Border Patrol to conduct a crowd control exercise in El Paso on Election Day


Border Patrol agents in riot gear take part in a training exercise at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday in Hidalgo, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
By Robert Moore


November 6 at 11:10 AM

EL PASO — The Border Patrol is planning what it calls a “crowd control exercise” on Election Day near a Hispanic neighborhood in El Paso.

The agency announced plans for the exercise, scheduled for 10 a.m. Mountain time Tuesday, in a news release Monday afternoon. The “mobile field force demonstration” will take place west of the Paso del Norte port of entry and next to the Chihuahuita neighborhood, an enclave of about 100 homes adjacent to a border fence that’s being strengthened.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Roger Maier, when asked about the timing of the exercise occurring on Election Day, said, “Our preparations are ongoing. There is no link to the election date.”

However, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas, Terri Burke, criticized the timing.

“The location, next to a totally Hispanic neighborhood, is suspicious. The timing of this — Election Day — is suspicious.

This administration, and by extension the Abbott administration, have done quite enough to intimidate voters without staging military rehearsals on the day our nation exercises our most important democratic obligation: voting.

Instead of practicing to handle nonexistent crowds, the Border Patrol could practice something useful and timely: how to properly interview and process refugee asylum seekers,” Burke said.

Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, the state’s chief elections officer, said he called CBP’s director of El Paso field operations about the exercise Tuesday morning.

“After speaking with Hector Mancha I’m convinced the exercises aren’t getting in the way of Texans going to the polls,” said Pablos, who grew up in El Paso.

CBP forces have been conducting exercises in El Paso and other border cities for the past several days in preparation for the possible arrival of a caravan of Central American migrants.

On Oct. 29, CBP officers in riot gear briefly closed the Paso del Norte Port of Entry as part of an exercise. Tuesday’s exercise, however, is about a quarter-mile west of the port and near the residential neighborhood.

The Democratic congressman representing El Paso, Beto O’Rourke, who is locked in a tight battle with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, was told of the exercise plan during a news conference just before his final campaign rally Monday night at the University of Texas at El Paso.

“No walls, no CBP exercises [are] going to keep us from honoring our laws, our commitments. Why this is happening now, why the president is stirring these issues up at this moment with 24 hours before we decide this election, I’ll leave that to you to conclude,” he said.

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