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Border Patrol Cited for Inaction on Kickbacks
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jun 01, 2005 01:55am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Wednesday, June 1, 2005 07:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2005; Page A02
Top officials of the U.S. Border Patrol failed to act on allegations they received in 2000 and 2001 of widespread kickbacks being paid to border agents in Arizona, and later investigations by the Department of Homeland Security avoided holding high-level officials responsible, said a new government report released yesterday.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency created to protect government whistle-blowers, said in the report that the current head of the Border Patrol, David V. Aguilar, was informed as early as 2000, when he headed the agency in Arizona, that border agents temporarily assigned there were receiving kickbacks from area landlords, but he did not act. The report was sent to President Bush and Congress.
"It stretches credulity that 45 employees at a single Border Patrol station engaged in a kickback and fraud scheme for a number of years . . . without the knowledge of management," the OSC said in a statement. Homeland Security investigators "appear to have exerted little effort to follow up on evidence identified by [Border Patrol] whistle-blowers that would call into question the statements of its management."
Internal probes by the Justice and Homeland Security departments have found that high-level Border Patrol officials committed no wrongdoing and did not engage in any coverup. In all, of the 68 or so Border Patrol employees suspected of wrongdoing, 45 were punished in some fashion, although almost all were low-ranking agents. |
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