Former Border Patrol agent sues over firing

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Former Border Patrol agent sues over firing
Posted at: 01/21/2011 2:07 PM | Updated at: 01/21/2011 2:48 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit for a former Border Patrol agent who claims he was fired - just weeks before his probationary period ended - because he expressed opinions about illegal immigration and drug legalization.
The action was filed Thursday in federal court in El Paso, Texas, on behalf of Bryan Gonzalez, who was fired in September 2009.
Ramiro Cordero, the Border Patrol's special operations supervisor in El Paso, declined comment. Cordero says the agency cannot discuss pending litigation.
Gonzalez says while patrolling near Deming, N.M., in April 2009, he told a fellow agent during a casual conversation that he believed legalizing drugs would reduce violence in Mexico.
Gonzalez also told his colleague he understood the economic factors driving immigrants to cross the border illegally.
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1936567.shtml?cat=500

[maggieb60]

I would have fired him also

[Twoller]

Yes, legalizing drugs decrease violence South of the border. But it would also be a catastrophe for organized crime in the US and south of the border. It would also make our borders easier to patrol and carrode the infrastructure that makes illegal immigration possible. But a lot of people in organized crime have a fantasy that legalization should mean a surrender to organized crime. They imagine a world where they can make black market profits from drugs without worrying about law enforcement.

But who cares about any "economic factors" that drive illegal immigration? If a border patrol agent expresses sympathy for illegal immigrants, then they have no business being in the border patrol.

I'd like to know exactly what the guy said.