Meet the 'Mafia' That Plunged the Border Patrol Into Crisis
Deputy Chief Scott Luck ... in the crystal-chandeliered ballroom of the Trump National Golf Club, to celebrate his retirement after 33 years in the U.S. Border Patrol.
The party was adorned with a who’s who in Border Patrol leadership, past and present.
Chief Carla Provost
Andrea Zortman
A full contingent of retired former chiefs-turned-consultants were on hand, too, including
David Aguilar, 64, who’d headed the Border Patrol as well as its parent, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and
Michael Fisher, 55, who’d succeeded Aguilar as Border Patrol chief.
Rowdy Adams, 59, another retired senior-level CBP official, also attended the celebration.
It wasn’t just the end of Luck’s career, it was the end of an era at the agency — their era.
The group, called “the Douglas mafia”
by some agents, began climbing the ranks together after the 9/11 attacks as the Border Patrol nearly tripled in size and budget.
they’d had a hand in shaping virtually every aspect of the agency’s leadership and culture.
The group had overseen or witnessed crises in the past —
including lawsuits over excessive use of force and
revelations of corruption within the patrol’s own ranks.
catalyzed by ever-harsher Trump administration policies, had thrust the insular agency into unprecedented turmoil.
A series of high-profile scandals had focused scalding attention on the agency:
Children died in its custody.
Reporters uncovered a racist, misogynist private Facebook page
with some 9,500 current and former Border Patrol members,
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/meet-the-mafia-that-plunged-the-border-patrol-into-crisis/