Did anyone commenting actually take the time to read the article before spewing their nonsense? The perpetrator was a BORDER PATROL AGENT. Instead of blaming the victims, why don’t we look at the hiring practices for these “employees” whose heinous behavior is paid for by taxpayers? Jackbooted thugs will jackboot. It doesn’t matter WHERE anyone “crosses the border.” Please look into your souls. That swirling void is where you’re headed.
19
Absolutely horrible for these women. Would this have happened at a legal border crossing? Why do people continue to deliberately try to break the laws of the country they say they want to join. What kind of citizens will that make them, if they only want to obey the laws that are convenient to them.
5
Just horrible. Unfortunately many women encouraged to come to our borders illegally are vulnerable to these assaults most often before they even get here. It's ironic that they.were subjected to the exact horror they claim to be fleeing from in their own country.
7
The president of the United States is the role model and has set the tone as a misogynist. Women and girls are to get no respect, just used. His history with women supports this disgraceful behavior and encourages others to do the same. Walk proud America.
3
Horrific events like this would be less likely if all migrants who are seeking asylum would cross our borders through official gateways, and if we could end illegal migration. We could do the latter In the following ways:
1. Give all employers, including individual homeowners who hire people to clean their yards and houses, a way to quickly determine if an employee or job applicant is allowed to work in the U.S. Fine anyone who hires those who are not permitted to work here. If employers continue to hire the undocumented, raise their fines and then, if necessary, send them to jail.
2. Do not give another amnesty. The one offered by Reagan, in 1986, to 3 million people was supposed to end illegal immigration. The PEW Trust estimates we now have between 11 and 12 million undocumented immigrants. Professors at the Yale School of Management estimate the number to be considerably higher (between 16.2 million and 29.5 million). Our offering another amnesty would encourage still more people to come here without papers.
3. Send more Peace Corps volunteers who could help indigent people in their own countries with farming, education, and family planning. When necessary, provide temporary food aid.
5
There is only one way to stop incidents like this to happen: enforce our immigration laws. That will stop increasing people from forcing their way into this country by claiming they are refugees. All those claims are expensive for our tax payers. This country has a legal process to request refugee status. Otherwise, this problem with our border security will increase as more fleeing poverty continue to manipulate their way through our borders. Corrupt officers are not limited to border enforcement. Our agencies cannot be responsible for the risks these illegal immigrants take to force their way into these country. Yes, they are human beings, but this country cannot afford to accept all the human beings that want to escape poverty due to overpopulation. If these illegal immigrants want a better life, they have to fight for it in their own country instead of expecting our tax payers to solve their problems. There is enough unemployment, homeless citizens, and poverty in this country already! Those who support and encourage illegal immigrants are very naïve and uninformed. They are being played by individuals that take risks to force their way in at any cost.
9
"They are human beings, but..." Wrong. They are human beings, no buts about it. You are trying to justify abhorrent behavior with those three letters.
11
This is a horror story in so many ways. We have prided ourselves in being a refuge for people in danger. As a young man I saw us take in tens of thousands of Cuban refugees in the 60s. Many objected that Castro probably included communists to do acts of violence. Florida has a large, thriving Cuban/American community that is totally American. In the 70s we took in the Vietnamese and they too have flourished and are just as American as those of us who have been here for generations. It's also a fact that we have often treated newcomers to our shores very badly.
In this case I would recommend these women be given shelter. That we tax payers provide them with the psychiatric counseling they are going to need and create a special category for them as immigrants leading to future citizenship if they want it.
The problem we have now is that most of us have no concept to the size of our borders. The border patrol has about 16k of the 21.4k to police the us/mexico border. It's about 2thousand miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico so that gives us about 8 people/mile and then divide that by 3 shifts a day.
5
I am sickened by many of the comments on this story. A child was tied to a bed and raped repeatedly, and the response is that it wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t tried to immigrate to this country. Really? The fact that she crossed the border “illegally” makes it ok to tie her up and rape her, and tie her mother to a tree and torture her? Following this logic, I guess it would be ok to rape a child who shoplifted, or skipped school, or was in a gang. I cannot believe the heartlessness of my fellow NY Times readers.
37
What is less important in this story is the evil of the morally depraved Border Patrol agents who took their power
and used it for evil ends. This is a timeless feature of
human existence and won't ever end.
What is important in this story is the nature of the immigrants. It is good to hear their story told in person.
These are the people whom trump lies about and vilifies 24/7 to rile up his vicious, xenophobic, know nothings who have also been a constant presence in this country. These are the people whom f-x "news" lies about 24/7, when they repeat trump's lies, in order to keep their ratings up and their
ad revenue flowing.
These accommodating ignorant agents of the Devil have only fear where compassion should be. They have only hate where empathy should be. They have nothing
to do with being Christian and everything to do with
being in league with the Devil. These are the stains on
the country's conscience. Let them read this story over
and over again.
9
I hope the miscreants are severely punished and the illegal immigrants are deported.
6
@Douglas Levene
Reading comprehension test needed, I see. The article clearly states that the women were granted asylum. They are not illegal aliens. They were not deported.
12
The Border Patrol can do a better job screening applicants, but they cannot totally prevent disturbed individuals from ending up on their force.
A couple other things could help prevent these kinds of terrible crimes. One would be to require border patrol agents to wear body cameras and keep them turned on while on duty. Another would be to never allow any border patrol agent to work alone, in the field, but always require them to work in pairs in the field. These things would also help reduce the likelihood of such serious crimes being perpetrated by border patrol agents.
And again, the US should do much more to work with the nations these people are fleeing from, to improve conditions so that not so many feel compelled to flee and illegally enter the US.
11
Unfortunately, there will always be a few bad apples in any bunch. That being said, Border Patrol has a very high rate of suicide and alcoholism. It's a depressing job, being all alone in a truck all day hunting for poor people. There's really not much to look forward to on a daily basis, except for the high salary. Try that for 20 years and see how you come out mentally. The supervisors don't care about anything other than statistics and sitting in the office doing as little as possible, making $110k-$130k a year. It's a recipe for negligence and bad behavior.
8
This is beyond horrifying. How dare anyone blame the women ? I don't care if five million immigrants come everyday. These are human beings ! Raped , murdered in their own countries , to be met in a country that supposedly offers some kind of protection, humane treatment, to be kidnapped , raped and left for dead .
Good god, what has the country become ?
Veterans Day on top of it!
When people like my silver and Purple Heart uncle fought for ideals.
19
This criminal taking advantage of the most vulnerable should be prosecuted to the fullest extent and DHS/BP needs to police its own and weed out those that would exploit people trying to cross our border. People attempting to cross our border illegally are exploited up and down the line, mostly by organized criminal gangs and, in many cases, this exploitation continues after they cross into the USA. God only knows what can happen while they are transiting Central American and Mexico. The reason this is happening is that they are participating in a process that exists outside of our laws and regulations. If for no other reason, this is why we need to get illegal immigration under control - to stop crimes from being committed on people that exist only in the shadows. With a $19 trillion GDP growing in excess of 3% a year, there's plenty of need for all sorts of immigrants - skilled and unskilled. But we need to have a process that works for all - efficiently and legally.
4
Cousins, what are you becoming? Reading the comments on similar articles as this over the past three years, it is obvious to any outside observer, that the differences between asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, immigrants, DACA kids and indeed even economic migrants are becoming less obvious to many of you. Might you think that if these devisions, these hostilities and this increasing violence between your communities continue, a significant minority of you could at some time become asylum seekers too? Asylum laws are international laws that you are currently considering ending at one of your borders (many of you enthusiastically) - an international, worldwide agreement. God forbid, the day may come if you continue on this track, many of you may one day need these laws yourself. Because once you allow some of you to be divided, to allow some of you oppressed, you are all weakened. It doesn't effect you and yours, until the day you find it is you and yours in danger. This meanness, this unnecessary ramping up of fear of others, in a nation of immigrants is most unbecoming. And I must add, incredibly disappointing in what was a nation that not long ago, seemed at least from afar, to believe that what made an American an American, was not your place of birth, but that incredible faith in your constitution, your institutions, your democracy. And as irritating as it could be to hear you bang on about your patriotism - that was what the world admired in you.
11
Heartbreaking, tragic story. I understand that the main point is to highlight the fact that because a court case is going forward, issues are being raised re: CBP practices in vetting, hiring, supervising BP agents who have the opportunity to abuse their power over vulnerable people and, in this case, do so in horrific ways.
But, I am very dissatisfied that there is no real backstory on the victims of this horrendous abuse, especially since they now have been granted legal residence in the U.S. and they "gave lengthy interviews to NYT" and their identities have been protected.
We are only told that the woman and her daughter wanted to reunite with the husband/father residing in the U.S. Since he spent time "wandering in the desert", I can only assume that his residence is illegal. The young girl "wanted to reunite w/her parents in the U.S."
I want to know why, if circumstances were so bad at home that there are legitimate grounds for asylum, the husband and parents would leave behind such vulnerable loved ones. I want to know why none applied for refugee status at any U.S. Consulate along their perilous journey, which could have, if granted, given them a safer, legal option. Finally, I want to know if these women ever did reunite w/their husband/father/parents. Never answered.
