U.S. Border Patrol brokers freely used the derogatory slur “tonk” to explain unauthorized migrants on authorities computer systems, at occasions whereas joking about killing or beating them, in keeping with emails and textual content messages disclosed to HuffPost underneath the Freedom of Data Act.
The paperwork, from 2017 to 2020, reveal yet one more occasion of the Border Patrol’s use of a slang time period that officers in Washington have condemned however have struggled to stamp out. That is the second disclosure that Border Patrol personnel used the phrase in inner communications since HuffPost first requested a world search of its use amongst Border Patrol brokers 4 years in the past.
The origin of the time period is unsure, however most insiders consider it comes from the sound made by bashing an arrested migrant’s head with a government-issued flashlight. A number of the data reference that origin story, with one agent writing: “ah, savor the sound.”
Use of the time period remained surprisingly widespread amongst each rank-and-file brokers and people in management positions, the data present. Many brokers appeared to make use of the time period as a synonym for unauthorized migrants, with little obvious derogatory intent.
“Be certain that to vary the nation of citizenship to match your tonk, (i.e. Honduras) …” one agent wrote in a Could 21, 2019, electronic mail explaining a brand new information assortment device.
However the slur typically appeared alongside expressions of uncooked contempt for the individuals whom Border Patrol officers police, which disproportionately included Central Individuals trying to realize entry to the US on humanitarian grounds.
Many brokers wrote the time period in all caps to focus on it. A number of described COVID-19 as “Tonk flu,” with one agent telling a colleague, “Hope you’re sporting a masks, don’t let these soiled TONKS get you sick.”
Border Patrol brokers who used the slur at occasions gloated about migrants’ misfortunes or made references to beating them. In a single occasion, brokers joked about killing migrant youngsters of their custody.
The El Paso Sector watch commander forwarded a request on March 4, 2019, for donations of clothes and toys for unauthorized migrant youngsters and households touring collectively. An unidentified official within the electronic mail chain famous that some brokers “have carried out a few of these type gestures” previously.
“I donated a automotive seat that expired shortly thereafter within the hopes that it might alleviate our processing quantity by precisely one,” one Border Patrol agent responded. “That depend?”
“We’ll depart that one out, together with the Rice Krispy Treats that [redacted] introduced in sooner or later that will have been laced with cyanide,” one other agent wrote.
“You name it cyanide, he calls it tonk seasoning …” an agent responded.
Customs and Border Safety didn’t reply to HuffPost’s request for remark.
One agent shared a narrative in an electronic mail about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arresting an unauthorized migrant in entrance of his daughter. The topic line on the e-mail was “I can learn these all day, they make me completely happy.”
“Adios Tonk,” the recipient responded.
“I donated a automotive seat that expired shortly thereafter within the hopes that it might alleviate our processing quantity by precisely one. That depend?”
– U.S. Border Patrol agent responding to name for donations of garments and toys for migrant households
Some brokers described themselves as “tonk smasher” or “tonk stomper.” One agent goaded a colleague to go “smash some tonks.” When an agent complained that there have been “tonks in every single place” and that officers had been getting rocks thrown at them virtually day by day, one other wrote: “Ugh, would fairly crack skulls down south than be there bro.” One growing older agent lamented that his “tonk arresting days is likely to be over,” forcing him into “some workplace puke job.”
A number of brokers appeared to reject U.S. Customs and Border Safety’s condemnation of the slur as an indication of political correctness, with lots of their feedback putting a right-wing political tone.
In a single electronic mail chain, an agent mocked one other for utilizing the phrase “migrants.”
“Now you’re leaning left and sounding like a snowflake,” the agent wrote.
“Are you aware how exhausting it’s for me to not drop ‘F’ bombs and say tonk??” the opposite agent responded.
“I do know… embrace your incapacity, let these F-bombs drop with wanton disregard for the harmless ears you’ll ceaselessly rape along with your vitriolic symphony of pooty laced verbiage,” the unique agent responded.
In one other alternate, an agent shared a narrative from the right-wing information web site The Blaze describing how a New York Metropolis housing discrimination coverage may result in fines of $250,000 for calling individuals “unlawful immigrants.”
“I ponder what ‘Tonk’ would have price somebody,” an agent responded.
Few outdoors the U.S. Border Patrol had been acquainted with the slur “tonk” till former President Donald Trump took workplace. His controversial first decide to go U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, bought his begin within the Border Patrol and used the slur in Washington. Democratic senators weighing his affirmation sharply condemned Homan’s use of the time period after HuffPost first disclosed it in a 2018 profile. Homan resigned two months later and by no means appeared for a affirmation listening to.
The prosecution of Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen for putting a Guatemalan migrant with a authorities truck additionally solid a highlight on the time period. Bowen referred to unauthorized migrants as “tonks,” “Guats” and “disgusting subhuman shit unworthy of being kindling for a fireplace” in textual content messages that appeared in courtroom filings. (Bowen finally pleaded responsible in August 2019 to a single misdemeanor civil rights violation and prevented trial.)
Regardless of publicly discouraging use of the slur, the emails point out that in some areas, management remained conscious of its widespread use and solely reluctantly tried to tamp it down after the information media introduced larger consideration to it.
“As per higher administration, we have now been informed to take away all cash which have the phrase ‘TONK’ on it,” one agent wrote in an electronic mail despatched Aug. 7, 2019, describing plans for a luncheon and Christmas celebration. “They’ve expressed that with the entire current media consideration our company has been present process, the very last thing they need is for somebody to get in hassle.”
One official confirmed contrition for his previous use of the time period. In June 2020, as protests over the police homicide of a Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis unfold throughout the nation, an assistant chief of the Border Patrol in Washington, D.C., emailed a colleague in search of a “sanity examine” on notes he had ready to lift considerations about racism in legislation enforcement.
The assistant chief deliberate to ask whether or not then-Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott could be prepared to say “Black lives matter” with out including “All lives matter” or “Blue lives matter.”
“Racism isn’t just a police downside, however we as legislation enforcement have energy and authority,” the assistant chief deliberate to say. “And which means we have now an obligation to name it out and never simply say one thing however do one thing.”
He additionally deliberate to ask whether or not his colleagues had seen the feedback made on “that dishonorable Border Patrol Fb Web page.”
“I did, however I didn’t say something,” the assistant chief wrote within the electronic mail to his colleague.
“A while in the past, I recall listening to brokers say Tonk in Headquarters,” the notes say. “Once more, I didn’t say something. And I bear in mind saying it as a youthful agent. Disgrace on me.”