New York, NY-As Americans take to the streets to protest police brutality following the murder of George Floyd, the Trump administration is deploying Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents across the country to work with local law enforcement to bring militarized and aggressive border enforcement tactics to cities across the country. In a tweet, Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan brazenly announced the CBP’s participation in enforcement actions across the country. Acting Commissioner Morgan’s tweet follows reports of CBP drones surveilling the protests in Minneapolis.
In response to the deployment of CBP agents to quell protests, Murad Awawdeh, the Executive Vice President of Advocacy and Strategy at the New York Immigration Coalition, issued the following statement:
“Rather than addressing the root causes of the protests across the country, the Trump administration is deploying CBP agents to terrorize Black and immigrant communities. For the last three years, CBP agents have been the tip of the spear in Trump’s war on immigrants. Now, CBP’s militarized border enforcement tactics are being unleashed on our streets to stamp out dissent and intimidate Americans demanding justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. New Yorkers and Black communities across the country need accountability and justice not more threats to our public safety.”