My interest is not judgmental but genuine. A sidebar on the backstories of these women would have helped put in context their story as part of the larger immigration issue.
Hope they do well.
9
> One Customs and Border Protection official testified that if Mr. Manzanares had been given a polygraph exam, it probably would have revealed that he appeared to be a pedophile.<
Polygraphs are notoriously inaccurate, to the point that they aren’t allowed as evidence in criminal trials nowadays.
4
A sickening,heart wrenching account.Yes I am against illegal migration,but I am also against rape and torture of vulnerable people!I don't know how this agency can be "cleaned up" under trump, and from reading many of the comments,how it can be improved,when so many of my fellow Americans are so heartless.
12
I nearly skipped reading this story, but glad I didn't. One thing that keeps coming to my mind when people say, "Ah, but they were entering illegally" is how they fail to understand that people seeking asylum in any country always enter via the easiest manner. It wasn't that long ago that Cubans were granted permanent residency status if they survived a perilous boat ride to get here.
7
Bad people are everywhere. They are doctors, lawyers, teachers, policeman or your neighbor next door. This should never have happen to these women. It was a horrific, violent crime and the man committing the crime should be punished and held accountable.
However, this speaks to the need for immigrants to fill out the proper paperwork, so that they can enter our country legally and safely through the court system. Sneaking across the border is dangerous, yet, immigrants continue to do so each and every day. The sad thing is, this story will not stop one illegal immigrant from attempting to enter our country. Even these women, if deported, mostly likely will try again.
6
When I read articles like this I feel like I am living in an alternate universe. These people are not immigrants they are illegal aliens breaking the law by entering the US illegally This of course does NOT justify what happened to them. Using this thankfully rare abuse by the border patrol to make leftist political points is a disgrace
14
@Harry You know what else is a disgrace? Kidnapping, raping, assaulting, and slashing defenseless women.
13
@Rose in PA True without a doubt .No justification and disgusting .My comment is still totally correct
7
@Harry
You are incorrect. The women intended to surrender themselves to Border Control officials and ask for asylum. This is an accepted practice - many Cuban and Vietnamese refugees got residency in the US by doing the same thing. Refugees from the former Eastern bloc also crossed our borders “illegally” and applied for asylum, most often it was then granted. The women from this article were granted asylum and are living legally here in the US. No leftist points were being made; only a story about a horrific series of crimes and the perennial question of how can we prevent these horrors.
8
@JohnQuinn
Our immigration laws are no less complex than those in the US. The only difference is that WE haven’t forgotten our history and where we came from... all immigrants and descendants of immigrants fleeing persecution or some calamity from other parts of the world or just Coming to the New World for a better future.
That was and REMAINS the promise of the New World!
Again, the current scenario is no different from the hordes of immigrants that landed on Ellis Island, NY from UK, Ireland, France, Germany and other European nations... fleeing famine, religious persecution or some epidemic, to say the least. Nothing wrong with having secure borders, but just remember to reflect on your own beginnings before judging others and painting everyone with a broad stroke.
All this DEMONIZING of the OTHER must end! We are better than this, regardless of what your current Admin or Cmdr. in Chief would have you believe.
12
Another one appealing to history with little knowledge of it.
We have approx. 350,000,000 people in the USA. How many hundreds of millions are in Canada? Why didn’t Canada take in all the Jewish refugees fleeing Europe in the 1930s?
Why does Canada use a point system so that only the right kind of immigrants get in, but we’re expected to throw open our borders to every uneducated spinach-picker who wants in?
Ellis Island: a time when industry was rapidly expanding and all of hands were needed to crew factories going up everywhere. Those days are gone– and with them the jobs and the need for all the newcomers.
9
@Graham K., there are huge differences. Canada has a merit-based immigration system, based on points, such as ability to speak english; how much education a potential immigrant already has; financial resources and ability to take care of oneself; etc., all of which is strictly enforced. Trump has sought to move the United States to a Canadian style immigration system and strongly supported the Cotton-Perdue "RAISE" Act in the fall of 2017 and early winter 2018.
Unfortunately the United States immigration system is nothing like Canada. Also, based on latest nonpartisan estimate from Yale/MIT, the US has an estimated 16.9 to 28 million illegal aliens, who have snuck into the US or overstayed visa, etc. This is on top of the 1 to 1.5 million legal immigrants accepted every single year.
Because Canada strictly enforces its merit-based immigration system that is designed to benefit Canada, it is also very generous with refugee programs. Millions of Americans would love to see the United States go in the direction of Canadian immigration policy. This will require the Democratic Party coming out strong in support of the Cotton-Perdue RAISE Act and the other long overdue immigration reforms that have been necessary since at least the mid 1990s. Sadly, not a single Democratic Senator signed on to support Canadian style immigration system last year after Senators Cotton and Perdue introduced RAISE Act.
4
@Graham K.
"Theionly difference is that WE haven’t forgotten our history"
Another difference is your immigration laws are largely merit based and you don't border the third world.
WRT remembering our history, I do. Ellis Island had standards and sent people back. Those who stayed to a far greater degree were expected to be self sufficient. The first two generations on my father's side worked in coal mining. My gradmother was widowed when her first husband was killed at 23 when a mining car broke loose.
We were also a melding pot where people came to be Americans. Immigrants typically took American names and learned the language.
2
Don't forget: The Border Patrol has been pushing to get rid of polygraph tests for their recruits, because too many of them have been failing, and they need to recruit more agents, quickly.
Do you think the situation is bad now?
6
Horrible. But honestly, if men continue to be allowed to oversee vulnerable women and children (and other men), THESE ASSAULTS WILL CONTINUE. I’m not sure why anyone is remotely surprised. E.g. how are there still male prison guards in women’s prisons? There’s no simple answer (well...there is), but there IS simple knowledge that such outcomes are a foregone conclusion.
11
In the comments, I read so much blame focused whose adminstration is at fault for this incident.
Why do we keep doing this? Why do we follow the lead of our current president in blaming, demeaning , belitting and dividing foreigners against U.S. citizens, Citizens against their neighbor, Black people against white people. Religion against religion. Being divided doesn't help us. I wish we could all stand together for the good of our country, for the good of all of us.
Oh, if only our president and politicans could lead the way and demostrate how a true demoracy could work for the good of all.
Together we stand, divided we fall.
What this border patrol officer did to these women and that child is horrific. He is the one who committed these crimes against humanity. The border patrol security should tighten up their screening plus overseeing their men, weeding out anyone with a questionable dark side, as this man had.
Q
Oh how I wish our leadership would make efforts to unite us instead of pitting us against one another.
7
Disturbed agents? Troubled agents? How about homicidal psychopaths? Is it that difficult to weed out these characters before handing them weapons and a vehicle?
If the BP is that desperate for officers, someone in Homeland Security needs to get busy figuring out better screening, training, and pay. Oh, it's going to cost more than we thought? Never mind; we'll just work with what we have and let the genius in the White House take the credit for "securing the southern border".
10
We have troops returning from Afghanistan for example, who admit that they are suffering from some form of mental irregularities yet they do not receive treatment. This is wrong Donald.
6
There are 11 million illegal aliens in the United States. This is the single greatest threat to our society. It is a threat greater than nuclear weapons in North Korea, Russia, Iran or the PRC. It is a greater threat than the opioid epidemic. It is a greater threat than any potentially fatal disease.
The Border Patrol agent should be prosecuted for these crimes and punished. That is solution, along with better recruiting procedures. However, just like the crimes that are committed by illegal aliens, these crimes would not have occurred had the illegal aliens not been in the United States in the first place. No rational immigration policy would accept these indigents from Honduras or any other country. The United States government should select those who are allowed to immigrate to our country through the established immigration laws and policy. Illegal aliens do not have any right to illegally enter the United States. They should be prosecuted when they illegally enter the country.
If the immigration laws are too tedious or difficult to navigate, the immigrants should go to Costa Rica or Canada where I am sure they will be warmly received and re-settled.
15
Don't forget to blame the young woman for how she was dressed.
16
How exactly do they present a threat, let alone one that is greater than nuclear war? And what makes them indigent? They can't receive any handouts, so I guess they're working somewhere. And if they're working and contributing to society, albeit possibly under the table, how is that exactly the threat? As someone who has navigated our crazy immigration process (which is completely asinine, by the way), and as someone that knows many who haven't succeeded with the paperwork but are here anyway, I tell you they are actually no more threat than any other average American. Please reconsider your statement.
8
Please share: what specifically are the threats posed by undocumented workers that eclipse the threats posed by nuclear-armed enemies or highly addictive drugs that currently kill 72,000 Americans a year?
15
I'm seeing a lot of "There are bad people in every large group..." rationalizations.
In a group such as "law enforcement" we need that there be none. That is what we are paying for.
It is like, in the clergy, we require that none be child abuser. Among doctors, we require that none be dangerous quacks.
