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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Corruption at the border

    http://www.hamiltonspectator.com

    Corruption at the border

    U.S. cracks down on immigration and customs officials taking bribes

    By Pauline Arrillaga
    The Associated Press
    OTAY MESA, CALIF. (Sep 23, 2006)
    Under the glare of port lights, federal agents watched as a truck approached the immigration booth. Aurora Torres, a suspected smuggler, was behind the wheel.

    Just after 4 a.m., the truck eased to a stop at inspection Lane 8 at the Otay Mesa port of entry, a byway for travellers heading from Mexico into California. An immigration officer approached. After a brief exchange, the vehicle was admitted into the United States.

    That was only unusual because there were 11 illegal immigrants sitting inside in plain view. Torres was arrested. So was the inspector from Lane 8.

    Mike Gilliland was an ex-Marine with 16 years under his belt at U.S. Customs, but Torres allegedly knew him as "una cosa segura." A sure thing.

    On the California border with Mexico, at least nine immigration officers have been arrested or sentenced on corruption-related charges in the past year. One of those convicted of smuggling in illegal immigrants turned out to be an illegal immigrant himself -- he'd used a fake birth certificate to get hired by the Border Patrol.

    On the Texas border, at least 10 officers have been charged or sentenced in corruption schemes over the past year, including four Border Patrol agents -- all assigned to the same highway checkpoint -- who admitted taking money to let both drugs and migrants pass.

    In this fiscal year, internal affairs investigators at the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have launched more than 600 criminal investigations into complaints ranging from smuggling, bribery, extortion and fraud to sexual misconduct, assault and theft.

    Though the cases involve only a fraction of the overall immigration workforce, some question whether the government is doing enough to root out corruption in the ranks.

    "After the next attack, when they find out that an employee was bribed by a terrorist or bribed by a spy, it's going to be too late," said Michael Maxwell, an ex-police chief who headed internal affairs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that adjudicates visa, naturalization and asylum applications.

    In February, Maxwell resigned as director of the USCIS Office of Security and Investigations and sought whistleblower protection after he began complaining to Congress about what he describes as rampant corruption that's going uninvestigated.

    After Maxwell's office was established in 2004, he asked to have the pending inquiries involving USCIS workers forwarded to him. Of the 2,771 complaints, one-fifth were criminal allegations, he said, including more than 100 accusations of bribery.

    "It's outrageous, absolutely outrageous, how little attention is being focused on this issue when you look at the ramifications on national security," said Maxwell, who informed Congress that complaints included some allegations of employees providing material support to known terrorists or being influenced by foreign intelligence services. He cites as one example the case of an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen whose background indicated he'd been trained by "multiple foreign intelligence agencies" but nevertheless was hired by USCIS to review asylum applications. The employee has since resigned.

    "Remember, one officer can grant citizenship at the time of his choosing at the place of his choosing to the person of his choosing -- with impunity. So if he wants to give Osama bin Laden U.S. citizenship, he can," Maxwell said.

    While the agency disputes Maxwell's claim that allegations of abuse are not being investigated, some cases do suggest laxness.

    * Robert Schofield, a USCIS district office supervisor in Fairfax, Va., and a federal immigration officer for 30 years, was arrested in June, accused of illegally granting residency and issuing naturalization certificates to more than 100 unqualified immigrants.

    Over the last 10 years, "numerous" allegations of bribery involving Schofield and immigration applicants have been reported. Schofield has been placed on indefinite suspension without pay, said USCIS spokesman Chris Bentley.

    * Lizandro Martinez, a Customs officer, admitted that for 2 1/2 years he took bribes to let vehicles crammed with marijuana through his inspection lane at the Progreso International Bridge in Texas. Martinez, was paid $10,000 U.S. per vehicle. He faces up to life in prison at his scheduled October sentencing.

    Martinez had a host of disciplinary problems during his 14-year career and was fired once but reinstated after the union stepped in.

    Jim Tomsheck, newly appointed assistant commissioner for internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection, said legal battles can hinder the dismissal of problem employees who, for whatever reason, were not charged criminally.

    He said managers are examining ways to ensure that those officers are dealt with administratively, and "are removed from the front line ... and can't continue to contaminate the workforce."

    Part of the problem is a lack of resources. There are 309 investigators to look into the 15,000 allegations that pour in against employees in the departments of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement each year.

    On a muggy day at the Otay Mesa port of entry just outside of San Diego, 11 lanes are clogged with vehicles as far as the eye can see, ferrying people from Tijuana to schools, jobs and stores in California.

    Weaving in and out of the smog jam is a Customs officer with a dog to sniff out contraband. As cars creep toward the inspection booths, automated scanners register licence plates in a computer. Then other Customs officers ask for identification, pop trunks, inspect spare-tire compartments, peer into air vents. If anything seems out of place, vehicles are sent for a secondary inspection.

    Port director James Hynes calls this "layered screening," each step intended to catch smugglers and hinder corrupt officers. Other measures include bans on personal cellphones and pagers, used to alert smugglers what inspection lane an officer is working, and unscheduled lane rotations.

    Smugglers are aggressive about targeting officers. What separates a good agent from a bad one is "what integrity you carry when you get up in the morning," says Hynes.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ ... 39814.html


    Corruption Involving Immigration Workers
    By The Associated Press , 09.23.2006, 12:22 PM


    In the past 12 months, dozens of U.S. immigration employees have been accused of corruption-related charges. Some cases, drawn from a review of court records and government announcements, and listed by agency:



    U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION

    _ David Duque Jr., a Border Patrol agent since the mid-1990s, faces up to 15 years in prison at his November sentencing after pleading guilty to bribery and the unlawful transfer of documents. While being recorded by investigators, Duque sold some 70 identification documents to a source cooperating with law officers - including passports, birth certificates, green cards and Social Security cards. He also took a $5,000 bribe to allow cocaine through a highway checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas.

    _ Fernando Arango, a Customs officer in Nogales, Ariz., is set for trial in November on bribery and drug charges. Prosecutors allege Arango took $50,000 to allow a recreational vehicle packed with 440 pounds of cocaine through a border crossing last year. According to court documents, Arango instructed an accomplice to buy an RV and provided details about how to construct a hidden compartment to stow the drugs. He instructed the accomplice to have an elderly couple drive across the border, saying he "controlled" the crossing and that "for $3,000 per kilogram, he would assure safe passage of the cocaine," a criminal complaint states.

    _ Lizandro Martinez, a Customs officer for 14 years, faces up to life in prison at his scheduled October sentencing for allowing drugs through his inspection lane at the Progreso International Bridge in Texas. Martinez pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering, admitting that starting in 2002 he allowed vehicles loaded with marijuana into the United States. Temporarily disabling the license plate reader at his lane so there would be no record, Martinez allowed in more than 13,000 pounds of drugs, sometimes in pickup trucks "filled to the top," according to court documents and testimony. He got $10,000 per truck. The drug payments allowed him to make some $750,000 in cash purchases in 2003-2004, investigators said. Despite several suspensions - at least 15 misconduct complaints were filed against him dating back to 1992 - Martinez remained on the payroll until his arrest in 2004.

    _ Michael Carlos Gonzalez, an Arizona Border Patrol agent, is scheduled for trial in October on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana after allegedly stealing a 23-pound bundle of marijuana following a drug stop. According to court records, an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer stopped a pickup truck with bundles of drugs concealed in the bed. The driver fled, abandoning the truck, and the DPS officer gave chase. Gonzalez then arrived on scene. Video from the DPS officer's car shows Gonzalez, in Border Patrol uniform, walking to the tailgate, removing a bundle of marijuana, rearranging other bales to fill space left by the missing bundle, putting the drugs in his trunk and driving away, court records allege.

    _ Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren, California Border Patrol supervisory agents, are scheduled for sentencing Sept. 29 and face up to 18 years in prison on bribery and tax charges. They admitted taking $186,240 in bribes from a human smuggling organization to release or facilitate the release of immigrants from custody. Based in El Centro, Calif., they at one point smuggled two illegal immigrants across the border themselves in a government vehicle and released them for cash, according to court documents. In some cases, the agents altered the migrants' immigration status so they wouldn't be deported.

    _ Oscar Antonio Ortiz, a Border Patrol agent in El Cajon, Calif., was sentenced in July to five years in prison for conspiring to bring at least 100 illegal immigrants into the United States. Ortiz admitted that he and fellow agent Eric Balderas took money to transport illegal migrants north from the international boundary, sometimes in their Border Patrol vehicles. "They would have an arrangement with the smuggling organization: Meet us at `x' point at `x' time. Aliens would run through the fence into the Border Patrol truck. The truck would be driven north," said federal prosecutor Alana Wong. Balderas faces up to five years at his October sentencing. In an odd twist, the investigation revealed that Ortiz was himself an illegal immigrant. Ortiz applied for the Border Patrol with a fake birth certificate listing Chicago as his birthplace, though it was really Tijuana, Mexico.

    _ Mike Gilliland, a Customs employee since 1990, was indicted in June on charges of taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants through his inspection lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in California. Gilliland is accused of conspiring with two female smugglers to permit passage of caravans of cars, each sometimes packed with 10 or more migrants. According to court documents, wiretaps captured Gilliland making arrangements with the smugglers about what time to cross and which lane to use, using coded language. The smugglers allegedly used their deal with the inspector to promise clients "guaranteed" entry. One arrested driver told agents the smugglers who hired her had "a business arrangement" with an inspector who "has a beard, and is probably 45 years or older," an affidavit said. Gilliland is 44 years old with a beard, it added. A trial date is pending.

    _ Richard Elizalda, a Customs officer since 1996, was charged in June with accepting cash bribes and a 2000 Lexus for allowing carloads of illegal immigrants through his lane at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. The investigation began in 2004 after a confidential source informed authorities about a corrupt officer there named "Richard." The following year, agents intercepted phone calls between Elizalda and a female smuggler in which they discussed Elizalda's work schedule and, on one occasion, the arrest of one of their drivers - saying how he'd almost made it and what bad luck he'd had, according to court documents. A trial date is pending.

    _ Fabian Solis, a Customs officer in Texas, was sentenced in February to three years in prison for conspiring to smuggle undocumented migrants for money. Solis permitted smugglers to transport immigrants from staging points in Mexico through his inspection lanes at the Falcon Heights, Roma and Rio Grande international ports of entry between March 2003 and December 2004. Solis charged $300 a head, and allowed in at least 219, according to court documents. Solis was captured on video accepting bribe money.

    _ Juan Alfredo Alvarez, a senior Border Patrol agent stationed in Hebbronville, Texas, was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison on bribery and drug conspiracy charges. He and his brother, Jose Guadalupe Alvarez, received some $1.5 million in bribe money from drug traffickers for guaranteeing the safe passage of more than 66,000 pounds of marijuana through Border Patrol checkpoints, prosecutors said. Jose Alvarez, who acted as an intermediary for the smugglers, was sentenced to 17 years.

    _ Jorge Reyeros, a supervisory Customs inspector who worked out of Port Elizabeth, N.J., and Newark Liberty International Airport, was sentenced in January to 24 years in prison for conspiring with his brother and Colombian drug traffickers to import cocaine. Trial testimony revealed that 1,100 pounds of cocaine was to be shipped from Ecuador, concealed inside plastic bananas. Reyeros' brother, Juan, was also convicted for acting as a middleman. Another co-defendant, convicted smuggler Hernan "Nacho" Uribe of Medellin, Colombia, testified that Jorge Reyeros' role was to "let the drugs go by."

