The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is instructing Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents to ask immigrants they encounter for their “preferred pronouns” and to use gender-neutral language while on the job.
The guidance, obtained by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and titled “Guide to Facilitating Effective Communication with Individuals who Identify as LGBTQI+,” also tells CBP agents to avoid using certain terms.
“This job aid provides guidance to all CBP employees who interact with the public … including individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming,” the document reads. “This guidance should be used by all CBP employees who encounter members of the public.”
The agency goes on to demand that Customs and Border Patrol agents do not use “‘he, him,’ ‘she her’ pronouns until you have more information about, or provided by, the individual.” CBP agents are also instructed to not use words like “Mr,” “Mrs,” “sir” or “ma’am.”
🚨Biden Directs Border Patrol to use Illegal Aliens' Preferred Pronouns
We just obtained @CBP documents directing personnel to only use woke language when encountering individuals invading the United States pic.twitter.com/HwhiYJmqmm
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) November 17, 2023
“Keep in mind that gender identity (sense of self) and sexual orientation (attraction) are separate and distinct; hence, transgender people, for example, may identify as heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual,” the document also reads. “The terms and definitions in this job guide are not universal. Some LGBTQI+ individuals may define these terms differently.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s insistence on the adoption of new terminology comes amid a historic crisis on the southern border. An estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways have made their way into the United States since President Joe Biden took office.
Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, says the guidance is an insult to agents begging for more resources to combat the illegal immigration crisis at the border.
“Border Patrol agents are crying out for tools and policies that will help them do their jobs, but are being handed manuals on misgendering instead,” Green told The Daily Wire. “This makes a mockery of those who are doing their best to keep our borders secure.”
“In the last few weeks, we’ve seen multiple reports of criminal illegal aliens who have been released into our country on Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ watch, as well as the apprehension of a record number of individuals on the terrorist watchlist — in large part because our Border Patrol agents are so overwhelmed by this unprecedented crisis,” Green added. “I’m sure, however, Americans will be comforted to know that those agents are now being trained on which pronouns these bad actors prefer.”
The guidance comes just days after The Daily Wire revealed the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties commissioned a report from the RAND Corporation that urged the DHS to ditch language that was deemed offensive.
The report suggested that the DHS should modify its use of the words “male” and “female” by adding the terms “nonbinary,” “cisgender,” and “transgender.”
The Rand Corporation’s report also argued that terms like “illegal immigrant” and “unlawful entry” should be replaced with “undocumented noncitizen” and “entry without inspection” or “undocumented entry.” Other terms, like “jihadist,” “looter,” “rioter,” and “trespasser,” were said to be “racially charged.”
Green called the RAND Corporation’s report a “deceitful and Orwellian strategy,” also charging that it is “a ploy to hide Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ complete failure of leadership.”
He went on to say that Mayorkas “has not only chosen to implement a reckless open-borders agenda — he is using taxpayer dollars to change our language in an effort to hide the consequences of those policies.”
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Green suggested that Congress could use its power over funding to pressure the agency to focus more on actual border enforcement.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.