14
Back in the 80s I lived and worked around a lot of Border Patrol agents on the Texas Mexico border. Nothing in this article surprises me except the fact that so few cases have been processed. These guys struck me as bully boys back then, people who got their jollies messing with the minds and bodies of the defenseless. Glad that these cases are seeing the light of day. The only way to fix this problem is to fire them all and make them reapply for their jobs. I am guessing 75% wouldn't be rehired if a psychological evaluation were given.
11
Sad, but true reminder of why we need a wall at the border, so that people go through the proper legal channels to enter the country and don't get taken advantage of by criminal border agents.
9
Manny Fernandez has succinctly identified the elements common to such horrendous behavior. They are committed by individuals “dealing with vulnerable, powerless people,”. It is not unique to males or the border patrol. It occurs in the following settings, military, police, mental hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, prisons and others. Are perpetrators attracted to such settings or does the setting evoke such behaviors or both? It is a scourge on humankind that will not be easily remedied.
4
One easy and obvious solution - don't hire men for this job.
6
So what is going on? Are Border Patrol agents just driving around during their shifts and coming back to the headquarters and clocking out?
I have no idea what kind of oversight, supervision and accountability there is in this agency now, and I know no system(s) will prevent acts like these 100%.
I'll bet some simple protocols can be instituted so that these officers don't have as many opportunities to become criminals.
Ideas?
5
It may seem cold to say so but perhaps a border wall could reduce this type of crime by either border patrol, coyotes, or other criminals.
It is much safer to be in a public area like a border crossing where witnesses are abundant than alone.
12
I travel to the US for work quite often, entering via JFK or Philadelphia.
The first impression one gets about the custom officers is that they are not highly educated people and not happy about doing their jobs. They literally bark orders at people going through passport checks as if they were sergeants in arms marching soldiers. Additionally, many of them speak broken English.
Most Americans entering Italy through airports are met by a smiling young man or woman in uniform - often serving in the Italian army. There is no barking and yelling.
The story in this article is heart wrenching. But it reinforces my believe that if the US cannot even place decent and kind people to welcome visitors in major airports like NY, I can just imagine what who is waiting for you in Rio Grande.
Nothing to do with Trump or Obama. You have a structural problem. The borders need to be guarded and visitors welcomed by professionals, not by underpaid, undertrained, or non English speakers. And no criminals either, as in this case.
24
I must agree. I have never felt so intimidated, so unwelcome, so fearful in any other developed nation airport I have traveled into than the US. It's the aggression of the agents isn't it? We all have terrorism threats - so it cannot just be that. And it's so bloody jarring in a nation that prides itself on that Customer Service one receives from even the lowest paid once the nightmare of the airport control trauma ends.
11
@Roberta Consoli
You hit the nail on the head. Going to Europe and the Middle East, customs agents are courteous and efficient. Coming home, they are rude, aggressive, and impatient. It presents a very bad impression to the world.
4
Re: Polygraph exams which could reveal sexual crimes or pedophilia.
Maybe we should start using said exams on all elected officials, starting with you know who.
17
This is a terrible story. The Border Patrol should be increasing their screening procedures, and they appear to be doing so.
But this story needs to be placed in perspective. There are bad people in every large group and despite all efforts, some will be detected too late. We should not paint all the Border Patrol agents with the same brush, just like we should not paint all illegal migrants as murderers (although, it is highly likely that there are more bad apples among the illegal migrant population than among Border Patrol agents).
Ultimately, the US must take control of its borders, The 2014 ruling, which added "domestic abuse" as basis for asylum claims, broadens the definition to the point of making it meaningless, and it hurts real asylum seekers from the Middle East and Asia. It is a travesty pushed by ethnocentric illegal migration advocates with the help of the Immigration Bar.
Trump is so wrong on so many things, but he is right on this one.
14
@Bella
The nature of police culture is brutal.
Cops rarely testify against their own.That makes them all culpable. They paint themselves with their own brush.
The crime rate among undocumented immigrants is lower than that in the legal population.
People fleeing violence of any kind are "real asylum seekers." Aiding them is anything but a "travesty."
5
The problem with Trump and his supporters is their infantile belief that America is an inherently perfect place filled with inherently perfect people. Stories like this show us that we are all human, and the place of your birth or residence has nothing to do with inherent moral rectitude. Trump and company react with rage at this suggestion, and that is why the rest of the world really ought to be trembling in fear at what these people are capable of.
6
It doesn't matter who is the president when these officers want to harm people or be part of the drugs business....
There's a big corruption going on there and everybody knows it, but don't talk about it... So, tell me now what's the difference between the US and third world countries...? None
8
Sex offenders often prey on young women who are living on the margins - prostitutes, drug addicts, runaways - because few people care or notice when they go missing. The same here. CBP agents roam around the desert and find victims who don't have someone waiting up for them, victims whose absence won't be noted by anyone. In light of this they should revisit the rule that Supervisors don't have to check in on the agents in the field. Also with the stress of the job, maybe agents should rotated in from other fed LE positions, not permanent.
8
Abusers look for opportunities, and may choose a profession where they will be in a position of authority over vulnerable people. This is why teachers, foster parents, etc., are (or should be) screened with particular care. I believe these Border Patrol agents chose their jobs for the same reason Larry Nassar chose to work with young gymnasts - the availability of potential victims. I wonder what a thorough vetting of these agents would have uncovered.
9
This is so difficult to read. I feel very sorry and very sad, for the three women who were terrified and sexually assaulted. This is unconscionable. There need to be supervision over Customs and Border Patrol officers on each shift.
#me too.
13
Horrifying ordeal. We must fix our immigration system. Attacks such as this must be stopped. We must treat all immigrants with respect. Even if after interviewing them we must return some immigrants to their country we must do it with dignity. Money should be spent on education of border patrol agents and of our current president, not on building a wall.
10
Thank goodness these incredibly courageous
women survived this terrifying sexual assault at the hands of a psychopathic border patrol agent. I imagine this happens pretty frequently when desperate and very vulnerable people, especially adult females and young girls and boys, are apprehended at the border by our so-called public servants. My heart goes out to MG, NC, and JE as they continue to seek justice, heal from their victimization, and rebuild their lives here in America.
8
If this is happening with Border Patrol agents, who have some minimum of screening, what do you think is happening with the self-proclaimed militias?
How many raped, tortured and murdered bodies will never be found? How many girls and women have been caught and sold into brothels?
Fewer dead women may be a good outcome of having active duty military at the border.
Way past time for a Marshall Plan in Central America to clean up the cartels. That should be the Democratic Party's response to the refugee crisis - rebuild the failed states,
working with all other interested western hemisphere countries, to avoid the creation of more fascist states that serve only U..S. interests.
19
Why are the police often criminal? Criminality is considered just the opposite, a lack of a moral consciousness constituted by explicit norms or laws, In that case, law goes with order, and crime and madness are its lack.
This idea was exploded by the philosopher Hannah Arendt, whose book on the trial of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann, focuses on his self-presentation as obedient subject--orderly, cold, without hatred--of the relevant higher (secular) authority, the state and its "Leader."
Further reflection reveals that in the Nazi camps and elsewhere, legally-sanctioned and regulated domination carried out in a military style of impersonal command and obedience without regard for feeling or inclination, is often in fact a concomitant of its seeming opposite: violently cruel excesses committed by policing authorities against persons subject to their power, and in plain disregard for any normative authorization or restraint.
These are not opposites; they go together, in ways that are poorly remarked. Psychology as paradigm presumes the rightness of norms and seeks to explain deviances.
We need to know what it is about law, and its enforcement and punishment, as such, that makes these spectacular excesses possible and likely. And no doubt particularly when some population is made the target.
The liberal solution of limiting powers is inadequate when their object should be question. No population threatens our republic, whatever else does.
2
"Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." - Trump 2016
4
For all those blaming Trump for "dehumanizing immigrants", please understand that this horrific crime happened while Obama was President. Illegal immigration isn't fair or safe for anyone involved. It is time to end it.
22
@Krista
The thing is......These women aren't illegal. The current law allows them to present themselves to border patrol officers and request asylum. That is why her initial reaction was relief when she first saw the border patrol officer. The law requires that we evaluate their request for asylum in a court of law. Then the courts rule if they can stay or if they have to go. If they don't leave after being denied asylum then they are illegal.
If Trump wants to speed up the back log of people waiting for their day in court he should work with congress to spend more money and expand the court system. Of if Trump doesn't like the current laws then he can work with congress to change them. He's had two years to change them and done nothing. When he had a republican majority in both houses he didn't need the democrats to vote with him. He can't blame the democrats for what the GOP won't do (even though he does).
5
To be clear to all of the anti-Trump commentators, this happened four years ago. Who was in the Oval Office four years ago? That's right, BARACK OBAMA!!
You actually needed to read the article to find this fact out, "claims filed by the 14-year-old girl, now 18". A nice job by Mr. Fernandez in trying to blame Trump for something that has apparently been going on for much longer than he has been in office.
This does not make what happened to these women right, but let's be accurate in reporting the facts. This is why the media isn't trusted and Trump gets away with the 'fake news' comments.
