Posted on 11/06/2018 1:46:31 PM PST by yesthatjallen
The U.S. Border Patrol cancelled a scheduled "crowd control" exercise Tuesday at a port of entry in a Hispanic neighborhood of El Paso, Texas, amid concerns over the drill's timing on Election Day.
The exercise was scheduled as part of a "mobile field force demonstration" ahead of the potential arrival of Central American migrant "caravans."
But the timing and relative proximity to polling stations drew the ire of civil rights activists and Democrats, who accused the Border Patrol of voter intimidation.
A Border Patrol representative told The Hill that the exercise had been postponed "out of an abundance of caution and due to inaccurate reporting that caused unneeded confusion in border communities."
But cancelling the event did not allay the critics.
"It shouldn’t have taken outrage by us, congresspeople and the community for Border Patrol to know this would cause serious problems on Election Day," said Terri Burke, executive director for the ACLU of Texas. "These suspicious exercises scheduled in a Latinx neighborhood raise serious concerns about whether this was intended to intimidate Texans from exercising their right to vote.”
The exercise comes as President Trump has ordered 5,200 active duty military personnel to the border to assist the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in dealing with what he calls "an invasion."
Trump has been criticized for escalating border security measures in the midst of a contested midterm election, a move his opponents see as political in nature.
Tuesday's Border Patrol exercise received similar criticism.
Bold PAC, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's campaign arm, called the exercise a "voter intimidation tactic," adding that it would not stop voters from choosing Senate candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) and Veronica Escobar, the Democrat running to take over O'Rourke's El Paso seat.
The chair and vice-chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in Texas, Democratic state Reps. Rafael Anchía, and Mary Gonzalez, said "the made-for-media ‘crowd control’ drill, conducted on Election Day, is a cynical effort to suppress the Latino vote in a region seeing record turnout,” according to a report in the Texas Tribune.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been and will continue to prepare for the potential arrival of thousands of people migrating in a caravan heading toward the United States, through the Southwest border," a representative said in an email to The Hill, adding that the exercises will resume after the election.
Every law enforcement worker should be required to stay at home on election day so voters can feel safe to vote.
But it bothers them ...
I wonder why that is?
uhh….a US Citizen has no reason to be intimidated by the Border Patrol.
WE know what this is really about!
Curious, isn’t it? A citizen voting wouldn’t be bothered by their presence one bit. What could it possibly be that bothers them? Shouldn’t they be happy that they are there protecting the integrity of the election?
What are these campesinos so afraid of?
I’m sure they are all legal residents, right? With a legal right to vote?
/HUGE SARC
I am BEYOND DISAPPOINTED that this crap happens under President Trump.
“The U.S. Border Patrol cancelled a scheduled “crowd control” exercise Tuesday at a port of entry in a Hispanic neighborhood of El Paso, Texas, amid concerns over the drill’s timing on Election Day.
The exercise was scheduled as part of a “mobile field force demonstration” ahead of the potential arrival of Central American migrant “caravans.””
The Left timed the caravan near the election and then when the border patrol responded with appropriate actions it becomes ‘political’? The border patrol should not have cancelled the exercise.
Indeed. One must intimidate those illegal alien democrat voters. After all, each one is good for five or so votes.
“I am BEYOND DISAPPOINTED that this crap happens under President Trump.”
I am not sure where you are coming from, but for me, it was a dumb idea to do this on election day because of the optics involved. That said, I agree that any other time, it should go forward as scheduled.
I doubt He knew about it, but agree if He knew
More power to them, there was a deputy went to an electronic booth just in front of me today as I chose paper and went to the other side of the room. I recollect maybe 5 of us at that moment. Thanked them all for being there, took me longer on our stairs than it did to vote.
“Every law enforcement worker should be required to stay at home on election day so voters can feel safe to vote.”
No legal citizen would have a problem with this. We have 10’s of millions of illegal aliens voting in our elections. The reason why Hillary won any state at all. This problem needs to be addressed STAT.
I agree.
Best case (it oughta' be) result: Trump either fires or reassigns to Alaska the BP law enforcement official that was so absurdly intimidated.
Talk about leaving the gate open, such restraint likely emboldened the activists to hurriedly recruit additional "voters".
If I saw a bunch of cop cars at my polling station, I’d have to wait until they cleared the jabbering illegals or the drunken Dims before I could vote.
‘The Congressional Hispanic Caucus’
The Democrat Congressional Hispanic Caucus........There, fixed it. I wonder of any Hispanic Republicans have ever been invited to join?
Trump cannot control every local decision of every career bureaucrat at every field office of every Federal agency out there.
Where I do fault him is in not having a transition plan that would fire MANY more treasonous people, and begin cleaning house in all of these agencies from Day One.
He did admit to us on Election Night that he was going to make some mistakes.
Why? Beto didn’t want them seeing those two buses of illegals with Beto signs headed to the polls?
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