Ephraim Cruz Resigns

Ephraim Cruz, a border patrol whistleblower, is now being forced to resign:

Dear family, friends, and fellow community members:

Friday will be my last official day as a Senior Patrol Agent with the United States Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector/Douglas Station (read attached resignation letter).

Some of you may be wondering why I would share such a personal decision so publicly. It is because my experience with the Border Patrol has been so public already that I feel compelled to round out this story in my life.

What started out for me as an inherent duty to report Border Patrol practices which did not compliment their written polcies on March 7, 2004, became an almost four year campaign to remedy institutional abuses, even against me immediately upon my reporting them.

However, the time has now come to forefeit this cause by circumstance not choice.

Sincerely,

Ephraim Cruz

November 7, 2007

David V. Aguilar,
Robert W. Gilbert
Chief Patrol Agents
Tucson Sector
United States Border Patrol
2430 South Swan Road
Tucson, Arizona 85711

Dear Chiefs Aguilar/Gilbert,

On May 04, 1998, prior to departing for the Border Patrol Academy, I stood proudly with my right hand raised amongst a group of individuals from across the country who also responded to the Border Patrol’s solicitation for assistance along the United States/Mexico border. On that day, I solemnly swore “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States; bear true faith and allegiance to the same…without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I (would) well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I (was) about to enter.” Standing with me in that room were now-Supervisory Border Patrol Agents Patrick J. Ford and Sandi Goldhamer, and fellow Senior Patrol Agents Raymond Poventud, Earnest Kyle, and Frank Bustamante, all classmates who comprised a fraction of class 374 and accompanied me to the Douglas Station by assignment. On September 15, 1998, I stood alongside my classmates once again to accept that inherent responsibility of becoming federal agents with the United States Border Patrol, taking that oath immediately prior to graduating from the Academy in Charleston, South Carolina.

Today, after 9 years and 6 months of federal service, I part with my classmates and write to inform you that I am resigning from my position as a Senior Patrol Agent with the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector/Douglas Station effective November 9, 2007.

This decision culminates the lengthy dispute with the Border Patrol over the condoned mistreatment of detained migrants in Border Patrol custody throughout the Tucson Sector’s Stations and the Border Patrol’s decision to retaliate against me for having reported the agency’s indiscretions that clearly continue to this day. My reporting this Border Patrol malfeasance honored my oath to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I” entered. The Border Patrol’s motto is “Honor First.” Yet, my credibility was impugned for living that very motto.

Irrespective of how the Border Patrol treats individuals entrusted into their custody, employing practices which blatantly circumvent and violate the agency’s own written policies, Arizona child abuse laws, Cochise and Pima county fire, safety, and health codes, and civil and human rights, and how an Agent will be treated for reporting such practices and violations, the fact remains that it has been a privilege and honor for me to have once again served my country, this time in the capacity of a Border Patrol Agent. During my tenure in this position, I steadfastly exercised my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the duties inherent in this role, in this order, and to nothing and no one else.

The Border Patrol’s Agents, like every other government institutions’ Agents, are expected to do what is right and what we have sworn to uphold over what is expedient to our own ends. As you lead this Sector, I implore you to live the struggling Border Patrol motto “Honor First” in accordance with the oath we all take upon hire as federal Agents.

Sincerely,

Ephraim Cruz
Senior Patrol Agent (D137)

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