This training program enables Trump's deportation machine by grooming Boy Scouts to become Border Patrol agents. Tell the Boy Scouts to end their partnership with Border Patrol!
John,
The Boy Scouts are enabling deportations at the border.1 The Boy Scouts of America are aiding in the criminalization of Black and Latinx immigrants at the United States-Mexico border by participating in a program called the Border Patrol Law Enforcement Explorer Program.2 This program grooms children to become Border Patrol agents and it must be stopped.3 President Trump’s Border Patrol agents routinely target racial minorities, separate children from their parents at the border, and carry out his racist and xenophobic agenda. The Boy Scouts’ choice to participate in such a program is both disturbing and unacceptable.
The Boy Scouts must immediately end their partnership with Border Patrol.
Trump and his administration continually demonize Black and Latinx people, and use Border Patrol to create fear in our communities. From only checking the IDs of “people who had accents or were not white,” to stopping someone because their “shoes looked suspicious,” to arresting a Jamaican woman despite her legal entrance into the country to visit her granddaughter, Border Patrol has been given free rein.4 5 6 Border Patrol is the same government organization that boarded Greyhound buses and racially profiled passengers to target them about their immigration status. Yet the Boy Scouts happily partner with the Border Patrol Law Enforcement Explorer Program.
We must stop to this program. Tell the Boy Scouts of America to cut ties with Border Patrol.
This kind of behavior from the Boy Scouts is not new; the organization has a history of racism. It refused to desegregate until 1974 — 20 years after school segregation was outlawed and 10 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed.
The stakes are high: anti-immigration policies are becoming more and more extreme each day, and children continue to be separated from their parents at the border. Still, the Boy Scouts choose to participate in a program that actively breaks families apart. Although they claim to “train youth in responsible citizenship, character development, and self-reliance,” their participation in the Border Patrol Law Enforcement Explorer Program directly contradicts those values.7
Until justice is real,
—Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, Johnny, Future, Samantha, Eesha, Marcus, FolaSade, and the rest of the Color Of Change team
References:
- Isi Litke, Twitter, July 8, 2019, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/174139?t=7&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
- “Border Patrol Law Enforcement Explorer Program,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection, July 22, 2019, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/174140?t=9&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
- “Border Patrol Youth Program Trains Children as Young as 14 to Become Agents,” KUT News, November 20, 2017, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/174142?t=11&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
- "Primary Source: Border Patrol — and Scaramucci — Tied to the Valley," Valley News, August 2, 2017, http://act.colorofchange.org/go/63544?t=13&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
- "Border Patrol Stopped an Undocumented Man at the Indio Greyhound Station Because His 'Shoes Looked Suspicious,'" The Desert Sun, March 21, 2018, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/63545?t=15&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
- "Trump Said He'd Round up 'Bad Hombres.' How Did a Jamaican Grandma Get on That List?" Miami Herald, January 23, 2018, http://act.colorofchange.org/go/63546?t=17&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
- “About the BSA,” Boy Scouts of America, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/174143?t=19&akid=35337%2E4731121%2ERJjyFg
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