    _ Four Border Patrol agents who worked together at the Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint were sentenced to prison last fall in a scheme to allow drugs and immigrants into the country. Agent Aldo Manuel Erives worked with his brother to smuggle cocaine and 750 illegal migrants through the checkpoint. Erives enlisted fellow agents and coordinated safe passage by calling his cohorts to tell them what vehicles to wave through at what time. One co-defendant, agent Jesus Delgado, told investigators he thought Erives was joking when he first approached Delgado about allowing vehicles to pass without inspection. Erives' brother, Jose Lehi Erives, acted as a middleman, negotiating dates, shipments and payment with smugglers; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Aldo Erives received 10 1/2 years. Other Border Patrol agents and their sentences were: Robert Espino, eight years; David Garcia, two years; and Delgado, one year.



    U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

    _ Santiago Efrain Valle, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, Texas, was charged in March with trying to extort $20,000 from an immigration detainee at the El Paso Service Processing Center. Federal agents arrested Valle after he allegedly accepted $20,000 from undercover officers. According to court documents, Valle agreed to accept the money in exchange for dismissing pending immigration charges against the detainee and also changing his risk classification. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

    _ Rafael Francisco Pacheco, an ICE agent in Tampa, Fla., who previously worked as a special agent with the U.S. Customs Service, was sentenced in March to seven years in prison for taking almost $18,000 in bribes from a drug trafficker. Between December 1999 and June 2001, Pacheco accessed government databases to obtain restricted information about the drug trafficker, Fidencio Estrada, then passed it on to him, prosecutors said. He also wrote a letter to request visas for Estrada's wife and daughter, falsely claiming that Estrada was assisting the government in criminal investigations.



    U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES

    _ Robert Schofield, a USCIS district office supervisor in Fairfax, Va., was arrested in June, accused of illegally granting residency and issuing naturalization certificates to more than 100 unqualified immigrants. Qiming Ye, a Chinese citizen, also was charged for allegedly brokering deals between Schofield and Asian immigrants. One unqualified immigrant was granted residency status after meeting Schofield's wife in the Philippines, and then living with Schofield and baby-sitting his stepchild for a year, a court affidavit alleges. When stopped by Customs officials at an airport, the immigrant provided Schofield's name, cell phone and home telephone number from memory, the affidavit said. Passports seized from Ye's residence included green card stamps bearing Schofield's ID, and phone traces showed dozens of calls between Ye and Schofield's home number and his Department of Homeland Security cell phone, the court documents allege. "Numerous" allegations of bribery involving Schofield have been reported in the last decade, an investigator said in an affidavit. A trial date is pending.

    _ Phillip Browne, a district adjudication officer for USCIS in Manhattan, was indicted in May on charges of visa fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors contend he conspired with his sister and others to provide hundreds of residency papers, or green cards, in a sham marriage scheme that netted more than $1 million. The operation allegedly ran for at least 4 1/2 years. According to prosecutors, Browne's sister ran a business that claimed to offer customers financial and legal help. Instead, prosecutors allege, the business provided fraudulent green cards for fees ranging from $8,000 to $16,000. Browne's sister allegedly paid U.S. citizens to enter into sham marriages with her clients, or produced phony documentation indicating a marriage to an American had already occurred. Based upon the sham marriages, immigrant clients then submitted green card applications, which were allegedly approved by Browne. In all, 30 people were charged. A trial date is pending.

    _ Robert Walton, an immigration employee for 20 years, was sentenced in April to a year in prison for approving citizenship and residency for immigrants who did not meet requirements. Prosecutors alleged that Walton accepted gifts - a diamond earring, a gold and diamond bracelet, and $5,000 - for approving applications. Walton said in a letter to the judge that the money was a loan and the jewelry pieces were not bribes but thank-you gifts. Walton, who previously worked as a border inspector, intelligence officer and supervisory inspector, said he sought the immigration adjudicator's position because he was "burned out" and wanted a regular Monday-Friday job. He insisted his actions were due to lack of training.

    "The job ... had no Standard Operating Procedures, written or verbal," he wrote.

    "I worked for my government for 18 years before I was given any direction in ethics," wrote Walton, a church deacon, who added he eventually received a book on the subject.

