Border Patrol Cosplay Is 2024’s Hottest Trend
Border Patrol Cosplay Is 2024’s Hottest Trend
Plus: McConnell’s exit will be a melee.
Republicans didn’t just start traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border for “surveying” and “fact-finding” missions (read: photo opportunities) recently. Such trips have been a mainstay of national campaign itineraries for over a decade, during which time two major immigration and border security bills have failed after conservatives deemed the compromises they contained insufficient to address the scale of the problem. (The thinking from the top is that when it comes to border solutions, anything that isn’t EVERYTHING is worse than nothing.)
But while these trips have attained the status of a political tradition, participants have kept things fresh by embracing a new trend: border patrol cosplay. And like the cosplay you’d see at your average Comicon, these lawmakers’ outfits range from the earnest if clumsy homage, on one end, to the sort of outfit that makes you wonder if the handcuffs and pepper spray are real, on the other.
Let’s start with this: The Department of Homeland Security has an official color palette for all its uniforms and insignia. The only authorized green for use is billed as “DHS-green,” which has a color hex code of #5e9732. (Coincidentally, this exact shade is also the official green of the Chili’s restaurant chain.) That green and similar tones look good while worn along the border, especially for people whose regular work clothes would stand out against the drab uniforms of actual U.S. Border Patrol agents or Texas National Guardsmen. This is the rare fashion niche where Republican officials are the first to jump on a new style.
During a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas last month, South Carolina Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham donned rugged work shirts in Border Patrol green.