16
@Jason A.Did you read this sentence? "The case goes beyond any one Border Patrol administration: President Trump has given the agency substantial reinforcements and a wider mission, but the attack on the Honduran women occurred during President Barack Obama’s presidency." Also the subheadline. "After crossing the Rio Grande, three immigrant women were picked up by a Border Patrol agent in 2014. Their relief soon turned to terror." I don't think this article at all tries to blame Trump for the crimes committed against these women.
12
It states that it occurred in 2014 right in the title of the article. Nobody is trying to blame Trump....it’s a report on the broken immigration system.
9
No. This is NOT why Trump gets away with screaming ‘fake news’. The NYT report is factual and accurate.
10
This is a fascinating and horrifying story about a serial rapist and maybe killer. Why the slanted angle and comments that paints all Border Officers as the same ilk? The officer who found them behaved with honor and as his duty dictates. There are sick and evil people in all walks of life and no agency or organization wants or intends to have this type of individual representing them but the human monster can be a sly one . Let’s not lump them all together. Why don’t we grant others the individual humanity that we want for ourselves.
8
Law enforcement officers have the highest level of domestic abuse of all professions. Not saying that all law enforcement officers are prone to this kind of violence. However, but the conditions of the job- the power over others, the access to weapons and information, the built-in excuses for violence, and the lack of legal accountability in cases of abuse- would certainly appeal to someone who does have these inclinations.
6
James Tomsheck, the head of Internal Affairs, was removed in 2014 on the grounds that he failed to investigate hundreds of cases of inappropriate use of force by hundreds of thugs in the
Border Patrol. He was the scapegoat.
The situation has gotten even worse. Half the people who apply for the job are turned down because of drugs, criminal records, and various emotional problems. The ones who do get hired are literally the dregs of law enforcement. It used to be prison or the Army. Today it's prison or the Border Patrol.
When the mouthpieces tell you about all the positive checks they have in place, it's nothing more than propaganda. They're poorly trained, as are the supervisors.
14
And I am sure all this tough rabble rousing talk is only going to get the worst out of these agents in the future.
"She asked him one thing: If he had any daughters, would he like it 'if someone did the same thing that he was doing to me, to them.'”
I ask the exact same thing to Trump's supporters who oppose offering asylum to desperate endangered immigrants.
13
Sociopaths don't respond to this sort of rational, emotional appeal. They just don't. They really don't care.
1
Frightening. A lifelong nightmare. My question is are those three border patrol guards who are American also of South American ethnicities? Is it a troubling form of superiority and control over helpless illegal immigrants? Are we making a mistake in naturalizing immigrants who are willing to join the military or police forces perhaps in an expedited way? Or perhaps not bothering to delve into their antecedents in an effort to garner enough people to man such patrols?
We need to soul search ourselves for surely we the people voted for such governance and now stare at the resulting horrors due to our collective apathy.
5
So, 2013 & 2014. Who was President then? Not Trump. Perhaps we should consider that our immigration approach during the Obama administration was flawed. It seems to me if we can discourage people from illegal entry, we avoid a lot of downstream problems.
12
Do you really believe these poor women were the only ones before or after this?
There are many more untold stories of abuse, that are not in the news. ICE is rogue, and needs to be revamped ASAP.
5
@MyjobisinIndianow
What nonsense. His first background check was in 2007, but I'm not blaming George Bush, so let's not play the tired blame-Obama game. Instead, let's focus on the real issue: that our border control forces have grown in numbers without having adequate measures in place to weed out bad apples. Committing criminal acts against human beings that come in contact with agents of the federal government is not a means of discouraging illegal immigration that any moral person would consider valid.
11
@MyjobisinIndianow
They are not illegal when they enter, report to border patrol officers and request asylum. Legally they have the right to request asylum and have their case heard in a court of law. If their asylum is denied and they don't leave the country then they are here illegally.
3
The events described here happened in 2014, 4 years ago, while Obama was President and before Trump had even begun his campaign. So while some comments have immediately begun blaming Trump for this or his dehumanizing rhetoric, there is no blaming Trump for this.
If Congress had simply enacted the recommendations of President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, led by African-American, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, it is less likely this ever would have happened. The Jordan Commission recommended more support for Central American nations; coupled with chain migration reform, reduction of legal immigration to a smaller number for a nation long past the industrial age (and due to labor market changes they predicted from NAFTA), and strong enforcement versus illegal immigration. All of these changes, including E-verify, enforcement vs employer, chain migration reform, etc. take away the "pull" factors motivating economic migrants to the US; and aid to Central America could reduce the "push" factors.
Ironically, Trump has supported virtually everything from the Jordan Commission (plus legalization of all DACA recipients, something Pres. Clinton never offered) and it is now the Democrats who refuse to play ball. Who do not want GOP to get immigration "win." Trump's rhetoric not helpful but why have Democrats continued to reject what their colleague & civil rights icon Barbara Jordan herself supported just 20 years prior to the 2016 election?
14
Yes there are some evil people in law enforcement.
4
@vulcanalex There are even evil people who are specifically attracted to law enforcement because of the authority the position transfers and the godlike power it bestows. Much like Trump to the presidency.
8
Mr. Manzanares thought that he could get away with this. Had these women died, as he intended, it's likely that he would have. So while this is presented as an aberration, we have no way of knowing how common it might be.
Don't tell me that they 'carry out their duties with the utmost professionalism, efficiency, honor and distinction,' unless you can show that this is not a common occurrence. It's clear that many of them do not.
28
Before they leave their home countries and flee to the United States- These people should be told the truth: The U.S. is no safer than Honduras..
29
@Aaron
Your comment is totally untrue. We do have the rule of law in this country even though it is not applied universally and there are glaring exceptions like the ones dealt with in the story. No one should assume that most border agents work in such a lawless manner or that immigrants are always mistreated. In much of Central America, where I have traveled occasionally over decades, the police are fundamentally, widely corrupt. Here, the great fear is that if a police officer stops you on the road, you might get an expensive ticket. There, the great fear is that a police officer might rob you or worse. The widespread existence of gangs and decades long civil wars through which generations have passed with violence all around them makes the southern nations five to ten times more dangerous to citizens than people experience in this country.
A number of years ago we added Guatemala to our list of places visited. I thought it might be possible to take a ferry to Belize to visit a friend because flights between the two countries were suspended. When I looked up "ferry" and Belize, the first thing that came up was "massacre on ferry to Belize". Not long after we left, we learned that airline crews were being shot traveling to the airport because of a labor dispute. Walking one block in a highly developed tourist zone at night in Guatemala City was considered a very risky act.
8
@Doug Terry
I have traveled through most of South and Central America and while there is poverty and crime, most of Belize and Guatemala are generally safe.
Yes, there are scary stories, but then there are similar scary stories told in Germany and Australia about "dangerous" US cities, such as Detroit, DC and even Santa Monica.
6
I was waiting to read this exact story because I knew with the dehumanizing of immigrants some boarder agents would become criminals by justifying their actions. There is no justification for this criminal behavior.
25
Sorry, this happened under Mr. Obama.
2
If M.G.'s husband had already entered the U.S. then it sounds likely they were coming to join him. If so, what is his story? What U.S. company is employing him?
How much does the lure of employment promised by companies who knowingly and willingly hire (cheap) undocumented labor contribute to this nightmare?
25
@medianone does this really matter? Seriously? you hear that a child was sexually assaulted and her mother nearly killed and that is the most pressing question?
People are fleeing Honduras because of unspeakable violence. - but you are concerned about what her husband is doing for work here?
13
@medianone- Wow- That has absolutely nothing to do with rape and murder. Regardless of who these people are or how or why those women got to the border, the crime was committed by a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. Would you be OK with this if Mexican citizens on the Mexico side of the border or Americans on the American side of the border were the victims? Shame on anyone who thinks your comment has any validity.
And please don't come back with the argument, "Well, why were those people at the border?" How about, "Why are some Border Patrol Agents attacking people?"
7
Over the years, after personal attachments to both an arm of the military and a branch of Civilian law enforcement, I've come to the conclusion that no one should be allowed to be any kind of a street officer with authority to arrest people for longer than 10 years, maybe even five. I realize that would be very uncomplicated, and the chances of it happening are slim and none, but people too often get in uniform and get the us-against-them idea, and all too often seem eventually to abuse their power. Even officers that don't do that tend to remain silent in the face of bad behavior on the part of their fellows. We used to believe that the police were there and the border patrol there were there to help us. I'm always leery now of people in uniform because I don't know where they're coming from.
15
@Georgia Lockwood So our country of laws would become lawless under your assumptions. And it is good to be leery that means you obey the law and avoid any reason for contact with them.
2
@Georgia Lockwood
I've seen the us-against-them attitude so often now in our ethnically and financially mixed neighborhood, that I know just having a conversation with a police officer can be its own kind of risky. For those of you who think it only happens to suspicious-looking or sketchy people-- congratulations that it hasn't happened to you. Yet.
