Member-only story
The Border Patrol Union is fairly terrible. Jenn Budd has documented extensively their awfulness in many different contexts. But since in 2020 Trump designated CBP as a security agency, the union might actually be existing outside of the law.
I again want to thank Jenn Budd for bringing this point to my attention. 5 USC 7112(b)6 says in relevant part
(b) A unit shall not be determined to be appropriate under this section solely on the basis of the extent to which employees in the proposed unit have organized, nor shall a unit be determined to be appropriate if it includes-
(6) any employee engaged in intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or security work which directly affects national security;
Donald Trump wanted to protect the CBP from certain public record requests and give them an extra layer of secrecy. Jenn Budd summed it up thusly:
“When Trump quietly designated the Border Patrol as a “security agency,” he gave the agency access to national intelligence and sensitive information previously reserved for agencies like the NSA, FBI and Secret Service. This means, among other things, that Border Patrol is no longer subject to the same level of congressional and public scrutiny. For example, the agency and its agents are exempt from certain types of FOIA requests and…
