Archiv: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) / Department of Homeland Security


26.08.2022 - 09:55 [ theTexan.news ]

Uvalde Class Action Lawsuit to be Filed Against Law Enforcement Agencies, Gun Manufacturer

He then listed off Uvalde ISD, its police chief Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Police Department, the Uvalde County Sheriff, the Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety (DPS), and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol as the law enforcement subjects of the impending suit.

18.07.2022 - 17:45 [ New York Times ]

Report on Uvalde Shooting Finds ‘Systemic Failures’ in Police Response

After the report came out, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, said the acting chief during the shooting, Lt. Mariano Pargas, had been placed on administrative leave and that the city had begun its own internal investigation. The city released body camera footage documenting the actions of the Uvalde officers at the scene.

The facts laid out in the report also made clear that neither existing gun laws, nor expanded background checks passed by Congress in response to the shooting, would have prevented the gunman, Salvador Ramos, from obtaining the weapon he used.

17.07.2022 - 12:30 [ San Antonio Express-News ]

In June 2 meeting, Uvalde officials painted police response to Robb Elementary shooting as heroic

“My recollection is that (Uvalde Mayor Donald McLaughlin Jr.) was upset with the way that DPS had conducted the press conferences, and they had prepared that narrative and they were going to release it,” Busbee said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. “And then I objected to it because … the investigation had just begun so we did not know if that was a true assessment of what transpired. There was no way for us to tell or assess whether or not that narrative was accurate.”

Busbee’s office is investigating the school shooting and how officers on the scene responded.

13.07.2022 - 10:53 [ Newsweek ]

Uvalde Mayor Condemns ‚Chicken‘ Media for Releasing School Shooting Video

Mayor Don McLaughlin criticized The Austin American-Statesman and ABC affiliate KVUE at a meeting of the city council on Tuesday for releasing school surveillance video from the shooting.

McLaughlin told the meeting: „I want to go on the record. The way that video was released today was one of the most chicken things I‘ve ever seen.

Another member of the city council said that it was „chickensh*t.“

13.07.2022 - 10:42 [ Stateman.com ]

Exclusive: Watch Uvalde school shooting video obtained by Statesman showing police response

A 77-minute video recording captured from this vantage point, along with body camera footage from one of the responding officers, obtained by the American-Statesman and KVUE, shows in excruciating detail dozens of sworn officers, local, state and federal — heavily armed, clad in body armor, with helmets, some with protective shields — walking back and forth in the hallway, some leaving the camera frame and then reappearing, others training their weapons toward the classroom, talking, making cellphone calls, sending texts and looking at floor plans, but not entering or attempting to enter the classrooms.

13.07.2022 - 10:20 [ ORF.at ]

US-Schulmassaker: Neue Videoaufnahmen sorgen für Empörung

Gestern von der Zeitung „Austin American-Statesman“ und dem Lokalsender KVUE veröffentlichte Bilder einer Überwachungskamera zeigen unter anderem, dass Polizisten sich eine Stunde und 14 Minuten lang im Schulflur aufhielten, bevor sie den 18-jährigen Angreifer in einem Klassenzimmer erschossen.

10.06.2022 - 20:43 [ Reese Oxner, breaking news reporter @texastribune / Nitter.net ]

Breaking: DPS confirms to @TexasTribune that on day of the Uvalde school shooting, a teacher shut the door the gunman later entered from but its automatic lock malfunctioned. DPS is investigating why. This contradicts earlier DPS statements that the teacher left the door open.

(31.05.2022)

10.06.2022 - 19:40 [ Texas Tribune ]

Waiting for keys, unable to break down doors: Uvalde schools police chief defends delay in confronting gunman

Eventually, a janitor provided six keys. Arredondo tried each on a door adjacent to the room where the gunman was, but it didn’t open.

Later, another key ring with between 20 and 30 keys was brought to Arredondo.

“I was praying one of them was going to open up the door each time I tried a key,” Arredondo said in an interview.

None did.

Eventually, the officers on the north side of the hallway called Arredondo’s cellphone and told him they had gotten a key that could open the door.

The officers on the north side of the hallway formed a group of mixed law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Border Patrol, to enter the classroom and take down the shooter, Arredondo said.

