In this deeply personal and investigative episode of The Raid, host John Carlos Frey sits down with former Border Patrol agent and whistleblower Jenn Budd to expose what she describes as a systemic culture of sexual misconduct within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Border Patrol, and ICE. Budd, who joined the Border Patrol in 1995, opens by recounting her own sexual trauma during training at the federal law enforcement academy in Glynn County, Georgia — an experience she kept secret for over 15 years, even from her wife.

From her personal trauma, the conversation broadens into a sweeping indictment of a deeply entrenched institutional culture. Budd and Frey walk through a documented list of over 170 agents with allegations or convictions for serious sexual crimes — including rape, child pornography, and sexual assault of migrants.

https://theraidpodcast.org/

https://www.amazon.com/Against-Wall-Journey-Immigrant-Activist/dp/1942762933

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A Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent has been indicted on 29 felony charges including ten counts of child sex trafficking. But the case of Bart Conrad Yager isn't just about one agent. It's about a federal agency that had warning signs more than a decade ago and looked away. In this episode, John Carlos Frey breaks down the Yager indictment, the 2014 rape allegation CBP never investigated, and a mounting pattern of sexual misconduct cases against CBP employees. With oversight mechanisms weakening and hiring surges accelerating, Frey asks the question no one at DHS wants to answer: who else fell through the cracks?

https://tucson.com/news/local/border/article_5e596767-4575-485b-88e8-0a6265e5bb41.html

https://www.kjzz.org/fronteras-desk/2025-07-23/former-tucson-border-patrol-agent-indicted-on-10-counts-of-child-sex-trafficking-other-felonies

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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In this episode of The Raid, John Carlos Frey sits down with Adam Isaacson to unpack the systematic dismantling of oversight and accountability mechanisms within the Department of Homeland Security — and what it means for migrants, Border Patrol agents, ICE officials and American democracy. Isaacson, author of the report The Dismantling of Internal Oversight and Accountability at DHS, walks through the agencies tasked with keeping ICE and Customs and Border Protection in check.

https://www.wola.org/staff/adam-isacson/

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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Investigative journalist John Carlos Frey has spent 20 years covering ICE and Border Patrol. What he found will shock you. The three highest-ranking officials at the U.S. Border Patrol have all been implicated in sexual misconduct. The current chief bragged about paying for sex abroad — then abolished the agency's anti-fraternization policy. His two deputies left after sexually victimizing female employees. Three officials. Three sex scandals. Zero accountability. Frey documents over 170 cases of criminal behavior by agents nationwide — child sexual abuse material, assault, kidnapping of minors, convicted agents returned to duty with their firearms. And Congress just handed these agencies more money than they've ever had in history. Oversight dismantled. Hiring standards lowered. Accountability measures stripped out. This isn't a few bad apples. This is a system designed to protect predators — funded by your tax dollars.

https://theraidpodcast.org/

https://open.substack.com/pub/raidpodcast/p/the-worst-of-the-worst?r=5r26a&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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Celeste, co-founder of People Over Papers and ICEOUT.org, discusses the organizations' collaborative effort to map ICE enforcement activity across the US. ICEOUT.org is an anonymous, community-powered platform where users can report and view confirmed ICE sightings on an interactive map. The platform was built to give communities real-time, data-backed awareness of enforcement patterns in their neighborhoods.

https://iceout.org/en/

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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The U.S. government made a promise to half a million people who grew up in in the United States — and it's breaking that promise quietly, deliberately, and one policy at a time. In this episode, investigative journalist John Carlos Frey breaks down the real-time dismantling of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). This isn't happening through a single executive order. It's happening through delayed renewals, secret memos, stacked courts, and administrative rulings most Americans never hear about. This is the most dangerous moment in DACA's 14-year history, and this episode documents exactly how we got here.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/25/nx-s1-5798943/justice-department-makes-it-easier-to-deport-those-with-daca-status

https://edsource.org/2026/daca-renewal-delays-educators/756448

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/25/nx-s1-5798943/justice-department-makes-it-easier-to-deport-those-with-daca-status

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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Sara Hernandez — candidate for California State Senate District 26 — joins host John Carlos Frey to talk about what it's like to run for office in a district under siege. A former middle school teacher in South L.A., immigration attorney, and current president of the L.A. Community College District Board of Trustees, Sara brings a ground-level perspective to some of the most pressing issues facing East Los Angeles communities right now.

She shares stories from her classroom — students caught between academic ambition and the threat of deportation — and explains why those experiences led her first to law, then to politics. The conversation covers the limits and possibilities of state-level action against federal immigration enforcement, the constitutional questions raised by ICE's use of administrative warrants, the economic case for immigration reform, the housing crisis squeezing working families out of California, and why her mother's words — "if not you, then who?" — pushed her to run.

Sara also discusses her campaign on the ground: canvassing alongside rapid response networks, her key endorsements from Supervisor Hilda Solis, civil rights icon, Dolores Huerta and major labor unions, and what's at stake for communities in Boyle Heights, Pico Union, Echo Park, and beyond in the June 2nd primary.

@sarahernandez.26

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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For more than twenty years, Meenu Batra sat inside courtrooms and recorded everything — testimony, rulings, the words spoken on the most consequential days of people's lives. She had legal status. She had a career built on institutional trust. She was as embedded in the American legal system as anyone could be.

Then ICE apprehended her.

In this episode of The Raid, host John Carlos Frey speaks with Gaige Davila — freelance investigative journalist, former Texas Public Radio Border and Immigration Reporter, correspondent for Deceleration News, and contributor to The Texas Observer. Gaige broke the story of what happened to this immigration court reporter in a recent piece published by The Texas Observer — a story that raises urgent questions about due process, the targeting of legal status holders, and what it means when the people who work inside the justice system are no longer safe from it.

This is not a story about someone who crossed a border without documentation. This is a story about a woman who spent two decades serving the court — and what happened when the court's enforcement arm turned its attention to her.

https://www.texasobserver.org/immigration-court-interpreter-arrested-ice-south-texas-airport/

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates"). The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.

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