The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project acquired an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) memo that prohibits agents from using “he, him, she, her” pronouns when initially interacting with members of the public.
The memo – obtained by Heritage via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – reads, “DO NOT use ‘he, him, she, her’ pronouns until you have more information about, or provided by, the individual.”
Oversight Project Director Mike Howell noted in an interview Tuesday that “Border Patrol deals with more illegal aliens than any entity in the federal government. This forced language guidance is designed to coddle illegal aliens.”
“I guess it wasn’t enough for the Biden administration to betray the Border Patrol by purposefully unleashing chaos on the southern border,” Howell said. “Now, the radical political leadership is enrolling agents in a forced-speech program to call illegal aliens by their preferred pronouns.”
CBP did not respond to the multiple requests for comment.
The memo “encourages agents to use a universal greeting, such as ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good Evening’ in their initial greeting. If an incorrect pronoun is used and corrected by the individual, acknowledge the oversight and use the correct pronoun.”
It also lists key terms with definitions next to each: bisexual, gay, gender expression, gender identity, gender nonconforming, intersex, lesbian, non-binary, queer, questioning, sex assigned at birth, sexual orientation, transgender, transgender woman, transgender man, and transitioning.
The memo’s introduction reads, “This job aid provides guidance to all CBP employees who interact with members of the public to help facilitate effective communication with the diverse public we serve, including individuals who identify as gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, non-binary, and gender nonconforming (LGBTQI+),” adding that the guidance “should be used by all CBP employees.”
It also notes that the terms and definitions “are not universal, and some LGBTQ individuals may define these terms differently, and the meanings of the terms may change over time.”
Howell declared, “CBP should be allowed to do their job and prevent all illegal immigration, not used as pawns in some sick social experiment.”
The memo comes after an earlier report by Heritage’s Oversight Project that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) introduced a similar gender pronoun guideline.
“All employees should be addressed by the names and pronouns they use to describe themselves,” the reported email to HHS employees stated as part of its push for “Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination Guidance,” which it says protects “employee rights and protections related to gender identity.”