    One person who provided jewelry to Walton was convicted in a separate case of bribing another Detroit-area immigration officer for help in illegally bringing immigrants to America from Lebanon. That officer, Janice Halstead, was sentenced in 2004 to two years in prison for supplying documents that allowed some 130 migrants from Yemen and Lebanon into the country.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    The long version of the article.

    http://www.mercurynews.com

    Posted on Sat, Sep. 23, 2006
    Corruption: How to secure homeland if some guardians have turned?
    PAULINE ARRILLAGA
    Associated Press
    OTAY MESA, Calif. - Under the glare of the port lights, federal agents watched as the GMC Yukon approached the immigration booth. Two years of legwork - interviewing sources, listening to wiretaps and watching just as they were watching now - had led to this. Aurora Torres, the suspected smuggler, was behind the wheel.

    Weeks earlier, agents had heard her on the telephone with her contact.

    "Are you going to invite me to the movies tonight?" she asked. "It's going to be four tickets."

    "Right at 12," a man responded. "If I can't make it, I'll send you a 9-1-1."

    He hadn't made it on that particular day, but tonight everything was going as planned.

    Just after 4 a.m., the Yukon eased to a stop at inspection Lane 8 at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, a byway for travelers heading from Mexico into California. An immigration officer approached. After a brief exchange, the Yukon was admitted into the United States.

    Nothing unusual - but for the 11 illegal immigrants sitting inside in plain view.

    Torres was arrested. Then agents moved in to take their final suspect into custody.

    "Tickets," investigators had concluded, was code for vehicles loaded with undocumented migrants. "Right at 12" was a reference to a work schedule, the midnight to 8 a.m. shift. The clues, they believed, pointed to the secret of Torres' success.

    The inspector from Lane 8 was on break when a half-dozen agents approached. "Are you Mike Gilliland?"

    He was an ex-Marine with 16 years under his belt at U.S. Customs, but Torres allegedly knew him as something else. Her contact. The one she referred to as "una cosa segura." Translation: A sure thing.

    ---

    A dilemma confronts the nation's immigration work force, one that goes far beyond sealing borders to would-be terrorists, drug smugglers and undocumented migrants, one that is particularly unsettling in a post-Sept. 11 world.

    How do you secure the homeland if some of those guarding the gates are dishonest?

    Consider: On the California border, at least nine immigration officers have been arrested or sentenced on corruption-related charges in the past 12 months. One of those convicted of smuggling in illegal immigrants turned out to be an illegal immigrant himself, who had used a fake birth certificate to get hired by the Border Patrol.

    On the Texas border, at least 10 officers have been charged or sentenced in corruption schemes over the past year, including four Border Patrol agents - all assigned to the same highway checkpoint - who admitted taking money to let both drugs and migrants pass.

    The numbers are a snapshot, but the picture is clear. There's no shortage of "sure things" among U.S. immigration workers.

    More than 600 criminal probes have been launched this fiscal year of immigration employees nationwide, according to internal affairs investigators at the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Complaints range from smuggling, bribery, extortion and fraud to sexual misconduct, assault and theft of government property. The accused, past and present, manned border crossings, highway checkpoints, airports. Others sat behind desks in places like Orange County, Calif., and Fairfax, Va., charged with taking bribes to provide naturalization papers or work permits to ineligible applicants.

    Though the cases involve only a fraction of the overall immigration work force, some question whether the government is doing enough to root out corruption in the ranks.

    "After the next attack, when they find out that an employee was bribed by a terrorist or bribed by a spy, it's going to be too late," said Michael Maxwell, an ex-police chief who headed internal affairs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that adjudicates visa, naturalization and asylum applications. "In fact, I think it is too late."

    In February, Maxwell resigned as director of the USCIS Office of Security and Investigations and sought whistleblower protection after he began complaining to Congress about what he describes as rampant corruption that's going unprobed.

    After Maxwell's office was established in 2004, he asked the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility at Immigration and Customs Enforcement to forward pending inquiries involving USCIS workers.

    He wound up with a backlog of 2,771 complaints. One-fifth were criminal allegations, he said, including more than 100 accusations of bribery.

