Thursday, May 11, 2017

Border Patrol's corruption rate has 'exceeded that of any other U.S. federal law enforcement agency'

Rss@dailykos.com (gabe Ortiz) · Monday, May 08, 2017, 8:56 pm

As part of his effort to ramp up his mass deportation force and make America white again, Donald Trump wants to relax hiring standards in order to recruit thousands more Customs and Border Protection agents. This is already a fucking awful idea when it comes to any federal agency with such immense power and reach, but it could have dire consequences when it comes to border agents and national security. According to the Atlantic, 140 C.B.P. agents have been “arrested or convicted on corruption charges in the past dozen years,” with one former official saying the agency’s corruption rate has “exceeded that of any other U.S. federal law-enforcement agency”:

Though the number of corrupt agents represents less than 1 percent of CBP’s 44,000 sworn officers—the largest police force in the U.S.—“any amount is bad, and one person alone can do a lot of damage,” John Roth, the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, told The New York Times. “It doesn’t have to be widespread.”

Corrupt officials have given sensitive information to cartels, and waved tons of drugs and thousands of undocumented immigrants through the border in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes. Many operate at official ports of entry, undermining the billions of dollars the government has already spent on fencing, drones, radar, surveillance blimps, agents, and now, perhaps, President Trump’s border wall.

Last year, a Department of Homeland Security report found that corrupt border agents are such an urgent problem, they “pose a national security threat,” and called for more aggressive measures to root them out.

The Atlantic report details one military-veteran-turned-Border-Patrol-agent who was involved in a grisly homicide and helped his brothers “move drugs and guns across the border.” While C.B.P. agent Joel Luna eventually escaped murder charges, he was convicted of organized criminal activity and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Source
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/szzuQNg9-Uk/-Border-Patrol-s-corruption-rate-has-exceeded-that-of-any-other-U-S-federal-law-enforcement-agency

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