Editorial: Fixing the Border Patrol

The appointment of an outsider to lead the U.S. Border Patrol responds to the concrete necessity to stem problems of abuse, discipline and individual bouts of corruption and criminality in this powerful federal agency, which is charged with securing our border.

Mark Morgan, the first chief that does not come from its own ranks, is a veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Among other responsibilities, he led the internal affairs office at Customs and Border Protection in 2014, which manages the Border Patrol. During this stint, he tried to reform the culture among the agency’s body.

One of his main virtues is precisely that he does not belong to the close group leading the Border Patrol, the bigger police force in the U.S. This will help him reestablish the badly damaged trust in the agency.

The agents’ union unfairly criticized his appointment, alleging that since Morgan has never made an immigration arrest he is supposedly unable to lead the agency.

This ignores the fact that the sheer amount of internal problems requires a change led by someone from abroad. However, the union announced it will work with Morgan despite of the criticism.

The government must make sure that the BP fulfills its tasks while fully complying with the law and respecting the rights of the people with whom agents interact daily: undocumented immigrants.

A commission investigated 67 deaths caused by border patrol agents between 2010 and 2012, including shooting cars that did not stop at crossings and killing protesters who were throwing rocks.

An internal investigative panel led by former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Bill Bratton established last April that corrupt Border Patrol agents “present a national security threat,” because criminal cartels are attempting to “target, recruit and corrupt law enforcement personnel who then can facilitate the smuggling of drugs.” The investigations on the border patrol also take “far too long to be an effective deterrent.”

The report highlighted the need to eliminate “the risks of endemic corruption” and the use of “unlawful and unconstitutional use of force.”

In some corruption cases, agents, individually or in groups, partnered with Mexican drug cartels to facilitate the smuggling of drugs into the U.S.
It would seem that the agency did not adapt to an unprecedented extension seeking to lower the number of illegal crossings, and to implement President Barack Obama’s ambitious deportation program.

Morgan will have to earn the trust of the agents who are performing a difficult, sometims impossible task, while at the same time preventing that a culture of impunity takes hold among their members.