Eric Garibay drove over 12 hours from El Paso to Provo, Utah for a chance at a Border Patrol career. Speaking in Spanish to NPR reporters at a recent Department of Homeland Security recruitment fair, the current immigration detention officer acknowledged the emotional weight of his work: "It hurts to see. They're human, but a job is a job."
Army veteran John Heubert, who traveled from Georgia, told NPR, "I'm the guy that just executes at this point. So whatever they want, they tell me to do it, I go do," Heubert said."
Eighty years ago, Germans who were asked why they took jobs that involved persecuting others explained that "Befehl ist Befehl" ("an order is an order").
Garibay and Heubert were among more than 1,500 people who registered for the DHS career expo, part of the Trump administration's effort to hire 10,000 new ICE employees. The recruitment drive attracted an eclectic mix of candidates, including veterans, law enforcement officers, attorneys, and former federal workers who had been previously laid off. The agency extended 500 tentative job offers at the event, with 370 specifically for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations positions.
Previously:
• Border Patrol agents mistake innocent disabled teen for MS-13 member, leave bullets as party favors
• Father of three Marines beat, pepper sprayed during U.S. Border Patrol abduction in California
• Trump voters left 'terrified' and 'shaking and crying' after Border Patrol car search (video)
• Secret recording of weeping children begging for their parents while a Border Patrol official mocks them
• Two US citizens detained by a Border Patrol agent for speaking Spanish
• Tracking fatal encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection
