US Border Patrol agents are raising money by selling coins that commemorate last year’s wave of immigration enforcement “operations” across the country, along with other merchandise. The funds are for nonprofit organizations that list Border Patrol buildings as their address in IRS paperwork. At least two of the organizations have dedicated US Customs and Border Protection email addresses.
The front side of one coin for sale reads, “NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2025,” along with the acronyms for US Border Patrol and the acronym for “fuck around and find out”—a phrase that was initially popularized by the far-right group the Proud Boys and has been used by various Trump officials. In the center, the coin depicts a gas mask, a riot control smoke grenade, and a pepper ball launcher. On the other side, the coin appears to have a portrait of Border Patrol’s now retired commander-at-large, Gregory Bovino, with his arm raised in a salute, along with the text “COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!” It lists seven cities, many of which actually saw federal enforcement surges in 2025: Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, Phoenix, Portland, Charlotte, and Atlanta.
The coin is for sale by Willcox Morale Welfare and Recreation, a nonprofit that the IRS most recently declared tax-exempt during the Biden administration and whose address on IRS paperwork matches that of the Willcox Border Patrol Station in Arizona. A request for comment sent to Willcox MWR’s dedicated CBP email address went unanswered.
Employees of the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for Border Patrol, are allowed to start private, not-for-profit employee associations within DHS, so long as they get formally recognized by the agency and follow certain rules. According to DHS policies, officially recognized groups can fundraise using government property and create merchandise with the agency’s name and logos–but they have to receive advance approval from the agency.
Willcox MWR is just one of several groups across the country that cater to Border Patrol agents and refer to themselves as MWRs, a reference to the US military’s “morale, welfare and recreation” programs. The groups tend to throw holiday events and retirement parties, and sometimes raise money for the families of agents going through hard times, including those not getting paid during the current shutdown.
Many MWRs also sell customized medallions known as “challenge coins” that commemorate specific teams or events. While anyone, including CBP alumni, can design and sell coins, current DHS employees are not supposed to use government resources to sell ones that use the agency’s seals or logos without permission, or ones that the agency considers inappropriate or unprofessional.
CBP did not provide comment about its relationship to Willcox MWR or any other nonprofit mentioned in this story, nor whether the agency had green-lit the “North American Tour” coin design, ahead of publication.
Under Willcox MWR’s Facebook post about the “North American Tour” coin, someone named Juan Diego commented, “Sign up SDC BK5 MWR for 10.”
“Shoot us an email,” someone managing the Willcox MWR account replied, giving out what appeared to be a dedicated cbp.dhs.gov email address for the group.
SDC BK5 MWR, also a registered nonprofit, lists an address on its website that matches that of a government facility in Chula Vista, California. It says on its site that it was started by San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents and sells custom merchandise “designed to raise funds for morale and relief efforts.”
Diego did not respond to a request for comment.
The SDC BK5 MWR website has listings for over 200 different products in addition to the North American Tour coin. One of those listings was a “Chicago Midway Blitz” challenge coin in the shape of a gas mask that doubles as a bottle opener. Embossed around the edges of the coin are the names of several municipalities and neighborhoods caught up in DHS’s immigration enforcement surge of the same name last fall. Like the North American Tour coin, it features the US Border Patrol logo and the acronym for “fuck around and find out.” Opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activity in Illinois are unamused.
“The pain and suffering caused by Operation Midway Blitz and President Trump’s other targeted mass deportation campaigns will forever leave a stain on communities across the country—including Chicago,” a spokesperson for Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a statement. “Now, Border Patrol employees are seemingly using federal resources to sell disturbing challenge coins that promote President Trump politically and celebrate the havoc they caused.”
Another listing, which was taken down at the time of writing, is in the shape of a gas canister and says “THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES SUMMER OF 2025.” It depicts the Border Patrol logo rising above a city skyline dotted with palm trees.
A third coin, also now removed from the site, is a riff on the cover of the children’s book Charlotte’s Web, edited to depict the characters in police uniforms and to say “OPERATION CHARLOTTE’S WEB,” a reference to the DHS surge into North Carolina. The back of the coin describes the operation, and says that it “sparked protests and caused business disruptions in immigrant-heavy areas” and that “local officials expressed concern about effects on community trust.”
“The item for sale on this website, identified by WIRED, constitutes an unauthorized use of the intellectual property associated with a beloved children’s book,” a representative of HarperCollins Publishers, the publisher of Charlotte’s Web, said in a statement. “We will promptly issue a cease-and-desist letter.”
CBP did not respond to questions about whether the agency had approved any of the coins’ designs. WIRED spoke with a person associated with SDC BK5 MWR who said they originally purchased the coins from someone else and did not plan on restocking them. Following that conversation, SDC BK5 MWR removed operation-themed coins WIRED asked about from its site.
Other merchandise, though not operation-themed, also pose potential intellectual property issues. Another nonprofit group based out of a Border Patrol facility, the Casa Grande Station MWR in Arizona, is no longer taking orders at the time of this writing but lists a female “Funko Pop” agent coin on its site–multiple variants were still for sale on SDC BK5 MWR’s website as of publication. Representatives for Casa Grande Station MWR did not respond to a request for comment. A person familiar with the inner operations at Funko, the company that produces Funko Pops, told WIRED that these had not been sanctioned by the company and were not official products.
In the past, offensive challenge coins tied to Border Patrol have popped up on reseller websites and even reportedly in Border Patrol workplaces, but the government has denied responsibility for them.
In 2022, a challenge coin for sale on eBay that depicted a real-life image of a Border Patrol agent grabbing a Haitian migrant by the shirt caused outrage and triggered an investigation by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility. At the time, then CBP commissioner Chris Magnus told NPR that the coins “have no place in a professional law enforcement agency.”
In 2019, ProPublica reported that Border Patrol agents in California and Texas had spotted an unofficial challenge coin in their workplace emblazoned with the phrase “KEEP THE CARAVANS COMING” and depicted a parade of people holding a Honduran flag and a Border Patrol agent bottle-feeding a baby. In that case, government officials told ProPublica that the coins had not been approved by the government.
