I’ve been speaking with Jenn Budd for years about Border Patrol crimes, impunity and how the agency could be (and should be reformed.) But both Democrats and Republicans have refused to demand oversight and accountability for the highly politicized agency.

Border Patrol and its paramilitary culture are now very much in control of the ICE & Border Patrol occupations in various cities in America. We talk about what this means for the investigation of Renee Good’s murder in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, and what that means for Americans as these occupations continue. We also talk about the many years of fatal shootings at the southern border, and the fact that not a single agent has been successfully prosecuted for lethal force.

We also discuss previous efforts at reform and what can be done to hold the agents accountable for their crimes.

You can learn more about Jenn’s work in this important documentary “Critical Incident: Death at the Border” which is out now on HBO Max. You can also listen to our 2022 podcast with Jenn about her memoir “Against the Wall: My Journey from Border Patrol Agent to Immigrant Rights Activist” about her time as an agent in the Border Patrol and her transformation into an activist and one of the fiercest critics against the agency.

Additional context mentioned in our discussion:

How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids? The Trace

We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. ProPublica

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

River wall: Feds deploying 500-miles of water barriers near Brownsville MyRGV.com

San Diego sues federal government over concertina wire fence at border KPBS

Trump’s deportation drive is straining the US public coffers and labor market El Pais

The Rio Grande Valley among Texas regions most impacted by expiring health insurance subsidies The Texas Tribune

‘Renee Nicole Good, presente’: Tucsonans hold El Tiradito vigil after ICE shooting death The Tucson Sentinel

El secuestro de Venezuela La Verdad de Juarez

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Support local independent journalism from the U.S.-Mexico border today. Become a paid subscriber for just $6 a month or $60 a year at https://www.theborderchronicle.com/

This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

The Trump administration announced this week that it will further militarize the California-Mexico border by creating another national defense area, which will be under the control of the U.S. Navy.

Interior Transfers Public Land to Navy to Support Border Security and National Defense U.S. Dept. of the Interior press release.

Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas, is now holding nearly 3,000 people in detention under deplorable conditions. The ACLU and other civil and human rights organizations are raising the alarm and warn that the administration will likely open other military detention camps soon.

ICE Letter Regarding Ft. Bliss the ACLU & read local border coverage in El Paso Matters

After Trump pardon, Rep. Henry Cuellar restored to homeland security funding post The Texas Tribune

The Department of War is celebrating the fact that it has deployed 43,000 rolls of concertina wire to be installed across the entire southern border.

Historic Border Security Milestone: Largest C-wire Delivery, Emplacement in U.S. Territorial History in Partnership with CBP The Dept. of War

DPS investigating fatal shooting involving Border Patrol in Starr County MyRGV.com

California’s Attorney General is asking people to report ICE, CBP and other federal agent misconduct.

Report Misconduct by Federal Agents to the California Attorney General

‘I made my American dream in my country’: How Rancho Feliz is confronting the immigration crisis at the source Cronkite Borderlands Project/The Tucson Sentinel

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Jeremiah Johnson was an immigration judge in San Francisco. On November 21, he was fired by email without explanation. “I didn’t even have time to print out the letter before the system was shut down and I was locked out,” he said. The email arrived with the subject line “Termination.” Johnson is now one of more than 100 immigration judges who have been fired nationwide since Trump took office.

A former asylum officer for the Department of Homeland Security, Johnson was appointed as an immigration judge in 2017 under the first Trump administration. He is also the vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. Until his firing, Johnson had a full docket and handled cases from the Eloy Detention Center, located midway between Phoenix and Tucson and run by the private prison company CoreCivic.

Johnson discusses the differences in working as an immigration judge under the two Trump administrations and the fate of the immigration case backlog, which currently stands at 3.4 million cases as more judges are fired. Recently, the administration started advertising for “deportation judges” and has deployed military judges to hear immigration cases, which constitutional experts say could violate posse comitatus. Johnson also discusses how the system could be fixed, noting that remaining immigration judges are wondering who will be next to be fired. “It is disheartening to see your colleagues being fired. People are worried that they will be next,” Johnson said. “If no cause is given, there’s no way to address the reasons to fire someone. So morale is extremely low.”

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This Week in The Border Chronicle:

More News from the Border:

3 people arrested after Border Patrol raids No More Deaths camp in Az The Tucson Sentinel

For additional context listen to our podcast with Scott Warren, a No More Deaths volunteer who faced 20 years in jail under the first Trump administration for providing humanitarian aid.

New Video: Border Wall Blasts Destroy Southern Arizona Jaguar Habitat The Center for Biological Diversity

Builders leader: Valley banks are also being impacted by ICE raids of construction sites Rio Grande Guardian

Senador de Ohio que nació en Colombia y gozó de la doble nacionalidad quiere prohibírsela a todos los demás Conecta Arizona

Liberan campesinos Aduana y puentes tras acuerdos; si nos incumplen volverán bloqueos, advierten La Verdad de Juarez

Border Report: The Unseen Cost of Detaining as Many Immigrants as Possible Voice of San Diego

A Tucsonan is Claiming Asylum in Canada. Her Case Could Reshape How LGBTQ+ People Seek Safety Abroad. Lookout

Gutting of key US watchdog could pave way for grave immigration abuses, experts warn The Guardian

Revealed: US veterans affairs to share immigration data about non-citizen workers with ‘appropriate agencies’ The Guardian

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The legal director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project provides an on-the-ground analysis of and reckoning with year 1 of the Trump administration’s detention and deportation regime.

What happens after an arrest? How many people have been detained? And what happens to asylum seekers?

And what exactly is Kafka’s merry-go-round of hell?

Laura St. John answers these questions and more.

But, perhaps most importantly, St. John provides practical answers for what concerned people might do about it. She offers an antidote to the “sense of hopeless inevitability” that the Trump administration is purposefully creating for undocumented people.

For 15 years, St. John has been working for the Florence Project—an organization that provides legal assistance and advocacy for undocumented people in detention.

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