2
This story is horrific. It is clear that we give border patrol and ICE too much power and little oversight. A persons immigration status doesn't effect the fact that they are human beings that should be treated with respect and dignity. Our criminal justice system is based on the dignity of all people, at least in theory. No matter what your immigration status, it does not justify violence or sexual assault. People have the right to apply for asylum and have their case heard and decided on. They have up to a year to seek asylum while they're in the US. We shouldn't dehumanize people seeking a better life. One commenter tried to say that these women couldn't possibly be in need because she has an iPhone in the video... They've been grant a visa and been living in Virginia. I'm sure she has a job by now as well. People need to stop with trying to dehumanize people that are different then them. A mother and her daughters aren't a threat to the stability of the United States. We have room, we have opportunity. The economy grows and immigrants have the right to a better life just as everyone of our ancestors did.
30
I'm sickened by Donald Trump's speech that dangerous people are marching towards American. Desperate is not the same as dangerous. We should all know that by now because there is a large segment of the USA populating that is dangerous and they were born here. We've seen the Republican party call these dangerous people every thing but that they are dangerous people. Now the president has condoned them and very good people.
Whenever a person wants to hurt another person they are NOT 'very good people'. They are dangerous. You, Mr. President, are walking very gingerly upon that line.
12
President Trump's crusade against undocumented immigrants has stooped to some of the crassest, virulent fear mongering of any president in modern history. In his unbridled speeches, he has consistently labeled an entire group of people as vicious and dangerous. Stooping to the use of anecdotal evidence, he has paraded the families of victims in front of a national audience. He has done this despite all evidence demonstrating that criminal behavior among undocumented immigrants is no more common than it is among the general population of citizens. If we were to apply Trump's method of judgment to the border police, based on what has been exposed in this article, we would conclude that they are collectively a bunch of sadistic rapists. I hope those who consume Trump's rhetoric pause and consider how preposterous it is so we can have a more intelligent conversation about how best to solve the problem.
12
People are labeled "animals" by the highest office in the land. Children have been separated by parents and imprisoned in kennels. How can anybody be surprised when the immigrants are treated as animals? Additionally, the extreme effort to interdict at the border leads to the border patrol being populated by misfits scraped from the bottom of barrel.
These coincidences are not chance: they are as inevitable as the law of supply and demand. Supply officially sanctioned hate and somebody will step up demanding the right to exploit that hate. And hiding behind the letter of the law is something that citizens have done to back every authoritarian government, ever. In such governments, atrocities are always "legal." Always. The "animals" are always doing something illegal. Always.
You get to decide where you stand. You will be complicit either way. What would you rather be complicit in? The assault, rape, and, likely in cases, murder of illegal immigrants fleeing horrific conditions in their home countries? Or the violation of cruel, heartless enforcement of laws that were previously enforced in a more human manner?
The latter laws have always been on the books. The method of their enforcement is at the discretion of each administration.
13
I've been to the Texas border where the always armed agents act like an occupying military force. It comes as no surprise that supervision is woefully inadequate.
19
@Theodore R, Same in Arizona. They take over townships. Sometimes they stop and investigate you while you're out doing everyday ordinary things like dog walking or hiking. Once a group of us star gazers with telescopes were bothered by them, told to pack it up and go home. I promptly left the SW in part because of this military state mentality. It was frightening.
16
@Theodore R I can't help but think that there is a significant portion of the population who is just fine with having poorly supervised "bad hombres" patrolling our southern borders. As long as they don't know the details of how "illegals" are discouraged from entering the country, then the border agents can be thought of as hard-working heroes. I know it sounds cynical, but my guess is that these horror stories are far more common than not. People don't get into this line of work because they're social workers at heart.
4
"Troubled' is a rather anodyne choice of word to describe individuals whose behavior is clearly monstrous.
27
You can clear US customs in Nassau in the Bahamas. A few years ago while doing so I asked the customs agent how he liked living in the Bahamas. He loudly stated that "if I had a nuke I would burn this entire island to the ground". At least three other agents were within earshot and didn't raise a eyebrow.
Imagine what would have happened if I said something like that.
22
How are these, hopefully, small number of Border Agents any different than MS-13 gang members? In my fifth decade of life, the hypocrisy I see all around me saddens me. How naive I was when I was young, thinking so highly of authority figures without question. Mind you, some are special, most mediocre, and the majority stink.
13
Ten victims over four years—out of how many hundreds of thousands of illegal migrant crossing in that time period? It would be helpful (and professional journalism) if the reporter gave us that statistical context. The incidence of abuse, however horrible that abuse, would then appear quite small.
17
@BloUrHausDwn
How many are reported? The majority of these people trying to enter the United States are fleeing violence in their own country and know the futility of reporting crimes by authorities.
How many are killed? No one here knows where they are and those left behind never hear from them. Think how easy it would be to kill someone in those circumstances and then tell me how small the chances are.
10
@BloUrHausDwn
We really do not know how much abuse is happening-on both sides of the border. I lived in El Paso for four years, and just checked the El Paso Times online for their most current "statistical context", as of 2017.
Since 1993, over four hundred women have disappeared or been found murdered on the Mexican side of the border, in the desert around Juarez. Their government has also been slow to investigate, although there have always been rumors about local and state police, and the Federales possibly being involved.
Neither country has seemingly made even an accurate body count a priority, but recently Mexico has started to use the term "femicide" for these murders. Am waiting for the United States to at least call these hate crimes.
4
@BloUrHausDwn "Quite small?" How would you know, since these atrocities happen in the field and evidently are not subject to supervision by superiors of the perpetrators. For that matter, even prisoners in official custody are on the record being abused and murdered with impunity. Would the incidence still be "quite small" compared to the miniscule number of examples of immigrant-wrought violence? You know, the select cases cherry-picked by demagogic office-holders to rouse their partisan mobs, while they ignore and/or incite the burgeoning violence by right-wing terrorists and armed sociopaths?
2
Of course they are human beings. Perhaps they are refugees. But I have an issue with a beggar being a chooser. They leave one country due to danger, and cross over a thousand miles through a stable and safe country, for one thing- better benefits. We are the fools. Perhaps we, and Mexico, and Costa Rica, and Chile, and Peru, need to share the burden. But we cannot allow people to stream across the border and cry "asylum" when caught, and reap the benefits of our too liberal social system. I could understand illegally crossing our border if one were escaping danger in Mexico or Canada. But call this what it is: people seeking a better life in a country that gives better freebies.... and we cannot afford to continue doing that, as doing so encourages this illegal behavior even more.
20
@Ny Surgeon
Mexico is neither stable nor safe - far from it!
2
@NY Surgeon- What ‘freebies’ do you imagine these people get?
2
@Ny Surgeon
Mexican refugees and immigrants are harder working than their American counterparts.
They raise families and pay taxes. They get no free ride.
It's strange to hear someone denigrating people for "seeking a better life."
In any jurisdictional region where law enforcement officers are given enough discretion, and not enough incentive to do the right thing, it’s almost an inevitability that corruption will emerge.
The State is not some warm, compassionate friend. Without operational transparency, and a measure of civilian oversight, power abuses in law enforcement will always be horrific. Even if it is just “a few bad apples.”
20
This is a wrenching story, and the Border Patrol obviously needs to improve its selection, training and management of personnel.
Nonetheless, this story would not have been written if these ladies had not entered our country illegally.
Illegal immigrants face many dangers that could be avoided if they would only follow the legal paths to admission to the US.
86
@Ro Ma
"Nonetheless, this story would not have been written if these ladies had not entered our country illegally."
Criminals usually find a way to commit crimes. These agents were law-abiding people that were seduced to become sexual predictors. They sought out jobs that allowed them easy access.
42
@Ro Ma
45*'s "administration" makes the process of "legal" immigration difficult-to-impossible, in violation of laws and treaties.
Also, neither you nor I know whether these events would have occurred had they shown up according to the rules, annd been picked up by one or more predatory agents.
Manifestly, such bad actors, and the environment that supports them, persists.
Or we wouldn't see such a story at all.
34
@Ro Ma
Their plan was legal... Surrender immediately too Border Patrol to apply for refugee status.
Fleeing murdering rapists, no money, no transportation, no resources... so tell us what they could have done instead?
152
Is there no way to rid our law enforcement agencies of brutal miscreants, sadists, and rapists? Is there no real interest in public safety?
If these men are preying on migrants (in this case), they are also husbands and fathers and members of their local communities, and they endanger those communities as well.
216
No, we can't get rid of them. They have rights. People that are close to them might have some inkling that something isn't right in their thinking, but they might be afraid of them also. And until they do something illegal, they're free to do anything they want.
11
@BorisRoberts
no one has a right to imprison and rape - this are illegal acts no matter what
65
@BorisRoberts
They have the right to a presumption of innocence when they are charged with a crime. Not the right to a job.
Someone whose background contains red flags should not be put in a position of power over others.
Security clearances require background checks, and if something untoward appears the case is either intensively reviewed or denied outright.
Wait: I'm projecting my desiderata, not reality. I apologize and take it back.
If someone has not been convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors (with all appeals exhausted), no problem.
Welcome aboard.
