Unmasking the paramilitary agents behind Trump’s violent immigration crackdown

As the crowd became more hostile, agents intensified their use of force. Michael Brosilow—a photographer, Irving Park resident, and decorated long-distance runner—moved into his neighborhood after returning from a workout. Rico and Chavez confronted the 68-year-old man, who yelled, “Fuck you!” when he stepped out of his silver Toyota. Rico then tackled Brosilow, planted his knee in his back and handcuffed him. “This is my block!” Brosilow shouted. Six of Brosilow’s ribs were broken during the encounter and he suffered internal bleeding.

Chavez drew the pin on a can of tear gas and threw it into the street as bystanders screamed. Meanwhile, Puerte saw 25-year-old ICE watcher Maria Bryan allegedly hit Rico in the head, knocking her and her bike to the ground, breaking seven of her ribs.

The agents finally loaded into the vehicle, sped off and radioed that they had arrested two US citizens for “obstruction” and “assault”. (Neither Brosilow nor Bryan were charged.)

As the agents moved out of Irving Park, the honks of pursuing cars and whistles of ICE spotters were clearly audible. When the SUV stopped at a red light, two men walked onto the sidewalk to protest the Feds.

Puente took one with his iPhone, then rolled down his window and aimed his grenade launcher at a second man.

“Get the hell out of the way!” he shouted, pointing his muzzle at the citizen as the vehicle pulled away. “Fuck you!”

BORTAC, created in 1984 to deal with riots in immigration detention camps, was sent to South America on drug interdiction missions with the Drug Enforcement Administration; conducted missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan; and, in the recent past, raiding desert aid stations. While BORTAC is designed for close combat, BORSTAR, which was created in 1998 in response to an increase in migrant deaths on the southern border, specializes in operations abroad. Members of both teams undergo survival, evasion, resistance and escape training, are taught complex military surveillance and counter-surveillance tactics, and tend to be recruited from specialized military units such as the Army Rangers.

“They go in very hot — too hot and too unruly in my opinion,” said a former Special Forces member, speaking on condition of anonymity. This veteran says that in his experience, BORTAC members tend to be “ego-driven hotheads” who are highly trained but have little or no operational warfighting experience. “Even then, they’re certainly not the people I want in any kind of civilian law enforcement context.”

As of February 2020, the first Trump administration sent in BORTAC Democrat-run “sanctuary cities” for civil immigration enforcementa rise that was short-circuited by the Covid-19 pandemic. Later that summer, BORTAC agents were documented removing protesters from the streets of Portland, Oregon during the George Floyd protests.

Since the start of the second Trump administration, BORTAC and BORSTAR agents have participated in immigration raids in California, North Carolina, Minnesota and Vermont. Since October, Border Patrol paramilitary units, led by Timothy P. Sullivan, the head of the Fort Bliss-based Border Patrol’s Special Operations Group, have also commanded the federal presence at an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, which has been a constant target of protests, often leading to violent clashes. More recently, in mid-March, agents from one of the Border Patrol’s local special operations divisions used crowd control ammunition on protesters in South Burlington, Vermontduring a chaotic immigration arrest.