Protesters take over Border Patrol museum, deface pictures of fallen agents

Dozens of demonstrators occupied and vandalized a privately owned U.S. Border Patrol museum near El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, according to the site's top official. Museum director David Ham told the Washington Examiner his staff and guests worried for their safety Saturday when a group of about 50 rowdy protesters entered the facility, defaced property, and refused to leave the grounds. "Say it loud, say it clear, Border Patrol kills!" group members standing inside and outside the facility yelled. Security cameras set up outside the private museum captured protesters pulling into the parking lot and putting on face masks before going inside around 2:15 p.m. local time. "That was really intimidating to our staff, plus their kind of aggressive attitude," said the museum official, a 31-year veteran of the Border Patrol. The museum is a nonprofit and apolitical. Ham, who was not at the museum at the time of the incident, said he got a call from an "upset" staff member. "They proceeded to set up a bunch of signs and just went all over the museum. They of course had an agenda, they were chanting and singing songs, and then a couple of them got on a bullhorn," Ham said. "We had visitors in the museum. They started talking and kind of harassing them. Of course the staff was asking them to leave, and they wouldn’t leave." Ham said his staff led non-protesting visitors to the back of the gift shop, so they could hide until police arrived on the scene. The group, which calls itself Tornillo: The Occupation, livestreamed the protest. Footage showed dozens of people whose faces were covered with garments walking into the museum and fanning out through the building. The group's Facebook page said its goal was "exposing the true violence of borders and border patrol" following the deaths of two Guatemalan children after being taken into custody by federal agents near the U.S.-Mexico border in separate incidents in December. Protesters plastered dozens of images on pictures, glass, painted walls, mannequins, and vehicles throughout the building. They also posted the pictures on the faces of Border Patrol agents who died in the line of duty...MORE