Border agents in Texas warned not to talk to media
Warned that anyone who does could be charged with a crime or disciplined administratively
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and ALICIA A.
CALDWELL3 hours
ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The surge in immigrant children caught crossing the southern border in Texas that has dominated headlines and risks becoming a political crisis for President Barack Obama and Congress includes a new threat facing Border Patrol agents: reporters.
An assistant
chief patrol agent, Eligio "Lee" Pena, warned
more than 3,000 Border Patrol agents that
journalists looking for information about what
Obama has described as a humanitarian crisis are
likely to ask for information and "may try to
disguise themselves." The email, obtained by The
Associated Press, said agents should not speak
to reporters, on or off duty, without advanced
permission and warned that anyone who does could be charged with a
crime or disciplined
administratively.
Customs
and Border Protection Commissioner Gil
Kerlikowske told the AP on Friday he was not
aware of Pena's email warnings but said
generally, "I am not a fan of telling people not
to talk." Kerlikowske, who has pledged greater
transparency since taking over the agency
earlier this year, did not formally disavow the
directive but added that Border Patrol agents
should be focused on their jobs while on
duty.
Pena's email
was issued as national news organizations
descended on the border to cover the immigration
surge, especially children crossing the border
alone from Central America. The
problem has overwhelmed the Border Patrol. More
than 47,000 children traveling alone have been
found at the border since the start of the
budget year in October.
Pena did not
describe what sorts of disguises could be
employed by reporters.
The issue has
fueled the political debate in Washington about
U.S. immigration policies, which contributed to
this week's stunning election defeat of House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. Cantor's
opponent had said the Republican leader
supported "amnesty" for immigrants in the U.S.
illegally, and said the surprise election
outcome effectively dooms any prospects for
legal changes to American immigration
laws. Obama has disputed this
and urged Congress to act this summer.
Agents in
Texas' Rio Grande Valley have made more than
173,000 arrests so far this budget year. Like
the child border crossers, most of the
immigrants trying to cross illegally are from
Central America. The crush of children
traveling alone and would-be immigrants
traveling as families has prompted the Homeland
Security Department to move both children and
families to other Border Patrol sectors for
processing. The children are later handed off to
the Health and Human Services Department, where
officials typically try to reunite them with
parents or other relatives already in the United
States. DHS has released an unspecified number
of families with notices to appear at
Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices near
their final destinations within the United
States.
The Obama
administration has declined to say how many
people have been released and how many have
reported as ordered. Kerlikowske said Friday he
did not know those
figures.
The latest
instruction to border agents in South Texas is
not the first time the Border Patrol has
directed officials not to speak with
reporters.
Last year, the
then-head of the Border Patrols' Southwest
border media division told public affairs
officials that the agency would "no longer
provide interviews, ride alongs, visits, etc.,
about the border, the state of the border and
what have you." In his Feb. 1, 2013,
email, Bill Brooks advised that border officials
should tell reporters that "you will have to see
what you can do to get back to them" and then
notify him.
The most
recent information lockdown has made the local
representatives of the Border Patrol agents'
union the agency's de facto spokesmen on
conditions inside overcrowded stations and the
logistical challenges of processing so many
immigrants.
http://news.yahoo.com/border-
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