The border patrol agent admits to force migrants to show their breasts

National News

Shane Millan, after ordering a migrant woman to be exposed, supposedly said: “Welcome to the United States”

By Jonathan Edwards, The Washington Post

March 12, 2025 | 1:24 pm

3 minutes to read

A former border patrol agent of the United States declared himself guilty of abusing his power to force migrants to show his breasts before letting them into the country.

Shane Millan, 53, declared himself guilty on Friday of two positions to use his authority to violate the civil rights of migrants. He was arrested in August when prosecutors in the United States prosecutor’s office in the United States district for northern New York accused him of ordering three women to show his breasts through the webcam and a room to do it while his bra on his bra.

“Millan also admitted that he told these women that their requests were for the incident of legitimate searches for admission in the United States, but knew that their demands to see that the breasts of the victims were for their own satisfaction,” prosecutors said in a press release.

In exchange for their guilt declaration, prosecutors agreed to abandon another two charges against them. It faces up to two years in prison and a fine of $ 200,000 when it is sentenced in July.

Millan’s lawyer, Robert Wells, did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comments from Washington Post. Millan is no longer employed with the border patrol, said Mike Niezgoda, Customs spokesman and border protection of the USA., Matrix agency of the border patrol.

On August 10, 2023, Millan was parked on Wellesley Island in the north of the state of New York, where she practically prosecuted a woman and her 1 year daughter in a room in Eagle Pass, Texas, more than 1,700 miles away, according to the Millan Signed guilt agreement. Although he received information otherwise, Millan told the woman, who identifies as PLR in judicial documents, that her immigration file indicated that she had a chest tattoo. When the woman said she had no tattoos, Millan ordered her to show her breasts to try it. The woman did what they said before sitting while Millan processed her request.

At the end of his meeting, Millan told him that he needed to see his breasts again, according to the guilt agreement. When the woman considered, he told her not to sign her paperwork unless she did. She gave up, putting her baby on the ground and then showing Millan her breasts once more.

Millan was satisfied. “Welcome to the United States,” he supposedly told him.

About two weeks later, she practically prosecuted another woman in Eagle Pass, where she was in a room with her husband and children, according to the guilt agreement. At the beginning of his interview, Millan ordered the husband and children of the woman to leave the room. Once they were alone, he asked the woman, identified as APG in judicial documents, if she had any tattoo. Yes, she replied, a fence of her clavicle, who showed her down the necklines of her shirt.

Unsatisfied, Millan told him to lift his shirt and the bra, which he did, showing his breasts. At the end of her interview, she ordered her to do it again and she obeyed, according to the guilt agreement.

Millan did the same with several other women in August 2023, prosecutors said. To do so, he used his government computer to learn to say multiple phrases and commands in Spanish, which include:

• “His file says he has tattoos on his chest.”
• “I will also need to raise your bra, please.”
• “Can you lift it higher, please?”
• “For the safety of your pregnancy, I will need to lift your shirt please.”

Millan’s shares violated customs policy and border protection in the United States. This policy requires that the agents obtain the approval of a supervisor for the searches of strips and prohibit voyeurism, that the agency partly defines as “to require that an inmate stops that exposes its buttocks, genitals or breasts”, according to the guilt agreement.

Vicki Gaubeca, associated director of the US Immigration and Border Policy Program.

But Gaubeca said that Millan’s confession and guilt declaration were good news, an example of an agency that disagree and hold the bad actors within their ranks.

Even so, he described Millan’s conviction as the exception that demonstrates the rule: the border patrol for years has encouraged or at least ignored a “culture of impunity” in which agents feel they can abuse migrants without consequences. In fact, Gaubeca said that he believes that some agents see it as part of a deterrence prevention strategy in which they make crossing the border so traumatic that migrants do not do it first.

Gaubeca said that Millan’s blatant hints that underlying culture.

“Why, although I knew it was wrong, did you think it was still good to participate in that kind of behavior?”