A 26-year-old former Border Patrol agent says he was wrongfully terminated from his job for expressing reservations about the drug war in a private conversation with a colleague. Now, he's suing for damages, and says law enforcement officers shouldn't be afraid to speak out about their personal beliefs, even when they clash with part of their jobs' mission.
Bryan Gonzalez explains in in a radio interview with The Story that one day in April 2009, while patrolling near his Deming, New Mexico station, he pulled over to chat with a fellow agent. Gonzalez told the officer, Shawn Montoya, that he thought legalizing drugs in the United States would end the bloody drug gang violence wreaking havoc in Mexico. The two hotly disagreed, though neither took the conversation personally, Gonzalez said. But the agent told another agent about Gonzalez's views, who then reported the comments straight to Border Patrol's Office of Internal Affairs, according to Gonzalez's complaint.
Gonzales was called to El Paso, Texas, where agents asked him if he was a socialist or wanted to take over the country. He was shocked. "I couldn't believe the ridiculouslness of being accused of wanting to overthrow the government," he said.
huh? a Socialist?
Maybe it's more upfront than it first appears. The War on Drugs is a joke and always has been. It created the drug cartels.
How many homes and cars get confiscated with the proceeds going to law enforcement and the states?
We only intercept a small fraction of the drugs coming into the US. Now they're saying our agents are being bribed with huge sums to look the other way. Mexico is in a war with drug cartels and Columbia may well be under drug money control.
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On Sept. 16, 2009, right before the customary probationary period would have been up and after nearly two years of service, Gonzalez was fired. According to the complaint (pdf), Gonzalez's termination letter said his "personal views" conflicted with core values of Border Patrol: "patriotism, dedication, and esprit de corps." The full termination letter--provided to the Lookout by the New Mexico ACLU, which is helping Gonzalez--also accused Gonzalez of telling Montoya that he considered himself a Mexican citizen, not a U.S. citizen, and that he was only in America because there are no jobs in Mexico.
"This was a ridiculous mischaracterization of his actual statements," says New Mexico ACLU spokesman Micah McCoy. Texas-born Gonzalez, whose mother was born in Mexico, was a dual Mexican-U.S. citizen. He renounced his Mexican citizenship when he turned 18.
"His statements to his colleague were that as a former Mexican citizen, and as someone who had family and friends on the Mexican side of the border, he understood the economic pressures that push others to immigrate without proper documentation in order to find work," McCoy wrote.
Indeed, Gonzalez confirmed that in his interview with The Story.
"I had respect for [the immigrants picked up by the Border Patrol] because they're willing to walk x amount of miles to make a better life for themselves," he said of the illegal immigrants he processed while an agent. "Just because I felt for them didn't mean I condoned them," he added. "They were breaking the law."
Border Patrol spokesman Mark Qualia told The Lookout the agency cannot comment on any ongoing litigation. He did, however, explain what's meant by the "esprit de corps" listed as a value Gonzalez violated. "You live it, you breathe it, you eat it," Qualia said. "We are one through our struggles ... It's not in a guidebook."
But Gonzalez says it's the Border Patrol supervisors who have violated a core value: his right to express himself.
"That's what America's about--being able to say what you want, being able to think differently," he said.
If we ended this farce and dispensed drugs free to whomever wished it we might lose a few druggies but as it is we lose people day after day and year after year endlessly.........
Just offer free access to services like counseling & rehab and let the drug users sort out their lives.
No more drug crime, no more overcrowded court dockets & jails. No more billionaire drug lords.
Face it, in Afghanistan we sanction the tgrowing and shipment of heroin.
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Terry Nelson, a former Border Patrol agent who is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of former officers who believe some or all drugs should be legalized and regulated, tells The Lookout that he thinks agents who question the war on drugs should speak their minds. Gonzalez was influenced by LEAP's website when he began to question whether the enforcement of U.S. drug policy was fueling powerful and violent drug lords in Mexico. (We wrote about the surprising amount of conservative support lent to a recent NAACP report recommending rehabilitation instead of jail for non-violent drug offenders, which would reduce the country's mammoth prison population.)
"You can still do the job," Nelson says of the contradiction of enforcing drug policy he didn't believe in. "You take the king's corn and you do the king's business. Did I believe I could win? No. Was I upholding the law? Yes. That's what I'm paid to do to ... they're not paying me to agree with everything they do."
The ACLU is arguing that the border patrol violated Gonzalez's First Amendment rights by firing him over his comments, which were not made in an official capacity. They also say his firing could have a chilling effect on other agents. The government has until April 29 to respond to the complaint.
"I hope this goes my way not just for me, but so people within the law enforcement community feel free to speak their mind," Gonzalez told The Story.
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
Ah, when they pass this law or that law, it's not ever enforced, if you raise a bill to change it, government's vote changes that. Lo mismo, todos los dias. If it was to be made legal, they'ld start shipping the crap in from China and when you call to complain about your order being wrong, you'll be talking to some rude foreign snot in India.
Phst, who cares?!?
Maybe it's more upfront than it first appears. The War on Drugs is a joke and always has been. It created the drug cartels.
How many homes and cars get confiscated with the proceeds going to law enforcement and the states?
We only intercept a small fraction of the drugs coming into the US. Now they're saying our agents are being bribed with huge sums to look the other way. Mexico is in a war with drug cartels and Columbia may well be under drug money control.
If we ended this farce and dispensed drugs free to whomever wished it we might lose a few druggies but as it is we lose people day after day and year after year endlessly.........
Just offer free access to services like counseling & rehab and let the drug users sort out their lives.
No more drug crime, no more overcrowded court dockets & jails. No more billionaire drug lords.
Face it, in Afghanistan we sanction the tgrowing and shipment of heroin.
Great articles and points for sure! I never understood the whole drug war thing for the most part feeling fairly certain that there must be a profit margin built in to it somehow...... As usual, another great thread Blutcher!
Good point since they do indeed have drugs. Some have legalized soft drugs like Argentina & Mexico.
I think crap like meth is 100% All American but I can't guess why.
We're the only one stupid enough to try and fight this crap, spending BILLIONS on the effort instead of taxing the garbage and MAKING bucks on it. The same idiots using it today will be the only ones using it then, I don't drink alcohol and it's legal. Just wait til they get stupid enough to make smoking tobacco illegal, we'll be sorry then. Who cares? Legal it it and let's stop being stupid.
Just wait til they get stupid enough to make smoking tobacco illegal,
It's "sin taxed" to that point already. My income already caused two switches to cheaper cigarettes.
Tax grass, treat it like any other impairment for drivers and make it illegal under 18. [I prefer 21 or while within school] We could erase much of the deficit.
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
What we see with the war on drugs is almost the same as what was seen during prohibition. I too think that the war on drugs is a failure and results in all the violence.
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