Current and former immigration officers spoke out against President Donald Trump's crackdown in Minnesota Monday.
A Customs and Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti over the weekend, less than three weeks after a veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good. Current and former officials say the operation is undermining public support and department morale, reported the New York Times.
"You’re not addressing the problem by throwing a 500-pound gorilla into these inner cities," said Oscar Hagelsieb, a retired DHS officer who voted for Trump all three times. “It’s completely unfair to the agents who have been put in this position. They’re causing chaos, and unfortunately it’s costing lives. There’s only so much they can handle before bad things start to happen.”
Gil Kerlikowske, who led CBP during the Obama administration, said most border agents didn't have the proper training for the police work they're being asked to do, and he's seen them engaging in actions like shooting people with pepper balls and spraying chemical agents at nonviolent protesters, which he said were “far outside standard practices in law enforcement.”
“Morale is in the dumpster,” Kerlikowske said. “Many of the agents will be very happy to go back to the job they were trained for on the border.”
Paul Perez, the chief of the Border Patrol union, insisted morale remained high on the ground in Minnesota and elsewhere, and he said recruitment was not an issue.
“Agents are concerned about being doxxed, having their families and themselves put at risk,” Perez said. “But I don’t think anybody’s afraid to do the mission.”
But current and former officials were rattled by Pretti's killing and criticized the sharp rhetoric coming from the White House and DHS officials, and they warned that placing poorly trained agents and officers among hostile crowds was a recipe for disaster, the Times reported.
“We lost all trust,” one current ICE official said. “I’m not sure I can see how we exist three years from now.”