Border Patrol museum damaged by protesters
EL PASO, Texas March 2 2019— A museum dedicated to the history of the U.S. Border Patrol has reopened after officials say protesters vandalized exhibits during an organized demonstration earlier this month.
The U.S. Border Patrol Museum in El Paso announced on its Facebook page Wednesday that the museum was welcoming visitors following a protest by immigrant advocates upset over the detention of migrant children at the now-closed detention center in Tornillo, New Mexico.
Protesters posted stickers throughout the facility that included images of migrant children who have died recently in Border Patrol custody, according to museum officials. The stickers were posted on an exhibit for fallen border patrol agents and on other displays throughout the museum on Feb. 16. Activists also left expletive messages in the museum’s guest book.
“It was chaos. They weren’t really violent, but they were extremely organized,” David Ham, the museum’s director, told the El Paso Times after the museum closed. “They knew where to go; they knew where a lot of our cameras were, they knew we were short-staffed on the weekend.”
The demonstrators, who called themselves Tornillo: The Occupation, denied that the protest left behind any permanent damage.
“We took action because the museum and spaces like it exhibit a one-sided perspective of what is happening on the border,” the group said in an emailed statement a few days after the protest.
El Paso police are investigating. No arrests have been made.