10.06.2022 - 19:30 [ CNN ]

Uvalde school police chief says he didn‘t keep officers from breaching massacre scene and didn‘t consider himself the commander, report says

I didn‘t issue any orders,“ he told the Tribune, though the outlet reports the chief did instruct officers to start breaking the outside windows of other classrooms and begin evacuating students. „I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door“ of one of the classrooms where the shooting happened, he said.

Arredondo „assumed that some other officer or official had taken control of the larger response,“ the Tribune wrote.

09.06.2022 - 11:38 [ CNN ]

Uvalde mayor says he‘s frustrated by lack of transparency in school shooting investigation

„We‘ve asked for a briefing or something but we‘re not getting it. I‘ve been told they‘re law enforcement and we‘re not going to be entitled to it at this time,“ Mayor Don McLaughlin said at a city council meeting. „I‘ve asked everybody involved for a briefing at one point or another. It‘s frustrating, but again I‘ve been told I‘m not law enforcement, but it makes me feel real frustrated.“
He said he has asked other officials with insights on the investigation to hold a press conference, to no avail.

06.06.2022 - 18:05 [ WFAA / Youtube ]

Why the Texas school shooting records may not be released

As another Uvalde student is laid to rest, Texas officials are calling for the end of the „dead suspect loophole,“ which can stop records from being released.

06.06.2022 - 18:02 [ Fox News ]

Uvalde, Texas school shooting response hampered by poor police radio communications: official

Mr. Anderson, who was serving as homeland security director for nine counties in South Texas at the time the system was installed, said state investigators have tested the radio system inside the building in the last few days, but he didn’t know the outcome of that test. An official from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is leading the state investigation, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the results of the test.

02.06.2022 - 15:21 [ TexasMonthly.com ]

Border Patrol Agents Killed the Uvalde School Shooter. But Why Were They on the Scene?

(May 26, 2022)

A CBP official told Texas Monthly that as emergency calls first came in, four agents with CBP’s Bortac SWAT team were investigating stash houses on the border to the west of Uvalde. The agents immediately responded, arriving at the school just before noon. Bortac (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) is CBP’s’s paramilitary force, an elite group of agents trained to exchange gunfire with cartels.

(…)

In all, as many as eighty CBP agents, including some who were off duty, rushed to the school during and after the shooting.

(…)

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not respond to the shooting. ICE agents were on the scene during and after the shooting. The article has been updated.

02.06.2022 - 15:13 [ click2houston.com ]

Border patrol agent drove 40 miles to respond to mass shooting at Uvalde elementary school, sources say

(26.05.2022)

Escalon said Ramos entered the school through an unlocked door. DPS officials said at 11:44 am officers entered the school and came under heavy gunfire from Ramos. (…)

Sources close to this investigation tell KPRC 2 Investigates the Border Patrol agent who is credited with stopping Ramos was eating lunch at the Mill Creek Café in the town of Leakey when he heard the call go out over his radio. Sources tell KPRC 2 even though the agent was not in uniform, he didn’t hesitate to jump into his vehicle and drive 40 miles to Robb elementary. We are told the agent is a member of Border Patrol’s tactical team known as BORTAC.

02.06.2022 - 14:58 [ CNN ]

A timeline of how the Texas school massacre — and the police response — unfolded

(June 1, 2022)

11:33 a.m.: The shooter enters the school and begins shooting into a classroom, which is connected to a second class. He shot „at least“ 100 rounds, McCraw said.

(…)

11:42 a.m.: A source close to a teacher receives a text saying there was an active shooter on campus. CNN saw the text chain and confirmed the timestamps.

(…)

12:15 p.m.: Members of the Border Patrol‘s tactical unit, BORTAC, arrive on scene, McCraw said.

(…)

12:50 p.m.: Law enforcement breach the locked classroom door using keys from a janitor, McCraw said. They shoot and kill the suspect.

28.05.2022 - 06:56 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Schulmassaker in Uvalde: Behörde räumt schwere Fehler ein

Stattdessen sei in die Entscheidung getroffen worden, auf Spezialkräfte zu warten. Die Einsatzkräfte vor Ort seien davon ausgegangen, dass der Schütze nicht mehr schieße, sondern sich lediglich verbarrikadiert habe. Dies habe sich im Nachhinein als Fehleinschätzung erwiesen. Erst um 12.50 Uhr öffneten Spezialkräfte, Beamte der Grenzschutzpolizei, die Tür zum Klassenraum mit einem Schlüssel, wie McCraw weiter schilderte. Diesen Schlüssel hätten sich die Einsatzkräfte vom Hausmeister besorgt.

