Thread: Border Agent gets 5 Years for Trafficking

Border agent gets 5 years for human trafficking
Officer admitted to smuggling more than 100 illegal immigrants into U.S.


Updated: 4:40 p.m. ET July 28, 2006
SAN DIEGO - A Border Patrol agent who admitted smuggling more than 100 illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico, some of them in his government truck, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

Prosecutors had asked for about three years, but U.S. District Judge John A. Houston decided a stiffer punishment was required for 29-year-old Oscar Antonio Ortiz.

“You violated the sacred trust of your comrades,” the judge said. “As a link in the chain, they depended on you.”

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The corruption case is one in a spate involving Border Patrol agents at a time when the agency is on a hiring spree.

Ortiz himself came to the United States illegally as a boy, and not long before he applied for a job with the Border Patrol, he was arrested and accused of trying to drive two illegal immigrants across from Mexico.

But his superiors did not know any of that when he applied, because he produced a fake birth certificate.


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Ortiz was arrested last August and pleaded guilty to charges that included conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens and making a false claim to U.S. citizenship.

His attorney, Stephen White, said Ortiz’s mother obtained the fake birth certificate when Ortiz was 3, and Ortiz said he grew up thinking he was a U.S. citizen.

“I was blind at the time I made my mistake of smuggling,” Ortiz said. “I regret it.”

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

“I was blind at the time I made my mistake of smuggling,” Ortiz said. “I regret it.”

I'll be you do regret it, specially since you got CAUGHT!!!

What is even more scary is that he is an illegal alien with a fake birth certificate, how did he become border patrol?

His attorney, Stephen White, said Ortiz’s mother obtained the fake birth certificate when Ortiz was 3, and Ortiz said he grew up thinking he was a U.S. citizen.

If we are depending on these Border Agents to stop not just Illegal Aliens, but also to catch Terroist with possible WMD's such as dirty bombs and possibly small Nuclear devices, more elaborate back ground checks must be done. If this guy could be bought off that easy, what about terroists with huge amounts of money? I'm sorry but i feel as though these guys can no longer be trusted to protect our borders. We should deploy Regular Military Units to the border, not just National Guard, declare a National Emergency and Marshall Law along the Us Mexican- Border and end this BS once and for all, jesus when is this country going to get it?

Reciprocity:

Much as I hate to say this, I know of very few human beings who can withstand the lure of "mucho" money, or who can withstand "threats" to their families. Because we're human, we're all susceptible. I don't know how many laws I'd be willing to break if my family was threatened.

Actually, in this particular case, I don't think (but what do I know) that this was about money. I think the man felt a duty to help his "countrymen". Probably had some brainwashing by his illegal mama.

“You violated the sacred trust of your comrades,” the judge said. “As a link in the chain, they depended on you.”

Very obviously, this is not where his first loyalty lay.