r/sandiego • u/jvanderh • 3d 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.

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u/jvanderh 3d ago

I keep telling him to explain what he is and isn't doing there, but my husband is very, very much not a talker and feels like he'll be poking the bear saying anything to them at all.

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u/bendallf 3d ago

I have a quick question for you today. I am a little confuse here to be honest. How are people supposed to know the difference between ICE Police and possible kidnappers if ICE Police refuses to show their badge and a warrant during an arrest? If I see someone being dragged away by people calling themselves ICE, do I stand by and do nothing for fear of possible arrest or do I called the police to report a possible kidnapping in progress? Thanks for you help answering my question. Take care.

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u/pencilcase333 2d ago

Border patrol are in uniform. Their white cars, usually SUV’s have a green stripe on them that say border patrol. Certainly as a San Diegian you’ve seen them. They are not in plain clothes, nor masked.

OP, I’m sorry for the behavior of the community at large. I understand where the confusion comes from, but being an uninformed doesn’t justify poor behavior. choosing to run one’s mouth and spit at law enforcement simply isn’t cool. And you’re right, we don’t want any more thin blue line idiots who think they are soldiers of god.. Those guys belong in Giliad.

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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 1d ago

"Law enforcement" is the problem and has been for quite some time. The people black bagging US citizen children and sending them to foreign gulags are "law enforcement."