11
This is another aspect of "tribalism": the reluctance to monitor or acknowledge bad behavior of someone "on the same team". It has been described as the"thin blue line" when done by police. Police and government agents such as the border patrol should be held to higher standards of behavior than the general public, due to their immense power over others. However, they are instead allowed to get away with anything that doesn't become public. If the woman left for dead had not survived, it is highly likely that no one would ever have found out about it.
293
Maybe we need to fund patrols so that nobody works alone. Having that extra person as a witness could make this situation better.
72
@Margo
That would not be sufficient -- there are many historical cases of groups of police collaborating to commit crimes -- look up NYC or Chicago police scandals. Strong pressure for people on a team not to report on each other. Need to have an investigative team as part of the force, akin to role of the military police.
14
men with unquestionable power are the most dangerous of all.
370
@sree Which is why every means possible must be used to prevent DJT from obtaining the absolute power he craves.
65
@sree
Thankfully we live in a divided limited power constitutional republic of united states where the people are sovereign and men who question power like .....Sean Hannity, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, John Roberts, Steve Mnuchin, Jared Kushner, Don, Jr, Steph Miller, Ben Carson, Empty Barrel and Mad Dog.
13
The NYT publicizes these terrible stories, but it doesn't change the reality- none of these women were refugees, and if they had surrendered to a sane agent, they would have been deported.
18
@bobw You have no evidence one way or another whether they were refugees. The fact is, people leaving their long time homes, traveling a thousand miles to get to the U.S., are all fleeing something. Would you undergo the risks and ordeals that they undergo if there were nothing compelling your journey?
14
@bobw
The reality is that they were trying to apply for refugee status, something for which you have neither the capacity nor authority to judge.
1
As one American to another, I find the spirit of your sentiments to be un-American.
12
@CTReader
This was directed @Paul.
1
The USA is responsible for creating the drug gangs that have terrorized millions of Mexicans and Central Americans into fleeing their homelands.
The people of the USA provide the market for the illegal drugs, pouring billions into the pockets of drug lords like El Chapo and others.
Then the drug lords repay the favor by buying millions of dollars worth of guns and ammo from American manufacturers with which to continue their reign of terror and murder.
Everyone makes money: except for the innocent citizens of these unfortunate country, who have no recourse but to flee for their lives with nothing but the clothes they are wearing.
Then we blame them for all the evils in our own country, the USA.
The USA is no longer a civilized country. It has become an immoral/amoral empire, devoted to nothing but profit for the chosen few, and bestial hatred against all others. We have very little to be proud of anymore.
25
@We the Pimples of the United Face
You are right of course, but most Americans are not familiar, actually willfully ignorant of the role the USA has played in the decivilization of latin America. The countless coups against elected governments, the instalation of brutal military dictatorships, the installation of american CEO`s as presidents of victim of american coups and of course the war on drugs. Then of course your very own CIA with it`s involvment in the drug trade and the brutalization of countries south of the border. The notorious School of the Americas. I could go on but why bother, there is and will be no reformation of civilian police dept.s in the USA so what can one expect when it comes to the border patrol.
4
@We the Pimples of the United Face
If we are truly an “immoral/amoral empire” then I’m sure that you would be the first to turn away would-be refugees and immigrants. After all, allowing entry into a country that harbors a “bestial hatred against all others” would be a violation of basic human rights as well as affront to your exquisitely attuned moral compass. I’m still scratching my head over the connection between drug lords and Honduras – or who the “we” are that blame Central America for all our problems (really?) – but only the most stone-hearted would allow such pesky inconveniences to get in the way of trumpeting our virtue.
3
I find it disheartening and unconscionable that there are readers who appear to believe breaking the law somehow justifies or diminishes the evil of the kind of torture and mistreatment these people experienced. That way lies anarchy or despotism. The test of a government and a people is how they treat those who cannot defend themselves. Whether you approve of illegal entry or not, there shouldn't be any debate about condemning this kind of assault and torture. That we have citizens who appear to believe otherwise is a source of shame for us as a nation.
104
Sadly, too many Americans who castigate Central and South American refugees for trying to come to this country which they think will be a haven are totally ignorant of the history of exploitation of the citizens of those countries by mostly American businesses. I'm 78 years old, but I well remember reading a book about some of that exploitation when I was a teenager. It was called "The Weeping Wood" and I think the authors last name was Baum. It told of horrendous abuse in the rubber industry. More recently I remember reading a review of a book about the banana growers and importers abuse of locals. Americans have been aiding and abetting corrupt governments in the Central and Southern Americas for generations. And we call ourselves a "Christian" nation.
42
The Border Patrol is the most corrupt of our government agencies and mostly because the recruiting is done so quickly that appropriate background checks are not performed.
12
A polygraph exam is not science. It would not and does not show anything. You are better off flipping a coin. This was a good article until the end. I wish more authors would research the idiocy of polygraphs and expose them as the frauds they are.
12
There have been mass hirings of border patrol agents to fulfill the many 1,000's of openings.
How are they all vetted or screened properly?
Do they receive mental health evaluations?
What is the educational requirement?
Maybe hiring more female agents would be a good idea.
Putting two people together in the field may also lessen evil intent. I hope these poor women receive some sort of justice.
13
Trump talks about rapists coming over the border. I would guess that more of these absolutely defenseless woman have been raped by border guards than US citizens have been assaulted by immigrant men. I have heard of multiple stories of immigrant women who have been stopped by border patrol agents and given the quid pro quo - your body for the night or deportation. That's what happens when desperate people are stripped of their rights. They are then compelled to submit by people in positions of power. This happens all of the time. Not all agents are corrupt but even a few bad apples can wreak considerable misery in the course of a career. There are few things worse than a bad cop and to deny their existence is to give them a free pass.
36
Little do immigrants or American citizens realize that the more families that get separated regardless of citizenship - like was done last century - the harder it is to conceal the evidence of inhumanity. There will inevitably come be a Final Solution to cover up the crimes against humanity by the trumpists.
All those trumpists that voted and enabled trump should be held fully accountable in the history books, if not sooner.
8
@PAN
This happened during Obama’s presidency.
2
Ok, so someone answer me one question....
KNOWING that they are NOT wanted, will NOT be given asylum, and are viciously VILIFIED by Trump and the GOP, WHY are these immigrants STILL marching toward our southern border?
11
@JM
Because the violence in their home countries is unbearable. How far would you go to protect your family?
9
@JM
The US law provides a means for anyone with legitimate reasons to ask for asylum are entitled to a fair hearing.
10
Do they know that? How do you know?
4
"Today, all Border Patrol applicants who pass background checks are required to also take a polygraph test..."
Lie detectors have a long history of being worthless. They should have been killed off long ago. Lot's of research shows they have mostly false readings and that was my experience. Congress needs to put an end to them, at least until neuroscience gets it figured out.
9
I'm disgusted by some of the commentators stating that this women deserve what happened to them based on their immigration status. Regardless of their status, they are still human beings who did not deserve to be tortured and assaulted. I see blaming the victims is still a thing in Trumps America.
63
@Nicole I don't think anyone is saying that they deserved what happened to them. Nobody thinks that. What we need to realize is that the incentive to enter the country illegally is dangerous to both the country and to the illegal immigrants who make the journey. We could do something much more humane by ending the lure of illegal immigration. Any legitimate refugee can apply at any US Embassy in their home country or the next safe country. Asylum can only be claimed from within the US but anyone who would qualify for asylum also qualifies as a refugee since it is easier to qualify as a refugee than it is to get asylum. No legitimate refugee or asylum seeker should ever be trekking through Mexico to enter the US illegally. The only people who do that are those seeking to stay illegally. That isn't fair to US citizens or to the illegal immigrants who are too often abused by both the smugglers, fellow travelers and border patrol. Let's put an end to it.
6
@Krista
I read it differently.
Many posters are saying that it was the refugees who put themselves in danger, and advising that they would not have been assaulted if they had not tried to enter the US.
It's also incorrect that appearing in person to apply for asylum is evidence of illegality. The whole reason for being a refugee is to get away from the violence, not sit calmly at home waiting for approval that may never come.
3
Classic Abuse of power from the top down to the workers.
It happens in a beautiful place like Ann Arbor, not surprising its occurring on unsupervised border.
Our town had a problem with a cop that asked women for sex & he would "forgive" their tickets. It escalated to cop going to their houses; one of them finally reported cop to a professor.
8
"Troubled" agents?
Don't you mean, "violent predators on the payroll of the Border Patrol"?
Manzanares was a violent predator. He premeditated kidnapping, rape, and murder. The fact that he was a law enforcement agent with no oversight and unlimited power over powerless people in dangerous conditions MAKES IT WORSE, not better. The Border Patrol has *more* responsibility to make sure they don't have predators on staff. Not less.
The FACT that the Border Patrol did not give their potential agents a polygraph AND a polygraph prior to employing this violent predator WOULD have revealed that he WAS a violent predator. The Border Patrol then changed their policy and NOW give polygraphs to everyone, indicates that they were *negligent.* The fact that they changed their policy acknowledges their culpability.
And here is the New York Times *soft pedaling* this, so they don't seem *too hard* on the poor Border Patrol.