28.05.2022 - 06:29 [ TexasMonthly.com ]

Border Patrol Agents Killed the Uvalde School Shooter. But Why Were They on the Scene?

A CBP official told Texas Monthly that as emergency calls first came in, four agents with CBP’s Bortac SWAT team were investigating stash houses on the border to the west of Uvalde. The agents immediately responded, arriving at the school just before noon. Bortac (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) is CBP’s’s paramilitary force, an elite group of agents trained to exchange gunfire with cartels.

28.05.2022 - 06:09 [ Texas Tribune ]

Gov. Greg Abbott says he was misled about poor police response to Uvalde shooting

“I am livid about what happened,” Abbott said during a news conference in Uvalde, the site of the shooting where a gunman killed 19 students and two adults Tuesday. “The information I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I am absolutely livid about that.”

In his first news conference after the shooting, Abbott had praised how police handled the shooting, applauding their „amazing courage.“

28.05.2022 - 06:04 [ associated press ]

‘Horrifying’ conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting

(May 26, 2022)

By now it’s as predictable as the calls for thoughts and prayers: A mass shooting leaves many dead, and wild conspiracy theories and misinformation about the carnage soon follow.

31.08.2020 - 19:32 [ John Kiriakou / Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity ]

Know Your Rights. Don’t Talk to Cops at the Airport

“I’m represented by counsel. I don’t talk to cops. You have no right to detain me.”

Cops are tough when they can hide behind each other, behind their guns, behind their badges, or behind qualified immunity. But they’re powerless when faced with the power of the Constitution. Know your rights.

23.07.2020 - 21:41 [ theHill.com ]

Portland City Council bans local police from working with federal law enforcement

The measure, which was passed on Wednesday, orders all members of the Portland Police Department to stop giving or receiving „operational support“ from officers representing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Marshal Service, Federal Protective Service and Customs and Border Protection, according to local news reports. Under the resolution, police are also banned from overseeing demonstrations alongside federal officers.

20.07.2020 - 12:43 [ theHill.com ]

House Democrats ask watchdogs to probe federal crackdown on protests

“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appear to have increasingly abused emergency authorities to justify the use of force against Americans exercising their right to peaceful assembly,” wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).

20.07.2020 - 11:21 [ CNN ]

A Navy veteran says he was beaten and pepper sprayed by authorities while attending his first protest in Portland

When contacted by CNN, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau said that their officers were not involved in the incident.

Customs and Border Protection also told CNN that their officers were not involved.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and US Marshals for a comment but has not yet heard back.

20.06.2020 - 03:29 [ The Hill ]

Trump admin used drones, helicopters to surveil George Floyd protests in 15 cities

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used helicopters, airplanes and drones in more than 15 cities to watch protests over the killing of George Floyd and obtained more than 270 hours of surveillance.

… It then sent footage back to control centers managed by Air and Marine Operations, a CBP branch, that was then made available to other federal and local agencies.

02.06.2020 - 22:02 [ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abgeordnete im US Repräsentantenhaus / Twitter ]

CBP is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, & it very well may be one of the most dangerous. They do NOT have oversight. Not even the measures local PDs have. Their culture is toxic, they have 0 accountability,& Congress gave them a blank check. This is dangerous.

02.06.2020 - 21:59 [ the Hill ]

Customs and Border Patrol deploys troops to DC

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have deployed troops in Washington, D.C., officials announced Monday, as President Trump mobilized the military in the capital city to address the protests over George Floyd’s death.

CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan posted on Twitter that the law enforcement‘s personnel has been sent to the National Capital Region “to assist law enforcement partners.”

29.05.2020 - 23:34 [ Jason Paladino / Twitter ]

NOW: @CBP Predator Drone #CPB104 circling over Minneapolis at 20K feet. Took off from Grand Forks Air Force Base. #Minneapolisprotests #surveillance #planespotting

29.5.2020Jason

29.05.2020 - 23:29 [ Common Dreams ]

US Border Patrol Denounced as ‚Rogue Agency‘ for Using Predator Drone to Spy on Minneapolis Protests

Civil liberties advocates sounded the alarm Friday after reporting indicated Customs and Border Protection has been flying an unmanned Predator drone over Minneapolis as the city continues to roil with protest over the police killing of George Floyd earlier this week

29.05.2020 - 22:11 [ Motherboard ]

Customs and Border Protection Is Flying a Predator Drone Over Minneapolis

The drone flown over Minneapolis is an unarmed version of the aircraft.

