After retweeting posts that were seemingly critical of President Joe Biden’s border policies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection deactivated a Twitter account for the West Texas border region on Saturday.
The West Texas account retweeted Stephen Miller, in particular. Miller was a key player in former President Donald Trump’s White House and was a senior adviser on immigration policy, The Hill reported.
CPB Commissioner Chris Magnus announced in a tweet that the retweeted content was removed, the @CPBWestTexas account would be deactivated and the Office of Professional Responsibility was also looking into the situation.
“Totally unacceptable and disappointing that any CBP Twitter account was used to R/T [re-tweet] offensive, unauthorized content. We’ve removed the content and will deactivate the account. The Office of Professional Responsibility will investigate. This must not happen again,” Magnus tweeted.
The CPB statement that Magnus posted with his tweet said that “The tweets do not reflect the values of this administration and our work to rebuild a humane, orderly, and secure immigration system.”
Totally unacceptable and disappointing that any CBP Twitter account was used to R/T offensive, unauthorized content. We’ve removed the content and will deactivate the account. The Office of Professional Responsibility will investigate. This must not happen again. pic.twitter.com/O0Vwr3K7nI
— CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus (@CBPChrisMagnus) September 11, 2022
According to reporting and some screenshots shared on Twitter of the West Texas tweets, the account had retweeted two posts from Miller.
In one of the retweeted posts, Miller particularly posted about criminals.
Should this account have been allowed to stay up?
“Violent criminals lay waste to our communities undisturbed while the immense power of the state is arrayed against those whose only crime is dissent,” Miller wrote. “The law has been turned from a shield to protect the innocent into a sword to conquer them.”
Another retweeted post from Miller read, “The media’s greatest power is its ability to frame what is a dire national crisis (eg ‘cops are racist’ summer ’20) and what is not. Biden’s eradication of our border means we are no longer a Republic — he’s ended nearly 250 years of constitutional government. The media is silent.”
What is up with the @CBPWestTexas Twitter feed right now? This is one of the most egregious examples I’ve ever seen of a US federal law enforcement agency defying elected political leadership in official communications. pic.twitter.com/iON2AmqPqs
— Adam Isacson (@adam_wola) September 10, 2022
The CPB West Texas account also liked posts that criticized U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s actions and his homosexuality.
WARNING: The following social media post contains language that some may find offensive.
“Won’t happen! Buttplug doesn’t have a clue how America or any other economy operates,” one tweet that was liked by CPB West Texas read.
This issue with the CPB West Texas account is not the first social media problem that CPB has run into.
In October 2021, CPB announced that 60 of its agents had committed misconduct by participating in a private Facebook group that allegedly mocked migrants and lawmakers for their border policies, the Houston Chronicle reported.
CPB’s Discipline Review Board recommended that 24 of those agents be fired.
Only two of the agents were fired.
As the Office of Professional Responsibility investigates this new incident regarding the West Texas Twitter account, there is not yet any announcement on whether anyone will be fired or disciplined for the posts that were retweeted and liked.
