SAN DIEGO — As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Border Patrol officers tried to skirt accountability for the murders of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, and Renee Good, a mother of three, Americans have learned a hard lesson: cops lie.

In fact, they're often quite skilled at it. After all, they get a lot of practice at stretching the truth. Or so I was told all my life — by a cop.

The plain speaking law enforcement officer who spilled the beans on his brethren in blue was my father, who was on the job for 37 years in Central California.

First, let's determine who's who. We can't be sure if the armed militia meandering through Minneapolis — and, perhaps, soon a U.S. city near you — are really ICE agents. Many are wearing masks to shield themselves from civil liability and criminal penalties for the evil they do. Meanwhile, the Border Patrol seems to be lost. Federal regulations give that agency broad discretion to search for undocumented immigrants without a warrant within 100 miles of a U.S. land boundary, the so-called "100-mile zone."

Minneapolis is about 315 miles away from the U.S.-Canadian border.

Also, as has been noted recently by experts in law enforcement as well as retired military officers, ICE and the Border Patrol exist in a gray area. They are neither police nor military. For the most part, their jurisdiction extends no further than the enforcement of the civil infraction of being present in the United States without authorization.

Now back to lying. One place that police officers have been known to spread fertilizer rather generously is on the witness stand. While testifying, law enforcement officers will — if it means sustaining an arrest or saving their job — sometimes perjure themselves. These can be big lies or small ones. One of my dad's favorite examples had to do with cops who, in court, would say they felt they had no choice but to enter a home without a warrant because they heard "a baby crying" or "a woman screaming."

This practice is so common that defense attorneys and others who work within the criminal justice system call it "testilying." Those of us who are outside the business will consider it fibbing and cheating. Yet, for the most part, it's by the book. So-called exigent circumstances permit law enforcement officers to conduct warrantless searches in emergency situations. The courts gave police latitude, and cops take advantage of it.

Police will also not hesitate to lie to suspects, informants, the media, even fellow cops who investigate wrongdoing through Internal Affairs.

I saw this lack of truthfulness up close during the five years I worked as a columnist and editorial writer at the Dallas Morning News. I covered the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas Co. District Attorney's Office, both of which had public information officers who wouldn't have known the truth if it slapped them in the face.

As for dishonest cops, I have a theory. I think they learned to lie so well because they're around people who lie to them every day. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" the patrolman asks. "No officer, I have no idea," the motorist responds sheepishly.

C'mon, pal. You probably have some idea. You're just not eager to admit it to someone who is getting ready to write you a big fat ticket.

In Minnesota, it wasn't just the crimes that shocked the country. It was the fact that people were being told not to believe their own eyes.

Leave it to singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen — aka poet, prophet, America's conscience — to capture the moment. In a new song called "Streets of Minneapolis," the Boss slaps around two of the bumblers who screwed up the operation in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem both smeared Good and Pretti, calling them "domestic terrorists" and falsely claiming they threatened the lives of law enforcement.

Springsteen writes: "It's our blood and bones/And these whistles and phones/Against Miller and Noem's dirty lies."

Preach, Boss. Lies don't come any dirtier. Both bureaucrats must be fired. Not only for deceiving the American people who pay their salaries, but also for being so bad at it.

I smell an opportunity. Maybe there are some cops out there who can give Noem and Miller tips on how to lie with more style and grace.

Or here's a novel idea for public servants: Just tell the truth.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: David von Diemar at Unsplash