I spent 16 years defending Border Patrol agents. What happened in Minneapolis was illegal.

I joined U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shortly after September 11, 2001, out of a simple sense of duty: to help protect this country from those who would do it harm. Over the next sixteen years, I served as Border Patrol sector counsel in El Paso—where the Border Patrol was founded in 1924—San Diego, and El Centro. When I left CBP in 2019, I was an Assistant Chief Counsel.

My job was not to criticize Border Patrol agents. It was to train them, defend them, and, when necessary, prosecute those who harmed them.