~ Picture courtesy of the L.A. Times ~
The L.A. Times
published a story last week about a fired border patrol agent that says that border patrol required them to meet a quota of arrest or they could get fired.
"We had to make eight apprehensions a day and if we didn't
meet that goal we were pressured to get more the next day," said Tony. The story goes on to say that they agents had to resort to going to home depos, clinics and other areas to detain people so they can meet their quota.
"If we didn't find any we would go to Home Depot or day labor sites," he said. "We got an old guy stepping out of a medical clinic once." While everything in the story is being denied by The Border Patrol, we all know that it's true. It just goes to show you how bad things are getting.
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So what? That's their job, arresting and detaining illegal aliens, just as it is the police department's job to arrest criminals. Duh! One would think that a metric of a Border Petrol agent's performance is his initiative in arresting such people. Would we bother to hire Border Patrol agents if we didn't have any expectations of them? Duh!
I think you're missing the point in the story. I totally agree with you when you write that, that's there job and they do have expectations to fulfill, BUT the other point made in the story is that even the agents themselves knew what they were doing was wrong and brought up the issue to their superiors. I would love it the Border Patrol arrested nothing but criminals and drug deals, but when they have to arrest people who are just minding their own business, that is not okay.