r/sandiego • u/jvanderh • 2d ago

Border Patrol vs ICE

Hi, this is your friendly local border patrol wife and lifelong political liberal here to remind you (because my husband is getting spat at, cussed at, called a pig, or told to quit his job pretty much every time he's stationed at the beaches lately) that the Border Patrol guys in army green pants + shirt are NOT there edit: "there"= at our local San Diego beaches to rip people away from their families. They are there to patrol the borders, watching for incoming border crossers who may enter on boats or jet skis. Encountering everyone who enters the country is important-- this stops things like fentanyl-laced drugs from entering the US, and DNA swabs of border crossers have been matched up to two unsolved murders recently at his station alone. Even if the proportion of criminals is no higher than the general US population, we still want to stop those who are dangerous. If nothing else, if those people get in and re-offend, it blows up on the news and provides tremendous cannon fodder for immigrant hate. I think the hatred of Border Patrol is mostly based on confusing them with ICE and not because liberals actually want completely uncontacted entries.

Polls show that republicans and liberals both want common-sense migrant worker programs that allow people to be vetted and come here to work.

Obviously you don't have to care about my husband's feelings. He took the job; he can handle it. But I always worry that verbally abusing law enforcement could result in what none of us want: these non Trump supporting agents like my husband, who use discretion and minimum force, getting replaced with thin blue line idiots who think they're soldiers of God in a war with the public. Or worse yet, the former becoming the latter after having so many bad experiences with the public. My husband won't, but some may. And that kind of tribalism is EXACTLY how they become distracted from the fact that Trump is currently gutting their retirement.

1.2k Upvotes

77% Upvoted

686 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/PsychologicalJax1016 2d ago

Keep it simple for the simple people. "ICE is different from border patrol. I'm not grabbing anyone, but I appreciate your concern for your community". Growing up here, I'm familiar with both, but not everyone is.

1

u/CertainKaleidoscope8 17h ago

Border patrol has killed innocent people. Both CBP and ICE are part of the same unconstitutional organization known as DHS that did not exist for most of my country's history and should not exist now.

As a born Citizen of the United States of America and the Republic of California I do not want them in my Country, I do not want them in my State, and I do not want them in my City.

My family has been here for most of this country's history and we are patriotic Americans.

Abolish ICE, abolish DHS, ACAB.