"America First", Kash Patel?
More MAGA hypocrisy from immigration to DEI to German luxury cars
The first-generation Indian-American director of the FBI proudly, and frequently, differentiates between the “criminal aliens” who “disrespect” the “standing-in-line” lawful immigration that brought his family to the U.S. But it is not Kash Patel’s only policy hypocrisy in servicing the MAGA administration.
Immigration Hypocrisy
When Patel’s Ugandan-national Gujarati Indian parents were expelled by Idi Amin, they sought asylum in Canada, the U.K., and in the U.S., an internationally-protected human right. They stayed in both India and Canada before being approved for American asylum and permanently settling in the U.S. Now, their American-born son is at the forefront of the cruel juggernaut seemingly trying to criminalize all non-white asylum-seeking and immigration.
As the director of the federal organization specifically designed to be independent and non-partisan, Patel has redirected FBI resources including analysts and criminal investigators to assist ICE and CBP in order to “secure” our borders and increase deportations. Where the FBI’s focus had largely been on counterterrorism, it is now prioritizing the forcible removal of undocumented immigrants as though bureaucratic issues and potential civil (not criminal) offenses pose the same threat to national security.
“I am the living the American dream, and anyone who thinks the American dream is dead, look right here,” Patel said on February 21, 2025 at his swearing-in as the first South Asian director of the FBI. “You're talking to a first-generation Indian who is about to lead the law enforcement agency of the greatest nation on earth. That can't happen anywhere else...” he said with his Armenian-descendant girlfriend at his side.
People around the world, particularly in countries economically and militarily destabilized by direct U.S. intervention, are seeking the same safety Patel’s parents were.
The UNHCR cites more than 1 million people are either internally displaced, refugees, or asylum seekers from Central America alone.
“Seeking asylum is a human right and every person in the world has the right to apply for asylum if they are fleeing conflict or persecution. They must not be expelled or returned to situations where their lives or freedoms would be in danger. This is the principle of non-refoulement which is enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention. It is also part of human rights law and customary international law and must be guaranteed by all countries.” — The UN Refugee Agency
DEI Hypocrisy
As a young lawyer in 2003, Patel benefited from the Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP) whose stated mission is to: “eliminate bias and enhance diversity in the legal profession by creating an opportunity for law students who demonstrate a commitment to advancing the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion to obtain paid judicial internships that support their efforts and provide valuable experience, networking opportunities, and a sense of belonging in the legal profession.”
As the director of the FBI, Patel reiterates MAGA’s platform that DEI, writ large, is a race-based loophole for unqualified minorities to usurp funding and seize powerful positions, displacing merit-based candidates and employees.
Yet numerous security experts and high-ranking government officials expressed concern that Patel himself is dangerously underqualified, if not wholly unqualified to lead the FBI or the CIA.
Prior to being confirmed as its director, Patel had never held a Senate-confirmed law enforcement or judicial position. Since he’s ascended to the top of the FBI from working as a Florida public defender and “hopscotching through various mid-level positions”, Patel has completely abandoned his public conviction to release the Epstein files, authorized a frivolous investigation into restricting the First Amendment rights of six congresspeople to free speech, and purging dozens of qualified FBI staff who investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Twelve former FBI agents are suing for wrongful termination five years after their “roles in safely and successfully de-escalating civil unrest in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2020, following the death of George Floyd.”
The FBI has also shuttered its own Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and severed all ties with longtime and well respected civil rights organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
A suspiciously disproportionate number of the FBI employees reassigned, forced into early retirement, or forced out altogether are women and minorities. This includes special agents in charge (SACs) and heads of the bureau’s 56 field offices throughout the U.S.
Patel fired one new FBI support specialist still in their probationary period in a Los Angeles field office in 2024.
“I have determined that you exercised poor judgement with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment,” Patel said in the dismissal letter of the Pride flag on the employee’s desk.
Domestic Manufacturing Hypocrisy
In the midst of public scrutiny about Patel’s use of taxpayer-funded private jets to visit his girlfriend and using an FBI security detail for her, the FBI confirmed the purchase of “an unspecified number of luxury armored BMW X5s for Patel’s use.”
Patel reportedly claimed that his motivation for the new fleet was to appear “less conspicuous.” He also claimed he had actually saved taxpayer money by purchasing a cheaper vehicle than the standard Chevrolet Suburbans used by former FBI directors and switching to “the same class of BMWs to transport State Department officials and diplomats in high-risk international areas,” Forbes reported.
No one from the FBI has confirmed the purchase price, the total number of vehicles, or that the BMWs were in fact a cost savings compared to the American-made Suburbans manufactured in Arlington, Texas.
Government agencies should always opt for the more cost-efficient option when spending our hard-earned money. But the made-in-America imperative underpinned a MAGA promise to voters, and campaign after campaign implied a MAGA administration was equal to an economic boom in domestic manufacturing.
We know that hasn’t happened but parading around in German-made luxury vehicles is a bold show of administrative hypocrisy.
Patel’s hypocrisy is not surprising, nor is it isolated in the MAGAsphere. But it does prove that a lack of merit, integrity, or public service are not disqualifying factors in ascending the ranks of the MAGA administration. Indeed, there is one quality that consistently elevated under- and unqualified people above others: MAGA fealty.
Thanks, Heather. I think that Trump's five years in the presidency, along with the interim years of campaigning, have numbed us. We have witnessed so much graft, lying, self-aggrandizing, self-dealing, targeting of political enemies, and other narcissistic behaviors that actions like Patel's hypocrisy have become normalized. But we need to keep documenting the behaviors, and reminding the public that they are neither normal, legal, or moral. I appreciate that you're doing that.