GSN Dec 2015/Jan 2016 Digital Edition

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