    "It's outrageous, absolutely outrageous, how little attention is being focused on this issue when you look at the ramifications on national security," said Maxwell, who informed Congress that complaints included some allegations of employees providing material support to known terrorists or being influenced by foreign intelligence services. While declining to publicly provide details, he cites as one example the case of an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen whose background indicated he'd been trained by "multiple foreign intelligence agencies" but nevertheless was hired by USCIS to review asylum applications. The employee has since resigned.

    "Remember, one officer can grant citizenship at the time of his choosing at the place of his choosing to the person of his choosing - with impunity. So if he wants to give Osama bin Laden U.S. citizenship, he can," Maxwell said. "I can't tell you how many times I heard senior management say ... `Every allegation will be investigated.' Well, guess what, it's not being investigated."

    Although the agency disputes that claim, some cases suggest laxness.

    Take the case of Robert Schofield, a USCIS district office supervisor in Fairfax, Va., and a federal immigration officer for 30 years. Schofield was arrested in June, accused of illegally granting residency and issuing naturalization certificates to more than 100 unqualified immigrants. A Chinese citizen also was charged for allegedly brokering deals between Schofield and Asian immigrants.

    However, over the last 10 years, "numerous" allegations of bribery involving Schofield and immigration applicants have been reported, an agent with the inspector general's office said in a court affidavit. The agent didn't provide specifics, but said Schofield was once demoted for "conduct unbecoming a government employee" and also accused of making $36,000 in unauthorized purchases on his government-issued credit card.

    Schofield has been placed on indefinite suspension without pay, said USCIS spokesman Chris Bentley, who declined further comment on Schofield's employment history because of the pending criminal case. Schofield's lawyer did not return Associated Press messages seeking comment.

    Then there's Lizandro Martinez, a Customs officer who admitted that for 2 1/2 years he took bribes to allow vehicles crammed with marijuana through his inspection lane at the Progreso International Bridge in Texas. Martinez, who owned a half-million-dollar home outfitted with a movie theater, was paid $10,000 per vehicle. He faces up to life in prison at his scheduled October sentencing.

    Martinez had a host of disciplinary problems during his 14-year career, including threatening to retaliate against a police officer who stopped him for speeding, an official with the Office of Professional Responsibility testified during the case. In 1998, inspectors found 1,300 pounds of cocaine in a truck that crossed through Martinez's lane; the driver stated he had been told to use that particular lane.

    Investigations brought disciplinary actions: counseling, an oral reprimand, a 14-day suspension. At one point, according to testimony, Martinez was fired but then reinstated after the union stepped in on his behalf. Still another proposed removal was mitigated to a 30-day suspension.

    Jim Tomsheck, newly appointed as assistant commissioner for internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection, declined to discuss the Martinez case, although he said legal battles can hinder the dismissal of problem employees who, for whatever reason, were not charged criminally.

    He added that managers are examining ways to ensure that those officers are dealt with administratively, and "are removed from the front line ... and can't continue to contaminate the work force."

    Part of the problem is a lack of resources.

    The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility at Immigration and Customs Enforcement share responsibility for investigating criminal misconduct among a total of 72,000 immigration employees - with 309 investigators.

    "Their plates are constantly full," DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner said of his agents, adding that an average of 15,000 allegations against government employees and contractors pour into the office each year. "No, it is not enough people. ... We have cases that we opened three years ago that we're still pursuing."

    Others question whether the investigative structure makes sense. It's not clear, for example, whether Customs and Border Protection has the authority to conduct criminal probes of its own employees, who include Border Patrol agents and front-line Customs officers. The majority of criminal investigations of immigration employees involve CBP workers.

    Tomsheck said his agency was in the process of building a small corps of investigators "so that we can stay actively involved in policing our own work force." However, Traci Lembke, acting director of the Office of Professional Responsibility, said those investigators are authorized only to handle administrative - not criminal - issues.

    In response, CBP issued the following statement: "We are working with ICE on all of these issues. We all agree how critical this is to the mission of DHS."

    ---

    It's noon. A muggy day at the Otay Mesa port of entry just outside of San Diego. Eleven lanes are clogged as far as the eye can see with cars, motorcycles, SUVs and vans ferrying folks from Tijuana to schools, jobs and stores in California.

