The North County Times of California reported last week that a new policy proposed by the Department of Homeland Security aimed to discourage U.S. Border Patrol agents from speaking to the media. 

The policy was initiated after Border Patrol agent, Ron Zermeno, notified the media recently of the cancellation of controversial immigrant sweeps by official in Washington D.C.  In informing the media of this fact, Zermeno incited 1,000 residents of Southwest County in California toward public protest and a town hall meeting that summoned Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson to visit and answer the questions of angry protesters.

The new policy, therefore, muzzles the agents by making it easier for the Department of Homeland security, the agency that oversees Border Patrol, to fire agents for speaking to the media.  While the Department of Homeland Security declared that the new policy won’t change the requirement for firing an agent, it will initiate a performance review system, giving management the power to punish those agents who speak to the media.  Though the performance review system would include a presidentially appointed Merit Systems Protection Board to make the final call in disciplinary action appeals processes, in the past this processes was done by a neutral third party arbiter. 

Critics of the new policy, such as National Border Patrol Council President T.J. Bonner, declare that free speech protection is revoked with the policy, allowing management to simply declare that an agent’s performance has dropped when releasing him for talk to the media.