The drone was first spotted on a flight tracking tool by members of the ADB-S Exchange, a community of flight watchers who use open-source flight data to monitor America‘s skies. Presumably, the drone is surveilling protests there, though CBP did not respond to a request for comment about what the drone is doing there.

23.02.2020 - 00:37 [ USA Today ]

Greyhound to stop allowing Border Patrol on buses for immigration checks

“We are pleased to see Greyhound clearly communicate that it does not consent to racial profiling and harassment on its buses,“ Andrea Flores, deputy director of policy for the ACLU‘s Equality Division, said in an email. “By protecting its customers and employees, Greyhound is sending a message that it prioritizes the communities it serves.”

12.02.2020 - 21:30 [ Common Dreams ]

Trump’s Border Wall Is an Ecologist’s Nightmare

The Tohono O’odham Nation penned a powerful letter to the U.S. Border Patrol calling for a halt to the destruction, stressing the many tragedies occurring on their sacred lands: bulldozers ripping up their ancestors’ burial sites, their water resources being stolen, and the agency consistently ignoring their pleas for consultation.

25.01.2020 - 12:35 [ theGrayzone,com ]

US citizen detained and interrogated by DHS agents about anti-war movement solidarity with Venezuela

On his way back from a Christmas visit to his family in Nicaragua, 31-year-old US citizen Sergio Lazo Torrez was detained by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers at Fort Lauderdale International Airport on January 20, then interrogated by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents who grilled him about his involvement in the US anti-war movement

08.12.2019 - 16:31 [ MSNBC ]

Video shows death of sick migrant teen in border agency custody

A video of the final hours of a Guatemalan teenager inside a Customs and Border Protection cell shows him collapsing to the floor and later dying next to a toilet where he was discovered by another teen the next morning. ProPublica Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg, the news organization that obtained the video, discusses how this evidence contradicts the border agency’s account of the boy’s death.

23.07.2019 - 17:54 [ Maddow Blog ‏/ Twitter ]

One of the reasons they did that is because the children would cry, and the older kids figured out that when they cried the guards got angry. So the best thing they could do was to protect these children. It was protecting all of them.

23.07.2019 - 17:12 [ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abgeodnete des US Repräsentantenhauses / Twitter ]

CBP is detaining American citizens. How would you feel trapped in a border camp, where guards wear face masks because the human odor is so strong? When we allow the rights of some to be violated, the rights of all are not far behind.

23.07.2019 - 16:59 [ TrishFraga ‏/ Twitter ]

Looks like all American born residents will have to carry passports and birth certificates well those of color. Shameful.

23.07.2019 - 16:49 [ Dallas News ]

A Dallas-born citizen picked up by the Border Patrol has been detained for three weeks

Francisco Galicia told his mother, who lives in Edinburg, that he was detained because he didn’t have his U.S. passport. But she said he did present CBP with his Texas ID.

Galicia wasn’t allowed to use the phone for the three weeks he was in CBP custody, Sanjuana said. But he has been able to make collect calls to his mother since since Saturday, when Galicia was transferred to ICE’s custody.

19.07.2019 - 14:04 [ NowThis ‏/ Twitter ]

‘You don’t think that having 10,000 officers in a violent, racist group sharing rape memes of members of Congress points to any concern of a dehumanized culture?’ — @AOC pressed DHS Sec. Kevin McAleenan after he denied a dehumanized culture within Border Patrol

19.07.2019 - 14:01 [ USA Today ]

AOC to DHS chief: Border agents shared ‚images of my violent rape‘ in secret Facebook group

He was also asked several times about a secret Facebook group of current and former Border Patrol agents that contained more than 10,000 members and included posts mocking migrants and the deaths of children in custody and suggesting harm to Democratic lawmakers. After the group‘s existence was revealed by a ProPublica report, McAleenan announced DHS was investigating the „disturbing“ and „inexcusable“ posts.

