and CBP鈥檚 own undermining of the office鈥檚 oversight role further bolsters the need for complete and permanent retention of internal agency records. We simply do not know what types of abuse could be documented in these files.
CBP misconduct often only becomes public via leaks, investigative reporting, or lawsuits, meaning the loss of internal records could forever bury unknown abuses. For example, the first in CBP custody in over 10 years was revealed by journalists, after CBP failed to report the death to Congress, as required. Independent lawyers uncovered children held in at a Border Patrol station in Clint, TX. Border Patrol鈥檚 racist and xenophobic was uncovered by a reporter, and the prevalence of within the agency has been revealed only when survivors and former officials spoke up. Lawsuits have similarly uncovered severe agent misconduct, including , , and an agent a migrant.
With systemic failures of oversight, CBP鈥檚 abject failure to hold its own personnel accountable, and a complete lack of transparency, the last thing the agency should be permitted to do is purge its own records.
