2015Dec2016Jan_digital_FINAL
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Investigation by Texas Observer finds systemic<br />
corruption, insufficient oversight at CBP<br />
By Walter Ewing<br />
In 2002, in the wake of 9/11, Congress<br />
and the White House embarked<br />
upon an unprecedented<br />
bureaucratic experiment: grafting<br />
together 22 federal agencies into a<br />
single entity that was supposed to<br />
protect the nation from terrorist attack<br />
or any other potential threat.<br />
The result was a multi-headed monstrosity<br />
known as<br />
the Department of<br />
Homeland Security<br />
(DHS). Nearly<br />
a decade and a half<br />
after its creation,<br />
DHS remains<br />
deeply fragmented—its<br />
various<br />
components rarely,<br />
if ever, functioning<br />
in unison.<br />
One symptom of<br />
this dysfunction is<br />
corruption. And a<br />
prime example of<br />
this corruption is<br />
U.S. Customs and<br />
Border Protection<br />
(CBP)—the agency<br />
tasked with securing<br />
the nation’s<br />
Photo: Courtesy of Maryland National Guard<br />
15<br />
borders.<br />
As an investigation by the Texas<br />
Observer makes clear, the corruption<br />
within CBP (which includes<br />
the U.S. Border Patrol) is systemic.<br />
Congress keeps adding to the ranks<br />
of Border Patrol agents under the<br />
border-security mantra of “more<br />
boots on the ground,” but “pays little<br />
attention to the men and women<br />
tasked with keeping border agents<br />
accountable. As a result, say the Observer:<br />
“…accounts of corruption have<br />
multiplied: In<br />
Arizona, a Border<br />
Patrol agent<br />
was caught on<br />
police video<br />
loading a bale<br />
of marijuana<br />
into his patrol<br />
vehicle; another<br />
agent in Texas<br />
was caught<br />
waving loads of<br />
drugs through<br />
the international<br />
port of entry<br />
for a cartel; and<br />
in California, a<br />
Border Patrol<br />
agent smuggled<br />
immigrants<br />
across the bor-<br />
More on page 36