Imagine you’re driving in your car on one of California’s freeways, bumpin’ the tunes and enjoying the sunshine. Suddenly you see flashing lights behind you, except the vehicle tailing you isn’t the usual black and white, it’s the green and white, Border Patrol.
You wonder what you did as the officer questions you about America and stares you down. This is racial profiling at its best.
The United States Border Patrol in the Inland Empire is getting so desperate to make “quotas” they’re even stopping Americans in hopes that they’ll run into an undocumented immigrant.
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times the demands made by Ramon Chavez at the Riverside Border Patrol office drove agents to cruise streets, bus stops and medical centers to find illegals. Chavez reportedly wanted 150 arrests, two prosecutions and 20 vehicle seizures a month. If demands weren’t met, Chavez would reschedule officers’ shifts because they were “not producing.”
Tony Plattel, a former Border Patrol agent, was fired when he “interfered” with the quota reported CBS. On April 15 of last year he arrested six undocumented immigrants and put them into his van.
He ignored an order to stay and fill up his vehicle before returning to Riverside because they were severely dehydrated and he feared for their health. According to internal Border Patrol documents Plattel left the area shorthanded and jeopardized operations.
Agents were told to make eight arrests a day and if those numbers weren’t met, they were told to try harder the next day, stated Plattel. He said when it was a slow day agents would drive by Home Depot or day labor sites. “We got an old guy stepping out of a medical center once,” Plattel told the L.A. Times.
Lombardo Amaya, president of Local 2554 of the National Border Patrol union said that all officers, excluding supervisors, from the Riverside office have made the same complaints as Plattel.
Border Patrol spokesman Richard Velez also told the L.A. Times “quotas would be detrimental to our mission.” He also said that goals were set, but not in numerical ways that inspire agents to improve.
T.J. Bonner the president of the National Border Patrol council, said there are stricter parameters when agents work away from the border. According to the Times article, Bonner feels quotas encourage people to bend the rules and can get officers into trouble.
The Taipei Times reported that Bonner wants to see a fair and impartial investigation. He also wants appropriate punishment if allegations are true.
Immigrant rights groups are furious because of these incidents. They’re requesting documentation of Border Patrol enforcement activity. Groups are also sending monitors to videotape arrests at day labor sites and are calling for a march to protest the heightened enforcement, reported the Taipei Times.
Emilio Amaya, executive director of San Bernardino Community Services questions whether the Border Patrol may be bolstering their efforts inland because of the decline in traffic across the Mexican Border.
It’s great when actual criminals get arrested, but pushing agents to arrest just anyone is a little out of control. Having Plattel fired over potentially saving lives is ludicrous. If the Border Patrol is more interested in numbers than the safety of others, are they following their motto of “honor first?”
Kara Bautch is a senior journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily Forty-Niner.
I think Jason Aula got fired ;_;
Tell Latino communities something we don’t know. The border patrol is probably the least of our concerns as long as ICE is in business under the umbrella of Homeland Security. They all have brown skin quotas.
How weird that Jason Aula hasn’t beaten anybody to the punch with his anti-Mexican blather. I thought he was the resident racist in charge of all things immigration.