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Webb County Sheriff's Office

News


THE BORDER PATROL SERIAL KILLER IS PART OF A LONG, TROUBLED HISTORY

A rash of violent crimes by Border Patrol agents in the Laredo area is nothing
new for the agency sometimes dubbed the "green monster."

by Gus Bova

September 19, 2018, 2:56 PM, CDT

On Monday, five weeks into her official tenure as chief of Border Patrol, Carla
Provost traveled from Washington, D.C., to Laredo to discuss a confessed serial
killer within her ranks. Juan David Ortiz, a 10-year Border Patrol veteran and
supervisor in the region, had admitted he spent September driving sex workers
out to rural Webb County and shooting them in the head. He allegedly killed four
women before a fifth escaped last Friday and reported him to a state trooper,
leading to his arrest and a confession the local DA described as “cold” and
emotionless.

At a press conference, Provost offered her condolences to the victims’ loved
ones. Then she turned, quickly, to another point. “This was one rogue
individual,” she said. “I would hate for this to tarnish the great work that our
men and women do.”

Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles, now a former Border Patrol agent, was charged with
two counts of capital murder in June 2018.  Webb County Sheriff's Office

The defense was necessary. In the Laredo sector alone, which hosts some 1,700 of
the 20,000 total Border Patrol agents, Ortiz is at least the fourth patrolman to
be arrested this year. The other cases include an agent who allegedly murdered
his lover and 1-year-old child; another allegedly sexually assaulted a woman
after threatening her with deportation. Yet another agent, who hasn’t been
identified or arrested, shot and killed an unarmed 20-year-old Guatemalan woman
in May. In a question during Monday’s press conference, one reporter charitably
dubbed this history “a series of very tragic coincidences.”

But the rash of Border Patrol misconduct in Laredo is nothing new for the agency
sometimes called the “green monster.” Rather, the nation’s largest law
enforcement agency has long been a hotbed of violence and corruption.

From 2005 to 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were arrested
2,170 times for misconduct, such as domestic violence and drunk driving,
government inspectors found. CBP, which includes Border Patrol and customs
agents, was also the target of 1,187 complaints of excessive force from 2007 to
2012. Since 2004, more than 200 agents have been arrested on corruption-related
charges, including at least 13 under Trump. And a 2013 government-commissioned
report found that Border Patrol agents regularly stepped in the paths of cars to
justify firing at drivers, as well as shooting at rock-throwers, including
teenagers on the Mexican side, with the intent to kill.

> “I would hate for this to tarnish the great work that our men and women do.”

According to public statements from former high-level CBP employees, the mess
stems largely from the agency’s explosive growth in the feverish years following
9/11. During his second term, George W. Bush doubled the size of Border Patrol.
“From an integrity issue, you can’t grow a law enforcement agency that quickly,”
Robert Bonner, Bush’s own CBP commissioner, told Politico in 2014. In a court
filing, two ex-officials who led the agency’s Office of Internal Affairs wrote
that “inadequate” screening had led the agency to hire actual cartel members.
They also accused Border Patrol of behaving more like a military agency than a
civil police force, as well as abusing its extra-constitutional powers within
100 miles of the border.





Since his inauguration, Trump has tried, and so far failed, to replicate Bush’s
mistake. Last January, Trump ordered the agency to add 5,000 Border Patrol
agents “as soon as is practicable.” CBP has since streamlined its hiring
process, including reducing polygraph requirements, and handed a $297 million
contract to a private firm to help out. But so far, attrition has outweighed new
hires, and the agency has fewer agents than when Trump took office. (Border
Patrol jobs are relatively low-paying and based in remote locations; thanks to
the economic recovery that began under Obama, would-be applicants might simply
have better options.)

As Trump has pushed his ill-advised hiring surge, he’s paid no mind to screening
for bad apples or weeding out corruption. Instead, he’s coddled and lionized
immigration agents. In an August pep rally of sorts for Border Patrol and ICE,
Trump — the first presidential candidate ever endorsed by the Border Patrol
union — stumbled through a typical proto-fascist homage. He called the gathered
officers “heroes,” then bashed immigrant rights activists for supposedly
perpetrating an “unprecedented assault” against the agents.



Matt A.J./Flickr

“That you have to go through what you’re going through, being demeaned by people
who have no idea what strength is, is really very sad,” Trump told the officers,
whose agencies are still under fire for implementing his disastrous family
separations policy. “They just have big, loud mouths and we don’t want to put up
with that, and I just want you to know that you’re loved.”

In the same vein, Trump, along with Texas politicians including Senator Ted
Cruz, leaped last November on reports that a Border Patrol agent had been killed
near Van Horn, Texas, perhaps by rock-wielding drug smugglers. No government
source had confirmed the account, but that was irrelevant; the story fit too
nicely into their narrative of heroic border cops battling violent invaders. (No
matter that it’s four times more dangerous to be a local police officer than a
Border Patrol agent.) Three months later, the FBI announced it found no evidence
of foul play in the patrolman’s death — prompting crickets from Trump et al.

