CBS’s ‘FBI: Most Wanted’ Conflates White Nationalists with ICE Agents

March 24th, 2020 11:54 PM

March 24 brought viewers a crossover event of two CBS shows, FBI and FBI: Most Wanted. The FBI agents from both programs managed to band together to rescue a bus full of kidnapped school children from a white supremacist in FBI’s episode “American Dreams,” which aired first.

The excitement didn’t end there, however, as Agent Jess LaCroix (Julian McMahon) got a call from his 11-year-old daughter, Tali (YaYa Gosselin) in the middle of an ICE raid at the food bank where she volunteers at the end of the episode. According to the head ICE agent, Tali “didn’t look American… [so] she was going in with the other illegals.”

The ICE agents in FBI: Most Wanted’s episode “Reveille” are portrayed as incompetent. Why else would they detain the daughter of an FBI agent because she “didn’t look American?” Front and center in ICE’s incompetence is ICE Supervisor Austin Stevens, who can’t seem to find where Tali is. LaCroix is even sent to the wrong ICE detention center, initially, where he gets into a physical altercation with the cold-hearted ICE agents there, telling them, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

It’s not Stevens that LaCroix finds the most helpful information from, but a detainee who tells him that “when we came to this place, they put her in a van. An immigration van. They took her away.”

LaCroix gets a text explaining that his daughter, referred to as a “little mutt” since her deceased mother is Native American, “is in the system” and “can be deported any time.” He is forced to read a racist manifesto if he wants her back, which he ultimately refuses to do.

Stevens isn’t just incompetent, however. He’s a racist. He spends his time each day on 10-15, a secret website for ICE and border patrol agents where they share racist and anti-immigrant memes, posts, and photos. There’s even a picture of Stevens and another ICE Detention Center Facility Supervisor flashing "white power hand signs":

 

 

Agent Hana Gibson: You gotta see this. It's a website Stevens spends an hour on every day.

LaCroix: Why 10-15?

Agent Stuart Scola: It's a code for, "Alien in custody." It's a by invitation only site for ICE and border patrol agents. "We're gonna stock the Rio Grande with gators. Wetbacks for lunch," jokes about dead migrant children in the desert.

Gibson: Then there's the memes.

Agent Jubal Valentine: Toss that up to the Jock, would you? All right, folks! I'd like you to take a look at something. This is a secret website for ICE and border agents, federal employees like us. Read those comments. Look at those pictures. You know, when citizens say they don't trust people who work for the government, it's because of bad apples like that. People who post on this site bring shame on all of us. I don't know about you, but it pisses me off, and I'm not gonna stand for it. Now, we have a domestic terrorist cell with a bomb to find. I want everyone to bear down on this mission and show the public-- you know, the people who pay our wages? What duty and service are all about. Let's dig in. As soon as you get the names of the people on the site, send it up the food chain. Start with the IG's office and Homeland Security, yeah?

Analyst Kristen Chazal: Hey, Jubal?

Valentine: Yeah?

Chazal: Our ICE supervisor, first name is Austin.

Valentine: Austin, yeah. What's up?

Chazal: I found this post in the photo section of that website. Look at the caption. - "Me and training bro Austin on Lake Seminole." He's throwing a white power hand sign.

Gibson: Good catch.

Valentine: Where is Lake Seminole?

Agent Clinton Skye: Georgia.

LaCroix: Who posted that?

Chazal: It might be in the metadata. Hold on. Michael Rees. ICE officer.

Gibson: Runs a detention facility in Ashburn, Georgia.

Ultimately, LaCroix gets word of where Tali is and confronts Stevens in custody, even messing with him a bit, as he pleads for mercy before ultimately giving up the target of the white supremacists: a citizenship ceremony.