Thread: Illegal Immigrant Border Patrol agent pleads guilty

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Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006

Former Border Patrol agent pleads guilty to human smuggling


Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - An illegal immigrant pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to smuggle people into the United States while working as a Border Patrol agent, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, admitted to conspiring to smuggle at least 100 people when assigned to the Border Patrol's El Cajon station, east of San Diego. He also pleaded guilty to making a false claim to U.S. citizenship.

Ortiz applied for the Border Patrol job in 2001 with a fake birth certificate that said he was born in Chicago even though he is a Mexican citizen who was born in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the federal complaint. He resigned after his arrest in August.

"Ortiz became a Border Patrol agent through fraud, and his conduct threatened the security of the community," said Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego.

According to prosecutors, Ortiz began smuggling people in his Border Patrol vehicle in 2004, picking up four or five people at a time in his area of patrol and driving them farther inside the United States. Later, he allegedly agreed to turn a blind eye to smugglers who drove past him with loads of between 30 and 50 people.

U.S. District Judge John Houston scheduled sentencing May 12.

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