On the subject of serial killer Juan David Ortiz, or the agent who killed the
unarmed 20-year-old, or any other case within the steady stream of Border Patrol
corruption and violence, the silence is equally deafening.


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Learn more

Gus Bova is a senior staff writer and assistant editor at the Texas Observer. He
covers labor, politics, and other major Texas stories. He has written
extensively on topics ranging from the border wall to homelessness. Before
coming to the Observer, he worked at a shelter for recently arrived immigrants
and asylum-seekers. He studied Latin American Studies at the University of
Kansas.


TAGS:

 * Border Patrol
 * Laredo


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<div id="pico"><p class="p1">On Monday, five weeks into her official tenure as
chief of Border Patrol, Carla Provost traveled from Washington, D.C., to Laredo
to discuss a confessed serial killer within her ranks. Juan David Ortiz, a
10-year Border Patrol veteran and supervisor in the region, had admitted he
spent September driving sex workers out to rural Webb County and shooting them
in the head. He allegedly killed four women before a fifth escaped last Friday
and reported him to a state trooper, leading to his arrest and a confession the
local DA described as <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/09/16/womans-daring-escape-border-patrol-agent-helped-reveal-serial-killer-police-say/?utm_term=.d6bafcfa2b5c">“cold”</a>
and emotionless.</p> <p class="p1">At a press conference, Provost offered her
condolences to the victims’ loved ones. Then she turned, quickly, to another
point. “This was one rogue individual,” she said. “I would hate for this to
tarnish the great work that our men and women do.”</p> <figure
id="attachment_69544" aria-labelledby="figcaption_attachment_69544"
class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 328px"><img decoding="async"
loading="lazy" class="wp-image-69544"
src="https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Ronald-Anthony-Burgos-Aviles.jpeg"
alt="" width="318" height="383" /><figcaption id="figcaption_attachment_69544"
class="wp-caption-text">Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles, now a former Border Patrol
agent, was charged with two counts of capital murder in June 2018.<span
class="image-credit">  Webb County Sheriff's Office</span></figcaption>
</figure> <p class="p1">The defense was necessary. In the Laredo sector alone,
which hosts some <a
href="https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2017-Dec/BP%20Staffing%20FY1992-FY2017.pdf">1,700</a>
of the 20,000 total Border Patrol agents, Ortiz is at least the <a
href="https://www.lmtonline.com/local/article/Laredo-Border-Patrol-agent-charged-as-serial-13233053.php">fourth</a>
patrolman to be arrested this year. The other cases include an agent who
allegedly murdered his lover and 1-year-old child; another allegedly sexually
assaulted a woman after threatening her with deportation. Yet another agent, who
hasn’t been identified or arrested, <a
href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/27/us/texas-border-patrol-shooting-victim/index.html">shot
and killed</a> an unarmed 20-year-old Guatemalan woman in May. In a question <a
href="https://twitter.com/SullyKGNS/status/1041765818923663364">during</a>
Monday’s press conference, one reporter charitably dubbed this history “a series
of very tragic coincidences.”</p> <p class="p1">But the rash of Border Patrol
misconduct in Laredo is nothing new for the agency sometimes called the <a
href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/border-patrol-the-green-monster-112220?paginate=false">“green
monster.”</a> Rather, the nation’s largest law enforcement agency has long been
a hotbed of violence and corruption.</p> <p class="p1">From 2005 to 2012, U.S.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were arrested <a
href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/660/650505.pdf">2,170 times</a> for misconduct,
such as domestic violence and drunk driving, government inspectors found. CBP,
which includes Border Patrol and customs agents, was also the target of <a
href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/2013/OIG_13-114_Sep13.pdf">1,187</a>
complaints of excessive force from 2007 to 2012. Since 2004, <a
href="https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2018/04/13-cbp-employees-arrested-for-corruption-this-administration/">more
than 200</a> agents have been arrested on corruption-related charges, including
at least 13 under Trump. And a 2013 government-commissioned <a
href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs_2016_2017/15-118_amicus_pet_former_officials.authcheckdam.pdf">report</a>
found that Border Patrol agents regularly stepped in the paths of cars to
justify firing at drivers, as well as shooting at rock-throwers, <a
href="https://www.texasobserver.org/border-patrol-agents-can-shoot-and-kill-people-as-long-they-are-across-the-border-mexico-police/">including
teenagers on the Mexican side</a>, with the intent to kill.</p> <figure
class="wp-block-pullquote"> <blockquote> <p> <strong>“I would hate for this to
tarnish the great work that our men and women do.”</strong> </p> </blockquote>
</figure> <p class="p1">According to public statements from former high-level
CBP employees, the mess stems largely from the agency’s explosive growth in the
feverish years following 9/11. During his second term, George W. Bush doubled
the size of Border Patrol. “From an integrity issue, you can’t grow a law