    Weaving in and out of the smog jam is a Customs officer, holding a shepherd mix by the leash to sniff out contraband. As cars creep toward the inspection booths, automated scanners register license plates in a computer. Then other Customs officers ask for identification, pop trunks, inspect spare-tire compartments, peer down air vents. If anything seems out of place, vehicles are sent to secondary inspection for a more thorough examination.

    This is what port director James Hynes calls "layered screening," every step intended to catch smugglers but also make it more difficult for a corrupt officer to operate under the radar. Other measures include bans on personal cell phones and pagers, which have been used to alert smugglers what inspection lane an officer is working, and unscheduled lane rotations.

    "We want lots of eyes and ears out here to layer our capability and be random, flexible and unpredictable. That's our success in the war on drugs. That's our success in alien apprehensions. And that's also our success in maintaining integrity," Hynes said, standing not far from Lane 8, the one Mike Gilliland was working the morning he was arrested.

    Hynes and other immigration brass insist corruption is a priority - but combating it is a challenge, because smugglers are aggressive about targeting and luring in officers. They'll post lookouts just across the border and, using binoculars, zero in on inspectors with perceived vulnerabilities.

    Are they tired? Lazy? Flirtatious with women?

    Greed is an obvious motivator. Migrants paid upward of $4,000 each to pass through Gilliland's lane at Otay Mesa, investigators said, adding that smugglers use the guarantee of a "sure thing" to demand higher rates. Gilliland's cut was alleged to be $1,500 a head.

    "That adds up. Really, really quickly," said FBI agent Andrew Black, who heads the San Diego Border Corruption Task Force.

    In Gilliland's case, with as many as four vehicles coming through a night, each one sometimes packed with 10 people or more, it could have added up to a $60,000 profit in a single shift - about the equivalent of an entire year's salary as an inspector with Customs and Border Protection.

    There are other, more complex, reasons seemingly good agents go bad. In some past cases, corrupt agents conspired with friends or family members. Others cite growing discontent with the job, and the relative ease with which a dirty employee can operate.

    "We don't do anything, just clear the way, and we get 300 (dollars) per head," ex-Border Patrol agent Eric Balderas said in a wiretapped phone call last year. He's awaiting sentencing in a California corruption case.

    Balderas admitted conspiring with fellow agent Oscar Ortiz to allow illegal immigrants into the country. Ortiz was sentenced in July to five years in prison for smuggling at least 100 immigrants, at times transporting them in his Border Patrol truck.

    A Mexican citizen, Ortiz used a fake U.S. birth certificate to get hired by the Border Patrol, prompting the agency to re-examine its employees' backgrounds. His attorney, Stephen White, said Ortiz was disenchanted with a job akin to "putting a Band-Aid on an open wound."

    "A lot of times there's nothing that they can do," White said. "People just come and they can't stop it."

    At sentencing, Ortiz told the judge: "I was blind."

    Port director Hynes finds such explanations difficult to swallow. What separates a good agent from a bad one is "what integrity you carry when you get up in the morning," he said. "A guy like Gilliland or others? They sold their integrity, and over time we'll get them."

    Most border agents "are honest, hardworking and do a fine job," added FBI agent Black. "However, the ones that are corrupt are really in a position to do this country a lot of harm. They don't know who's going through, and they don't know what's going through. That's the danger."

    A convicted felon was among those smuggled through Gilliland's lane the day he was arrested, court documents said.

    With the case pending, FBI agents and prosecutors declined to go on record with theories of why Gilliland supposedly turned. Court records allege he worked with Torres and one other female smuggler.

    Gilliland, meanwhile, maintains his innocence.

    "I've got nothing to hide," he told The Associated Press from his home in Chula Vista as his wife, also a Customs and Border Protection employee, stood by his side.

    For now, Gilliland is under house arrest, an electronic monitor clasped to his ankle. The government uniform and badge are gone, and what ultimately becomes of his career and reputation will be decided in a courtroom.
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