http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4080449.html

Border agent gets 5 years
Man admits he had smuggled illegal immigrants into United States


By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Border Patrol Agent Oscar Antonio Ortiz brought a certain inside knowledge to his job policing the U.S.-Mexican frontier: He had come to the U.S. illegally and was once arrested and accused of trying to drive two illegal immigrants across from Mexico.

But his superiors did not know that when he applied for a job with the Border Patrol: He had a fake birth certificate that said he was from Chicago.

None of that would come out until last August, when, after three years of distinguished service, Ortiz was arrested again and admitted smuggling at least 100 illegal immigrants into the country, sometimes in his Border Patrol truck.

On Friday, Ortiz was sentenced to five years in prison in one of several corruption cases involving Border Patrol agents.

Prosecutors had asked for about three years, but U.S. District Judge John A. Houston decided a stiffer punishment was required for Ortiz, 29, who pleaded guilty to charges that included conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens and making a false claim to U.S. citizenship.

"You violated the sacred trust of your comrades," the judge said.

Critics say the corruption cases raise questions about the hiring process at the Border Patrol as it grows from 11,700 agents now to 18,000 by the end of 2008 in an effort to tighten the nation's borders.

"The more pressure there is to hire people quickly, the more dysfunction there is," said Clark Ervin, former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol.

So far this year, 25 Customs and Border Protection workers have been arrested on corruption charges. Eight have been convicted.

Spokesman Todd Fraser said the agency had believed Ortiz was a U.S. citizen — a job requirement — and was unaware of his smuggling arrest. (He was accused of taking $400 to try to smuggle two people across the border, but was never actually charged.)

After Ortiz's arrest, Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol and border inspectors, checked the citizenship of its nearly 42,000 employees, Fraser said. He said he did not immediately know whether any other noncitizens were found.