enforcement agency that quickly,” Robert Bonner, Bush’s own CBP commissioner,
told <a
href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/border-patrol-the-green-monster-112220?paginate=false"><i>Politico</i></a>
in 2014. In a <a
href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs_2016_2017/15-118_amicus_pet_former_officials.authcheckdam.pdf">court
filing</a>, two ex-officials who led the agency’s Office of Internal Affairs
wrote that “inadequate” screening had led the agency to hire actual cartel
members. They also accused Border Patrol of behaving more like a military agency
than a civil police force, as well as abusing its <a
href="https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone">extra-constitutional</a>
powers within 100 miles of the border.</p> <div class="atlas-chart"
data-id="SkDnNkktm" data-width="640" data-height="449"><img decoding="async"
style="max-width: 100%; min-width: 100%;"
src="https://www.theatlas.com/i/atlas_SkDnNkktm.png" /></div> <p><script
src="https://www.theatlas.com/javascripts/atlas.js"></script></p> <p
class="p1">Since his inauguration, Trump has tried, and so far failed, to
replicate Bush’s mistake. Last January, Trump <a
href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-border-security-immigration-enforcement-improvements/">ordered</a>
the agency to add 5,000 Border Patrol agents “as soon as is practicable.” CBP
has since streamlined its hiring process, including reducing <a
href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/23/16511732/border-patrol-polygraph-trump-boots-on-border">polygraph
requirements</a>, and handed a <a
href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/692410.pdf">$297 million</a> contract to a
private firm to help out. But so far, attrition has outweighed new hires, and
the agency has fewer agents than when Trump took office. (Border Patrol jobs are
relatively low-paying and based in remote locations; thanks to the <a
href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/07/05/trump-ordered-border-patrol-hire-agents-instead-losing">economic
recovery</a> that began under Obama, would-be applicants might simply have
better options.)</p> <p class="p1">As Trump has pushed his ill-advised hiring
surge, he’s paid no mind to screening for bad apples or weeding out corruption.
Instead, he’s coddled and lionized immigration agents. In an August <a
href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?449998-1/president-trump-honors-immigration-customs-enforcement-officials">pep
rally</a> of sorts for Border Patrol and ICE, Trump — the first presidential
candidate ever <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/03/30/border-patrol-agents-union-endorses-trump/">endorsed</a>
by the Border Patrol union — stumbled through a typical proto-fascist homage. He
called the gathered officers “heroes,” then bashed immigrant rights activists
for supposedly perpetrating an “unprecedented assault” against the agents.</p>
<figure id="attachment_60053" class="wp-caption alignright"><img
decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-60053"
src="https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-360x240.jpg"
alt="" width="360" height="240"
srcset="https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-360x240.jpg
360w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-150x100.jpg
150w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-768x512.jpg
768w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-759x506.jpg
759w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-100x67.jpg
100w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-713x475.jpg
713w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k-243x162.jpg
243w,
https://www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/23949861492_170b4ecaf1_k.jpg
2048w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" /></p> <div
class="image-credit">Matt A.J./Flickr</div> </figure> <p class="p1">“That you
have to go through what you’re going through, being demeaned by people who have
no idea what strength is, is really very sad,” Trump told the officers, whose
agencies are still under fire for implementing his disastrous family separations
policy. “They just have big, loud mouths and we don’t want to put up with that,
and I just want you to know that you’re loved.”</p> <p class="p1">In the same
vein, Trump, along with Texas politicians including Senator Ted Cruz, <a
href="https://www.texasobserver.org/breitbart-trump-texas-politicians-spun-tale-border-patrol-death/">leaped</a>
last November on reports that a Border Patrol agent had been killed near Van
Horn, Texas, perhaps by rock-wielding drug smugglers. No government source had
confirmed the account, but that was irrelevant; the story fit too nicely into
their narrative of heroic border cops battling violent invaders. (No matter that
it’s <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/us/border-patrol-agent-less-dangerous-than-being-police-officer-invs/index.html">four
times</a> more dangerous to be a local police officer than a Border Patrol
agent.) Three months later, the FBI <a
href="https://www.texasobserver.org/breitbart-trump-texas-gop-now-silent-border-patrolmans-death/">announced</a>
it found no evidence of foul play in the patrolman’s death — prompting crickets
from Trump et al.</p> <p class="p1">On the subject of serial killer Juan David
Ortiz, or the agent who killed the unarmed 20-year-old, or any other case within
the steady stream of Border Patrol corruption and violence, the silence is
equally deafening.</p> </div>
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