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A group calling themselves Creative Brown Resistance – Tornillo : The Occupation made their way to the U.S. Border Patrol Museum in Northeast El Paso and took over the facility for a time Saturday afternoon.
The group has been protesting in the El Paso area since last year, but stepped up their efforts on February 14th, starting at the Tornillo Port of Entry, some 35 miles east of El Paso, the location of the camp set up to hold unaccompanied minors last year.
Of their on-going protests and activities, via their Facebook page, the group states:
“The El Paso region is ground zero for a corrupt and broke immigration system, there are many detention centers that are operating with impunity and are largely unnoticed. This weekend aims to continue the spread of a culture of resistance in El Paso, and across the nation.” Elizabeth Vega, organizer Tornillo: The Occupation.
On Saturday, their protest moved into the city, when several dozen of the group entered the museum. Many members of the protest wore bandanas over the lower portion of their faces, while others carried signs.
The group sang and placed pictures of migrant children on several exhibits, until staff asked the group to leave. On one exhibit, featuring the photos of fallen agents, several photos of migrant children were placed on the display case.
According to the group’s Facebook page, the protest continued outside the museum for several minutes more, until Military Police from Fort Bliss arrived. There was no immediate word of any arrests.
The group live streamed the protest, drawing both support and sharp criticism for their activity.
The museum, the only one in the United States dedicated to the Border Patrol and the men and women who served in the organization, is a private museum, not funded by the federal government or the U.S. Border Patrol.
The original museum opened in Downtown El Paso in 1985 and relocated to it’s current location in 1994. The museum is supported by donations from the public.
The videos and photos are courtesy Creative Brown Resistance/Facebook.
The Border Patrol agents are the people in the community defending us and this is how you treat them? Regardless of if you agree with what they do or not, you should NOT be tampering with museum displays and artifacts. That can be very dangerous to items’ longevity, particularly since adhesives often have chemicals that can deteriorate materials and while they may not have been on anything too long, they could have left residues that can cause more harm in the long-term. Their issue is important, but the museum is NOT RUN by Border Patrol, so all it does is send a bad message to these small local information organizations and their employees who work to educate people about their communities for very little compared to actual government workers and other professions. Write letters to the head of CBP, to the leaders of BP in the are. Go talk to City Council and other important political figures that represent us. Don’t go harassing museums and cultural centers like this. It is so shameful.
Viva La Migra y Los Estados Unidos!
What amazes me is that the El Paso Jewish community has this really nice museum in downtown El Paso called the Holocaust Museum!
And in Northeast El Paso the corrupted gestapos have their own museum called the Border Patrol Museum.
Almost like Hitler’s Fanatical Superior Race thing for all the wrong doings.
Why don’t they ship out to Afghanistan and try the same thing there,since they behave so Nazi SS here.
Putting children inside cages,what’s next, feed them to the hungry dogs?
If you send your child to school, they are in a big fenced in cage.
Alberto, you are not only a convict, but a moron too
Beto, you’re a special kind of stupid, aren’t you?
Arrest the protesters
Every damned one of them should have been arrested, then had their legal status checked
Get a job dumbass let the brown people come.live with yall
Really? How racist are you. There are plenty of ” brown people” as you call them, like myself, who were born and raised in the United States. Shows what type of bigoted minded people support this nonsense.
Now this sharp band of disgruntled movers and shakers is making a real difference. I can’t imagine the extent of damage to my psyche that having my museum ticket held hostsge would bring. Do these raging protesters have no limit to the horrors they’ll visit upon us fellow museum-goers?!? What’ll be next – will they disrupt my zoo outing? Help us, Tony Stark!
As Jesus Christ said on the Cross: “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” I offer this to the
the masked protesters, whoever they might be.
Bob Stille,
32 year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol who started me career in 1958 at El Paso.
Retired as Supervisory Agent in Charge
The Border Patrol is here to stop people that are breaking the law by crossing without papers. My Hispanic Grandparents sacrificed to apply the right way…” The people that are protesting, apparently do not have loyalty or respect for our country. “