Over the past year, employees of the Department of Homeland Security have committed such crimes as smuggling weed and coke, robbing drug dealers, forging documents and possession of child porn. In 2011, 318 employees and contractors of the DHS were arrested, according to a new DHS inspector general summary of investigations.
“Border corruption may take the form of cash bribes, sexual favors, and other gratuities in return for allowing contraband or undocumented aliens through primary inspection lanes or even protecting and escorting border crossings; leaking sensitive law enforcement information to persons under investigation and selling law enforcement intelligence to smugglers; and providing needed documents such as immigration papers,” Charles Edwards said in front of Congress earlier in August. Edwards is the DHS acting inspector general.
The report stated that Yamilkar Fierros, a border patrol agent, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for giving cartel members “sensor location maps, trail maps, and communications technology” in exchange for $5,000. An unnamed agent was sentenced to 110 months in prison for allowing cocaine traffickers pass through his border drug inspection post.
The report also mentioned two agents, one from the TSA and one from the CBP, who were caught with child pornography. Another case involving a Border Patrol agent working in Arizona said that the agent “punched a fellow agent and threatened him with his service-issued weapon after the fellow agent joked about the excessive amount of tactical gear the [Border Patrol] routinely wore.”
The inspectors for Homeland Security are overloaded with cases so much now that they are outsourcing the cases to sub-agencies. Lie-detector tests will begin in January in the Customs and Border Protection Agency.
“While the number of corrupt individuals within our ranks who have betrayed the trust of the American public and their peers is a fraction of one percent of our workforce, we continue to focus our efforts on rooting out this unacceptable and deplorable behavior,” David Aguilar said to Congress. Aguilar is the acting commissioner of the CBP.