10-15 is Customs and Border Protection’s code for “aliens in custody”; “I’m 10-15” is a secret Facebook group for current and former CBP officers whose participants create and share a torrent of racist and sexist memes, as well as jokes about the deaths of migrants in their care.
A particular target for their hostility is Congresswoman Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez, who was the first Member of Congress to correctly identify the CBP border detention facilities as “concentration camps.” In response, members of I’m 10-15 have posted doctored images of AOC performing oral sex through a border-facility fence, and also an image depicting President Trump forcing the Congresswoman’s head towards his crotch.
The group is three years old and has 9,500 members.
This is the latest in a string of revelations about the broad state of US law enforcement personnel; thousand of whom were revealed as members of secret fascist organizations that advocate the violent overthrow of the US government. On a more individual level, a court-ordered review of the personal messages of a CBP official who killed a Guatemalan migrant by running him down in his F-150 truck revealed that the officer routinely referred to migrants as “guats,” “wild ass shitbags,” “beaners” and “subhuman.”
In addition to casual racism, the messages on I’m 10-15 are full of sexist slurs and rape jokes. The CBP has the lowest percentage of female agents or officers of any federal law enforcement agency.
The group is also home to many conspiracy theories, including one thread that pondered whether the notorious AP photo of the corpses of Salvadoran asylum seeker Oscar Alberto Martinez and his two year old daughter, Angie Valeria M, had been faked.
Members of the Border Patrol Facebook group were not enthused about the tour, noting that Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from Queens, had compared Border Patrol facilities to Nazi concentration camps. Escobar is a freshman Democrat representing El Paso.
One member encouraged Border Patrol agents to hurl a “burrito at these bitches.” Another, apparently a patrol supervisor, wrote, “Fuck the hoes.” “There should be no photo ops for these scum buckets,” posted a third member.
Perhaps the most disturbing posts target Ocasio-Cortez. One includes a photo illustration of her engaged in oral sex at an immigrant detention center. Text accompanying the image reads, “Lucky Illegal Immigrant Glory Hole Special Starring AOC.”
Another is a photo illustration of a smiling President Donald Trump forcing Ocasio-Cortez’s head toward his crotch. The agent who posted the image commented: “That’s right bitches. The masses have spoken and today democracy won.”
Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes [A.C. Thompson/Propublica]