As we are about to endure yet another, albeit “partial”, government shutdown, some thoughts about issues presented by the rogue elements of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), namely ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) are in order. I offer two points:

1. Administration claims of doxxing are both incredible and a predictable outcome of an ethics-averse enterprise. Our esteemed Republican Senators and Representatives have drawn a line in the sand about Democrats’ calls for rules prohibiting ICE and CBP agents from wearing masks and not otherwise wearing uniforms and badges which register their identities. Those legislators accept administration assertions that identity obfuscation is necessary to prevent claimed but undocumented “doxxing” of those agents. The question to ask, in view of a history of dishonesty from the top, including from the President, Vice President, Secretary of Homeland Security, right down to the field agents themselves, is “Why are these legislators who historically have been disinclined to rein in executive overreach so inclined to believe the self-serving spin of those overreaching executives?”

In addition to the false, official spin about Renee Good and Alex Pretti, there are numerous instances demonstrating that ICE and CBP field agents who used excessive force falsely accused victims of acting criminally, for which that official dishonesty was approved with a wink and a nod from administration big wigs who long ago surrendered a vestige of principle in favor of an ethos favoring political, questionable (that is, not universally desired) ends by employing arguably illegal means. Usually compliant grand juries refused to indict, concluding after sorting facts that the official line often had nothing to do with truth or the underlying factual reality. (Consider the repeated and abhorrent reality that our government employees from field agents right up through the DHS and Executive hierarchy, the ones our taxes pay, were so willing to lie to cover their respective behinds!) There is no good reason why ICE and BCP should not be subject to the same standards of identification and masklessness as apply to other local, state and federal law enforcement.

2. Those who administer the law have an obligation to follow the law. In sum, while protecting principled law inforcement from violence is a worthy value, enabling poorly trained, unprincipled, violence-prone goons to violate norms of ethics, constitutionality and decency is not. The best way to shield ICE and CBP agents from public vitriol is to insist that they act with honesty and integrity.

JOE DeCRISTOPHER

Lewisburg

Submitted by email