At least 152 federal immigration agents have been charged with or convicted of violent crimes including rape, kidnapping, child molestation and murder at some time in their lives, according to a new report by the Ohio Immigration Alliance.
The organization delved into the criminal backgrounds of Department of Homeland Security immigration personnel after noticing an alarming pattern of sexual and other violent attacks against immigrants and women by agents based in Cincinnati.
The analysis found among those 152 cases, 86% of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents had either been charged with or convicted of sex offenses while 85% had been charged or convicted of committing crimes against children and 51% had been accused or convicted of sex crimes against children.
Almost 90% of all cases involved gender-based and sexual violence with the remainder representing on-duty killings or civil rights and excessive-force violations.
The report adds that 60 of the 152 individuals committed their offenses in situations directly connected to their jobs, including assaults on detainees, exploiting migrants encountered on patrol and abuse of children through government computers, vehicles and programs.
“The Worst of the Worst: 152 Sexually and Physically Abusive ICE and Border Agents,” released Aug. 18, also uncovered a pattern of deep-seated animosity toward women and girls in the way DHS fills surging ranks of ICE and Border Patrol under President Donald Trump, OIA Executive Director Lynn Tramonte said.
The report title is a play on the administration’s persistent but disproved claim that its deportation campaign exclusively targets immigrants who are dangerous and hardened criminals.
“The answer is not just poor vetting. It’s deliberate indifference and a culture of misogyny and violence that the Trump administration and our broader society tolerate, normalize and even praise,” the report says.
The study’s release followed fatal ICE-involved killings in Houston and Biddeford, Maine, in July in which unarmed immigrants not wanted by authorities were shot to death in their vehicles. The unprovoked killings came after Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January.
These and other outbursts of agent violence testify to the mental instability and violent natures of many ICE and Border Patrol candidates and the apparent freedom they have to act on impulse in carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown, according to the report.
“In every instance, DHS leadership called their deaths justified and blamed the victims.”
“No federal officer who killed anyone while attempting to enforce civil immigration laws on U.S. streets — including Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Keith Porter, Dr. Linda Davis, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Johan Sebastian, or the many people who were hit by cars and trucks while fleeing agents — has been held accountable for their actions. In every instance, DHS leadership called their deaths justified and blamed the victims.”
And in blaming victims, the government also proclaimed the offending agents were the ones in danger. “But the actual probability that a deportation officer would be killed in the line of duty is practically zero. The Guardian reviewed DHS’ fallen officer database and found only one such killing — from 1949.”
David Brouillette (Photo via The Ice List)
The study, in addition to numerous media reports, cited the case of David Brouillette, the ICE officer who allegedly fatally shot immigrant Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Maine July 13.
Brouillette has a documented and lengthy history of family violence including physical violence and death threats with multiple protection orders issued against him, OIA researchers reported.
The severity of his bipolar disorder and past brain injuries led one of Brouillette’s two ex-wives, Ashley Brouilette, to believe he was joking when he told her he had been hired by ICE. The study referenced an Associated Press story about a death threat Brouillette left his ex-wife’s voicemail. “Every single female in your bloodline is nothing but a disgusting, fat (expletive). All of you should have your throats slit.”
“It doesn’t take a psychology degree to predict that a man who speaks like that to a former family member would be violent with another person he feels is ‘beneath’ him, once handed a gun and the backing of the federal government,” the report notes.
Other perpetrators included in the study include John Daly III, a retired Border Patrol officer known as the East Valley Serial Rapist for a string of sexual assaults committed before and during his federal law enforcement career. And Florida ICE official Frank Figueroa was caught on camera exposing himself to a 16-year-old female.
“A significant number of individuals on this list hurt family members — including their partners and children or stepchildren. Ronald Anthony Burgos Aviles, a CBP agent in Texas, murdered his partner and her 1-year-old son. Samuel Saxon, a former ICE supervisor in Cincinnati, Ohio, has a long history of abuse against his domestic partner, including strangulation and broken bones,” the report states.
“ICE is using the tactics of criminals to carry out its duties.”
ICE and Border Patrol policies and practices also foster violence, the researchers found. “It is the car chases, the street kidnappings, and violence in detention — and the fact that none of the agents committing these crimes are being held accountable,” OIA explained. “ICE is using the tactics of criminals to carry out its duties, killing innocent people in car crashes.”
And it’s likely to get worse given the $152 billion in unobligated funding for DHS, ICE’s hiring of 12,000 new officers in less than 12 months and a severe cutback in training time for agents. “The current administration has ‘emboldened agents by arguing they have ‘absolute immunity’ for their actions on duty and by weakening oversight,’” the study found.
But law enforcement officers never are justified using deadly force while enforcing immigration and other civil laws, said Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, during a panel discussion hosted by the alliance. “The only way to end ICE killings is to take their guns and ban them from enforcing civil laws on our streets. Civil laws should be enforced in courtrooms and office buildings, not on U.S. streets with deadly force.”
Immigration enforcement should be conducted in office buildings, Tramonte added. “Those aren’t the kinds of jobs that attract trigger-happy, abusive predators. Ever since Congress created DHS, ICE has been on a tactical creep, and we’re getting to the place where their out-of-control actions are almost normalized.”
Related:
ICE agents are least-trained law enforcement in America | Opinion by Caroline Cook
Republican leaders worried ICE murders will damage their agenda
Texas religious leaders demand ICE accountability
Republicans push through more unregulated funding for ICE and CBP