The Border Patrol made this dramatized video showing migrant killing innocent victim in a dark alley

Can it get any worse?

 

Nick Miroff for the Washington Post broke a story that makes me wonder whether the Trump administration could be even more problematic when it comes to immigration.  

A fictionalized video, which since the story has been removed from YouTube ("This video has been removed by the uploader"), produced by the Border Patrol and posted this week to its YouTube channel shows a Spanish-speaking attacker stabbing and killing a man in a dark alley after escaping from U.S. agents.  The video currently can be viewed here.

The three-minute video, titled “The Gotaway,” is produced in the visual style of a television show like Netflix’s series “Narcos,” with aerial drone footage, actors and fake blood. “Gotaway” is the Border Patrol term for an undocumented migrant who evades capture.

The video ends with the image of the stabbing victim bleeding and dying on the ground. “Every apprehension matters,” a message on screen reads. “Do you know who got away?”

The message fades to a Fox News headline about the 2015 killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, followed by a rapid-fire cascade of other news clips and headlines about killings linked to immigrants illegally present in the United States.

The Border Patrol’s logo appears in the final scene, metallic and glinting. “Protecting America Everyday,” it says. “Honor First.”

 

According to the YouTube post, “The Gotaway” was produced by the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector, which includes California’s Imperial Valley. Under Trump, the Border Patrol has expanded its messaging efforts with a strategic communications initiative that has provided video equipment and training to border agents working in the field.

Those agents do not receive mass communication or media ethics training, according to CBP officials.

But the use of social media and YouTube has put cameras and communications channels in the hands of more agents who can spend their time working on video productions, instead of patrol duties, some officials have groused.

KJ