19.07.2019 - 13:53 [ New York Times ]

‘They Are Human Beings’: Homeland Security Faulted for Treatment of Migrant Children

The hearing came a week after the committee released findings of an analysis of the more than 2,600 migrant children separated from their parents last year under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which has since been suspended. Democrats grilled Mr. McAleenan over the rollout of the policy, as well as over the discovery of a secret Facebook group for Border Patrol agents that included offensive messages, including obscene images of members of Congress.

13.07.2019 - 18:45 [ National Public Radio ]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the 2020 Presidential Race and Why We Should Break Up Homeland Security

It‘s hard to recall a newly elected freshman representative to Congress who has made a bigger impact than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her primary victory for New York‘s Fourteenth District seat—as a young woman of color beating out a long-established white male incumbent—was big news, and Ocasio-Cortez has been generating headlines almost daily ever since. Practically the day she took her seat in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez became the hero of the left wing of the Democrats and a favored villain of Fox News and the right.

13.07.2019 - 18:41 [ Washington Post ]

Ocasio-Cortez wants to ax Homeland Security. Some conservatives didn’t want it to begin with.

The usefulness of a Department of Homeland Security, however, wasn’t always taken for granted. President George W. Bush’s administration initially had “zero interest” in creating a new department to protect against terrorism, The Washington Post previously reported. Vice President Richard B. Cheney thought it would needlessly increase the size of government.

“Creating a Cabinet post doesn’t solve the problem,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in March 2002, according to The Post.

13.07.2019 - 18:36 [ Democracy Now ]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wants to Dismantle Department of Homeland Security

In an interview with “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” Ocasio-Cortez repeated her call for the abolition of ICE—Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Host David Remnick asked Ocasio-Cortez if she would get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, as well.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “I think so. I think so. I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious mistakes that the Bush administration did.

13.07.2019 - 18:19 [ C-SPAN / Youtube ]

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: „I believe these women.“ (C-SPAN)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: „When these women tell me that they were put into a cell and that their sink was not working, and we tested the sink ourselves and the sink was not working, and they were told to drink out of a toilet bowl I believe them. I believe these women.“

13.07.2019 - 18:17 [ NBC New York / Youtube ]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Testifies on Child Separation, Blasts Republicans | NBC New York

The hearing came as the number of families, children and other migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico has surged above 100,000 monthly since March, overwhelming federal agencies‘ ability to detain them in sanitary conditions and highlighting the issue as the 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns are in their early stages. „This is a manufactured crisis because the cruelty is manufactured. This is a manufactured crisis because there is no need for us to do this. There‘s no need for us to overcrowd and to detain and under-resource,“ said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of four high-profile Democratic freshmen who testified.

13.07.2019 - 17:55 [ NBC News ]

‚No shower, no shower!‘: Migrants shout as Pence visits Texas detention centers

Vice President Mike Pence saw firsthand the extreme overcrowding migrants are often forced to endure at federal detention centers when he visited two Friday in Texas.

Agents wore face masks, and video showed detainees packed into their holding areas surrounded by chain-link fence, the concrete floors littered with silver thermal blankets. Reporters accompanying Pence described the facility as smelling „horrendous.“

11.07.2019 - 18:42 [ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abgeordnete des US Repräsententenhauses / Twitter ]

When you pair: – 9,500 current + former CBP officers are part of a violently racist & sexually violent secret Facebook group – Corroborating accounts of abuse – CBP couldn’t control their own officers for a Congressional tour What else do you call that but a rogue agency?

(02.07.2019)

03.07.2019 - 12:53 [ Boston Globe ]

Immigrant detention centers are ‘betrayal of our values,’ says Kennedy

In a visit to Border Patrol Station No. 1 in El Paso, Kennedy said he saw detainees kept in jail-like conditions. He was among the lawmakers who spoke to a group of 13 women from Cuba who had tried to enter the United States to seek asylum, but were detained by federal officials.

Those women began crying when they spoke, he said.

03.07.2019 - 12:43 [ Public Citizen / Twitter ]

As we watch @AOC, @AyannaPressley and @RashidaTlaib expose the horrors of our border camps, don’t forget that private prison companies are getting filthy rich off these atrocities. Of every 100 immigration detainees, 74 are held in private facilities.

(02.07.2019)