Which hired *multiple* kidnap/rapist/murderers.
10
If instead of shipping jobs out of the United States to China our government had encouraged much of that work be done in Central and South America, the prosperity there would have kept most citizens of those countries in their homelands.
12
Certainly a sad and scary story. Why did these three women (2 girls) leave Honduras; they look well fed, healthy, attractive. How did they travel from Honduras to McAllen; how long did it take them to travel some 1000 miles. This report should give all details so the reader is fully informed and yes what happened to them obviously needs to punished 100%.
12
@rudolf You think the pictures were taken immediately when they entered the US?
2
@rudolf
The assault happened four years ago.
Should they have remained in dirty, bloodstained clothes?
Under no circumstances should any woman, less a 14 year old be violated in this manner. These women come from a country that murders and rapes them to a supposed free country with the possibility of being murdered and raped? Yes, I believe there has to be a better way on immigration, a consensus on the proper way to go about this. Let’s starts with the hiring of mentally healthy individuals to be border patrol agents. I as a woman shiver to think what was done to these women.
8
Between the call up of troops, the expansion of the Border Patrol, and monies being accumulated for a wall, there is likely enough funds to solve the problems in the countries that people are currently fleeing from if it were spent wisely. We need more expertise on the ground in these countries and less rhetoric from politicians. This isn't an unsolvable problem if the right players cooperatively try to solve it
49
@Kevin
I agree with you that the only way to stop the migration north is to better these people's lives in their own countries.
But, throwing money at the problem will not solve anything. These countries are in the shape they are in because of widespread systemic corruption. Money will only make the problem worse. It will take years, decades, for things to improve and a change of the minds of the people. Sounds difficult? Personally, I think it's impossible.
7
@Pat, they need to stay in their own country and improve it.
6
@Violet
All I can say is that I keep seeing this caravan on TV and the number of young strapping men outnumber women and children. I don't see these young men looking to improve their lot or their country. It is not our job to house/educate/clothe/feed etc. entire nations of Latin and South America.
6
You just made the case for the WALL
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@Marika: And how will the wall deter border agents or other law-enforcement personnel from this kind of predation against the people they do come across? What difference does it make where the victims came from?
5
@Marika. There have been walls, fences, etc., along the border in CA for decades. Desperate people do desperate things, including finding ways to get through/around/over/under. This is evidenced by every successful escape from every jail/prison/pow camp/school/etc., etc., ever made. Get a grip: your idol knows not of what he speaks. Ever.
First of all, these not immigrants. They are illegal aliens who broke the law to enter our country. Second of all, take a look at the video accompanying the article. These's an expensive cell phone in the illegal immigrant's back pocket. Does that indicate poverty to you? Third of all, this same person hardly looks underfed. Until we stop treating these law breakers as helpless victims, they will continue to bum rush our borders and insinuate themselves into America as tremendous financial burdens on hard working American citizens and taxpayers. Stop the pandering. Deport all illegal aliens. Build the wall. And stop chain migration now.
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@paul This article is about law enforcement agents in the US using their situation to rape and murder the women they hate so much.
The illegal crossing and access to cellphones of people illegally crossing the border is another issue which should be addressed in other articles, and is.
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@paul The incident occurred over four years ago. How did you determine that the victim’s cell phone is “expensive”? What is your purpose in commenting on the victim’s appearance? Illegal immigrants or not, no one deserves to be treated in this manner. The Border Patrol officer was right: he was a monster.
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Did you read the article? Do you think that because so-called “illegal” immigrants were victims that the border agents should get a free pass?
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Could the demented attitude in some Border Patrol agents that leads them to dehumanize, denigrate, and defile immigrants seeking asylum (mercy!) be the result of what they hear from our Beloved Leader?
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@Okiegopher
Please note that Obama was "our Beloved Leader" (as you call him) at the time of the incidents in this article.
But you'd have to read the article down to paragraph to discover that.
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@Okiegopher If Trump found a cure for cancer, people who hate him would still criticize because he can do no right in their eyes.
7
@Okiegopher
Only partly.
This kind of abuse existed before, as these women were assaulted in 2014.
But never before has a president outright encouraged by his rhetoric the brutalization of immigrants and refugees.
"She was a 14-year-old undocumented immigrant who had just crossed the Rio Grande, traveling with a teenage friend and the friend’s mother from Honduras. They had hoped to surrender to the Border Patrol and stay in the United States."
That was their plan?
It's a terrible thing that happened to them. But we have to stop encouraging illegal immigrants to come here.
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What do you propose? To legitimate the described behavior of the border guard? To shoot them? Their situation at home is so bad that you will have a hard time to create the worse situation for them here in the frame of the American laws.
6
By encouraging them, do you mean insisting on cheap coffee beans for our morning cup, grown only near the equator where people are forced into slave labor in order to make a meager living, so your coffee stays affordable to you?
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@Wolf who's encouraging?
4
People who want to have authoritarian control over people are attracted to professions where this is possible. Until recently, police officers in NYC were allowed to have sex with a person in custody without threat of punishment if they claimed it was consensual. A person in custody cannot give consent. In the wild areas of the Texas border, there is even less supervision and the boarder agency doesn't seem to care. If new hires need to take a polygraph then why were those hired before 2012 exempt? On the other hand, a person who is a cold blooded killer can pass a polygraph easily.
This is a case where the supervisors were deliberately negligent. Mr. Manzanares was not performing his duties and they never bothered to check. The day he kidnapped the three women was not the first day he was not on duty during his shift. This was obviously a pattern which his supervisors chose to ignore. They are guilty of malfeasance. When J.E. asked him if he would like it if someone raped his daughters he had no answer because serial killers frequently have families and still rape and murder. The question which will never be answered is how prolific a serial killer is this guy? This was not his first time and he is one of many.
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@S.L. The question is not how he would feel if someone raped & tortured his daughters. The question is how he would feel if someone raped & tortured HIM.
How can I donate money to help these women? I cannot even imagine the terror they’ve lived through.
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@Dawn D Start by writing to the author of the article.
1
Sorry, but wake up! Is it new that soldiers, officers, guards (people with restraints, weapons and state derived authority) rape, abuse, murder their prisoners and detainees? We can publish any number of rape, assault and abuse stories, or we can simply engage our memories or even life/family experiences.
No one "cracked" or succumbed to "temptation". Take abuse for granted in certain dynamics and circumstances and create safety policies to prevent it. No guard/officer works alone, body cams that if turned off ping HQ. Institutional oversight, guidance, transparency. It is not hard to stop these "monsters" within the billions of dollars of border apparatus. Blood is on all of our hands. My heart has always been broken, growing up with a mother and grandmother survivors of rape and brutality within genocide -but this story and so many others prevents any healing. Manzanares is one thing, his enabling coworkers, supervisors and work culture/procedures are another.
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This is the brutality and violence that happens when categories of people are dehumanized through propaganda. History may not always repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.
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Horrifying.
As the old saying goes: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
33
This story breaks our hearts.
While it is always difficult to understand how a human being turns into a 'monster', it is even more impossible to figure out how an US president can seemingly turn an entire government apparatus to become insensitive, scheming, and entirely bereft of human compassion.
This is not right. And we pray for the Democrats to help end this inevitable spiral to fascism.
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@AG
Don't look to the Dems, look to the leaders of each of these countries, all told we send billions of our tax
money to these countries, your anger should be directed at them. There is a reason our country has borders.
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@AG
This happened when Obama, a Democrat, was president.
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@Margo Channing
How would you suggest that we direct our anger at those leaders?
Meanwhile, there are refugees begging for asylum. You don't wait to rescue people while directing anger at their abusers.
There’s a vast difference between “misconduct” and violent criminal activity as I’m sure the victims in this case can attest. It’s incredibly important to call things what they are. The fact that the agency responsible for this man’s crimes cannot label these correctly as violent crimes (particularly when there is so much public evidentiary proof) only demonstrates the deep institutional problems that led to these criminal actions in the first place. This case could only have been known in an environment that supported open reporting, something that is certainly not the case now. When we fully appreciate as a society that these agencies should be designed to act in service of safety and hire based on that while also instituting protocols that support this dictum we can expect more and more of these inhumane crimes to occur, most of which only the criminals and victims will know of.
16
Monday, November 12 - Reuters:
UN tells Washington to protect refugees after Trump limits asylum.
On 9 November, The United Nations Commission for Refugees (UNHC) said that the US must make sure anyone fleeing violence or persecution can get protection "without obstruction." Many of the people on the move in Central America and Mexico today are fleeing “life-threatening violence or persecution.” "UNHCR expects all countries, including the US, to make sure any person in need of refugee protection and humanitarian assistance is able to receive both promptly and without obstruction in accordance with the 1967 refugee Protocol to which the US is a party.
Hoping the leading Democracy of the World will listen to this latest with care.
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@Miss Ley
Overpopulating your country to the point there are no jobs does not equal "life threatening violence or persecution". They are fleeing being poor and having babies they cannot afford to feed. We have our own poor and malnourished children to take care of. We cannot, and will not, accept 2 billion poor people just because they don't have opportunity in their own countries. We fought a revolution to have our freedom, they should fight for theirs too.
