Nearly 600 community members have signed a petition calling for Brown University Health to remove Jason Owens — formerly the 26th chief of U.S. Border Patrol and BUH’s new vice president of security.
Sarah Frost, the chief of hospital operations for BUH, notified BUH employees about Owens’s new role in a July 22 email. She wrote that the position was created to “further strengthen our commitment to the safety and security of our patients, visitors and employees,” and added that security leaders across BUH’s facilities will report directly to Owens.
More than 40 current and former BUH employees have added their names to the petition, and over 150 signatories were Brown undergraduate students or alumni.
Citing the number of immigrants in Rhode Island, Kenneth Kalu ’27, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, wrote in an email to The Herald that “hiring Owens for hospital security is shameful and unacceptable.”
BUH did not respond to requests for comment.
“Hiring an official who led a system of migrant intimidation, repression and detention to run the hospital system is an implicit threat to immigrant patients,” Kalu wrote. “We cannot trust a former immigration enforcement official to protect Rhode Island’s hospitals and ensure that immigrant patients can access care without fear.”
Owens worked at USBP for over 27 years before he was appointed its head in July 2023. The agency falls under U.S. Customs and Border Protection — a Department of Homeland Security agency — but operates independently from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In January 2025, Owens was promoted to chief operating officer of Border Patrol before he retired from the role in April 2025. His LinkedIn does not show any updates after 2025.
Owens did not respond to requests for comment.
Christopher Botelho ’13, a BUH employee who uses he/she/they pronouns, disagreed strongly with the decision to hire Owens. After responding to Frost’s email to criticize the hiring, she met with BUH human resources officers. Botelho said he ultimately decided to quit his job as a data coordinator.
The petition description argues that USBP’s actions have harmed the health of individuals trying to cross the border and questions the decision to appoint someone affiliated with those actions into a healthcare organization.
Botelho pointed to an alleged order for USBP agents to destroy food and water left out as aid for migrants. “I just don’t trust that person and their ethos and what they’re bringing into the healthcare environment,” Botelho said.
USBP did not respond to requests for comment.
“It is ridiculous to have someone whose profession endangers lives involved with an organization that is dedicated to saving them,” Raya Gupta ’29, a coordinator for Brown Rise Up, wrote in a message to The Herald.
“No one who I’ve spoken to about this thinks it’s okay to have former Border Patrol running anything in hospitals,” Gupta added.
Botelho worries that the hiring of Owens might even further discourage individuals seeking care from going to the hospital.
“We’re already talking about people coming in their most vulnerable moments, needing care, sometimes life-saving care,” Botelho said. “Undocumented folks are considering: ‘Do I go to the hospital? Do I get taken care of?’”
“I think there’s already sensitivity and fear around accessing healthcare, and this just adds another layer to that,” Botelho added.
Talia is a metro section editor covering the health and environment and community and culture beats. She is a junior from Bethesda, MD studying history and international and public affairs. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Providence one wrong turn at a time.
