Border Patrol recruiter kicked out of high school career fair

A Border Patrol recruiter was asked to leave a college and career fair on Wednesday at a public high school in Southern California.

A post on the El Centro Sector Facebook page described the incident and questioned if “Extremist Agendas in our Schools” played a role in the high school’s principal asking the Border Patrol recruiter to leave the campus event.

“The principal refused to provide an explanation for the dis-invitation,” the El Centro Sector social media post reads. “Whatever the reason, it’s unacceptable. A taxpayer-funded school in the United States refusing to allow interested students to explore career information from a federal law enforcement agency? It appears the Coachella Valley High School principal did just this.”

Border Patrol has participated in the Coachella Valley High School career fair for three years. The request for the recruiter to leave the fair was “very strange,” David Kim, assistant chief patrol agent for the El Centro Sector, told The Daily Signal.

“Students depend on leadership promoting an environment of learning and creativity, not agenda-driven edicts,” Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino wrote on X.

The Daily Signal made multiple attempts to contact the Coachella Valley High School principal’s office, but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Shortly after arriving at the school, the high school’s principal told the Border Patrol recruiter that he was not part of the vetting process required to participate in the career fair, according to Kim. The high school extended the invitation to the career fair to the El Centro Sector Indio Station, but the agent at the station was unable to attend and contacted “headquarters” to ask for someone else to attend in his place, the El Centro Sector public affairs office official explained.

When the Border Patrol recruiter arrived, the school had a marked table for the agent to set up, which he began to do before briefly walking outside to retrieve something from his vehicle. Upon attempting to reenter the room where the career fair was to take place, the principal told the recruiter he could not come back in, since he had not been properly vetted, according to Kim.

“To me, that sounds crazy to begin with, because we’re law enforcement officers,” he said, asking, “What do you need to vet?”

Kim said the vetting explanation feels like “just an excuse.”

Both the principal and the Border Patrol recruiter were professional and cordial, he said.

“I guess their presence was not wanted at the high school, which was pretty demoralizing for the agents of El Centro Sector,” Anthony Mayeli, president of the National Border Patrol Council Union for the El Centro Sector, told The Daily Signal.

“We always look forward to opportunities to educate the public and let them know that the Border Patrol is not only a great career, but also it’s a noble career,” Mayeli said.

Manny Bayon of the National Border Patrol Council Union in San Diego called it “disgraceful” when a “school within the United States chooses to discriminate [against] a uniform that is responsible for protecting America’s border.”

The Coachella Valley Unified School District issued a statement “extending our sincerest apologies for the misunderstanding,” the district wrote in a press release shared on Facebook on Thursday.

“We want to make it very clear that we do not condone this behavior, and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken with the involved staff members to ensure this does not happen again,” the district said, adding it “wholeheartedly” welcomes Border Patrol to participate in future career fairs.

“We’ve enjoyed a very informative and productive relationship with various components of that school,” Kim said. “We hold none of this against any of the students. … We just felt that the public should know that it just does not seem right to hold these type of events” and not have representation from “a bona fide U.S. federal law enforcement agency.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]