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@GregP There are plenty of jobs but I bet you don't want to pick veggies in 100 degree weather or gut chickens, pigs, or beef. Betcha like eating all of that though...
13
@Miss Ley
Please help us identify the
… "leading Democracy of the World."
Thanks
2
This is not a new problem. In a prior expansion of the CBP and the US Border Patrol, which doubled both in size between 2003 and 2009, there were documented abuses due to reduced hiring standards, truncated training, and fewer background checks.
These problems should have not persisted, but with the highly polarized and politicized Trump talking points, it is hard to believe that anything is being done to prevent abuse of these vulnerable peoples.
17
The ordeal that the women went through is very sad and unfortunate. The agent who subjectecd them to these deplorable acts is to be condemned. But it raises many questions that loom large in our political arena.
First, providing asylum to some distressed people, such as the jews who fled from Hitler’s Germany is a noble responsibility for us. However, is there a limit to how many asylum seekers can be taken in?
The current influx of people from central and south America and elsewhere is a problem for us, as Mr Trump has repeatedly told us. Though he is prone to hyperboles, but the problem is real.
The failure of nation states in those regions has given rise to utter sufferings of the citizens of those countries. But can we be the repository of all those people?
Republicans and Mr Trump want to shut all off. Democrats want to open the gate. We need to articulate a solution the is somewhere in between the middle.
People in those countries have to understand tgat mass exodus to the US is not a feasible solution to their problems. Leftist leaders who show their compassion by encouraging such mass migration are doing a disservice, as many will suffer in the process. Those leaders are actually abducating their political responsibility and transferring that to us.
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The answer is not cutting off aid to countries in Central America but rather helping them become stable (dramatically reducing drug crime here and there by perhaps regulating the use of drugs here) and seeing if we can help them develop local opportunity. After all, we did a lot to destabilize the region.
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@Mr C boatloads of Jews escaping Nazi persecution were refused entrance to the US and returned to Europe and their deaths. The US is complicit in those deaths.
Google it
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Yes...Disarm the cartel by removing drugs from the law books and accomplish with it an over 50% reduction in all crime and prison occupancy - disarm private prison efforts was well - together with substantial, carefully directed aid.
11
Key word missing from their description as immigrants...illegal.
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@Indy voter
In any other country they would be called what they are: Refugees.
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@Indy voter
They are human beings. We are SUPPOSED to be human beings. THATS the key words.
121
What’s your point? Does their immigration status somehow excuse and/or justify the torture?
I am not hopeful about the future of this country.
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Like militarized police forces whose officers too frequently assault brown and black people, this strikes me as yet another outcome of sending young men (and women) to the horrors of useless wars overseas. When returning soldiers find few prospects for employment, they frequently turn to what they know and are qualified for — various types of police forces, be they local, state, or as in this case, federal agencies. Far too many, suffering from PTSD, drift toward anti-social behavior, what they learned with efficiency in war. Piecemeal solutions will be unlikely to be found without addressing these root causes of hyper-militarism, economic insecurity, and resulting psychological instability.
30
"Through the years, a small number of officers have succumbed to temptation and reached for a share of the millions of dollars generated in the smuggling of drugs, weapons and people across the southwest border."
The more precise assertion should be "a small number are known to have succumbed..."
The ugly secret is that the Border Patrol culture is disgustingly tolerant of all manner of abuse. However, it goes largely unreported because the victims are almost always undocumented immigrants.
They silently suffer the abuse because they are powerless and believe speaking out will be of no use.
Abusive, violent agents who are caught and punished are a rarity.
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I was born here on the USA/Mexico border and I saw something that gave me pause, last week, and now I read this article that makes me even more nervous. I am seeing the Nogales Fire Department (Nogales mayor Doyle is independent/republican), together with the USA Border Patrol transfer 'patients' from Border Patrol cards to the Mexican Cruz Roja ambulance. I fear there is no medical analysis of the Mexican national who is being transported back into Mexico. Where they beaten up by the BP? Were they raped? Were they shot? There is no doctor report of what happened to that person. Previously, Mexican nationals were examined at the local hospital, not just transferred from BP/Nogales Fire Department to the Cruz Roja? Who has authorized not having Mexican national medically examined before being handed over to the Mexican ambulance. Does the Border Patrol have free reign over the undocumented? Are they Mexicans who are being returned to Mexico or are they Central American? These injured people are in emergency situations and I didn't see the Mexican Immigration overseeing who is being transferred. This chaotic situation is getting worse.
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@Anne, when word spreads that the gangs here are worse than in El Salvador, albeit more professionally organized and sophisticated, will that give anyone from Central America even a moments pause for thought? With the whole neighborhood on fire, fleeing a burning house is not worth much.
12
@Anne
"This chaotic situation is getting worse"
I agree and it's the inevitable result of disrespecting the laws of our county. Those who don't care about braking in to the US illegally, won't care about the rest of our laws.
In the meantime, there are thousands of people lawfully applying for entry into the country and waiting their tern. Are they stupid? Should we just approve them all at once and be done with the pretense of having rules that govern who gets to come in?
There are consequences to disregarding the laws in the name of empathy.
6
@Pat Just an FYI. Entering the US illegally is considered a misdemeanor at least the first time.
As to "not caring.... about the rest of laws" Hispanics as a group are less likely to commit crimes than non-hispanics. Seeking asylum is not the same as entering the country illegally, for asylum seekers they should be processed heard and a decision made for entry and if conditions are not met then send them back.
8
Ceding complete authority to the entirely unmonitored, while asking them to deal with the vulnerable and needy, is a recipe for disaster and abuse.
We do it with the Border Patrol. We do it with our visa officials across the world. Cops too? Probably something similar happened with Catholic priests.
With such a system, we can only be thankful there are not many more horrific crimes like those reported.
Any alternatives? How about monitoring? How about evaluating what people do, compared to how colleagues in similar circumstance do?
Impossible? No. Hard? Yes. Visa officers, Border Patrol officers, cops, soldiers, all need a degree of autonomy to do their jobs. They don't need the absence of monitoring. We don't need repeats of My Lai, Abu Ghraib, rendition, torture or the other untold horrors we have inflicted on mankind.
The only "wall" we need is the one around the prison cell deserved by our commander in chief and those he gives total license and the encouragement of abuse to.
36
Cops are cops are cops.
local, state, federal, FBI, ICE, Border Patrol,
They are the most dangerous gang in the world.
Everytime you encounter one you are literally taking your life in your hands.
Be careful out there people and PLEASE try to avoid the cops.
35
@Rick, do you think that swaggering walk is directly taught at police training academy or innate to the breed?
6
@Rick Thirteen people recommended this comment. Thirteen people looked at a comment that says: "[Cops] are the most dangerous gang in the world." and decided it rang true enough to recommend to other readers. That's where we are. Both statistics and common sense disprove the sentiment in your comment: no, cops are not the most dangerous gang in the world judged by any measure of value, no, the vast, vast, vast majority of people who have interactions with cops are not "taking their life in your hands."
This comment embodies the hyperbole and frankly paranoia that people will post for upvotes and recommends that has eroded the discourse in our country on both sides of the political aisle. 10 short years ago this comment and several others in this comment section would have been called what it is. There are some really bad police officers and the vast majority are good, but this position isn't flashy enough to get a ton of likes.
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@John Doe- While most people in law enforcement are there for honorable purposes, it also attracts the weirdos who want power over other people. To get into the profession, they know how to walk the walk and talk the talk of a normal person. They know how to hide their weird side. When they are alone they strike. In NYC, pairs of cops have raped women. They know when they find like-minded people.
6
Suggested by Tennyson’s Light Brigade
Many miles, many miles,
Many miles onward,
All to the border of Trump
Marched the Refugees,
Forward the ‘Caravan’
Each Child, Woman and Man,
All to the border of Trump
Marched the Refugees.
Forward the’Caravan’
Weeks back when it began
Frantic to find a Land
Off’ring a helping hand
Labeled by a Trump lie
Theirs not to make reply
Must find Safety or die
Marched the Refugees.
Soldiers awaiting them
Prepared for full mayhem
Every rifle a gem
And urged to use them,
Unreeling miles of wire
To haven don’t aspire
That isn’t Trump’s desire
Marched the Refugees.
Said to carry a Pox,
Deadly, the POTUS mocks,
And if the kids throw rocks
Unleash Hell and Fury
Border they must not cross
Without a heavy loss
So says the US Boss,
The Judge and Jury.
27
@Larry Eisenberg,
Thank you, Sir, once again for giving us some guidance and a reminder of what constitutes Democracy in America. Yours with a sinking feeling that this administration is unwilling, incapable or fit to do the right thing.
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@Larry Eisenberg
One must wonder what 500 aboriginal nations thought of the horde of barbarian savages arriving from Europe. They were not invited nor expected. And their funny customs, faiths and tongues were confusing.
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@Larry Eisenberg
They reached safe haven when they got to Mexico. Since they are supposed ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach you should dedicate this poem to Mexico
18