By Gustavo Solis / KPBS / April 21, 2023
Border Patrol agents are not supposed to destroy humanitarian aid left along the border. But that’s exactly what happened in the Otay Mountains east of San Diego last month.
After a routine water drop March 18, volunteers with the Borderlands Relief Collective found dozens of destroyed water bottles and cans of food dumped on the ground and accused Border Patrol agents.
The group usually leaves supplies like water, Gatorade, cans of beans, clothes, hand warmers and “anything that might make a difference to a migrant crossing through these dangerous areas,” said David Greenblatt, a volunteer. Emmet Norris, another volunteer, noticed Border Patrol agents following the group during the March 18 drop.
Borderlands Relief Collective made three separate drops that day. When they returned an hour later to one of the locations, they found their humanitarian supplies dumped on the ground. The water bottles had been emptied, the cans of food opened, and the crates used to carry the supplies were broken.
“Every single item that we had left was very purposefully and methodically destroyed,” Norris said.
After discovering the trashed supplies, volunteers confronted two Border Patrol agents nearby. “It’s abandoned property,” one agent said.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Not really anything new. Two former shipmates I was stationed with onboard the USS McKee in the 90s became boarder patrol agents and this was a regular part of their job. In the late 00s one of my neighbors was a BP agent (now retied) and talked about spending whole days doing this.
Which is not to say these are horrible actions because they are.
These Border Patrol officers are depraved. The cruelty of their actions is unbelievable.