Thread: Our Opinion: Border Patrol investigation spares bosses

Thursday, June 2, 2005

Our Opinion: Border Patrol investigation spares bosses

Tucson Citizen

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... 05b4_edits

When law enforcement officers break the law or commit ethical lapses, it undermines their ability to enforce laws they are sworn to uphold.
That is even more true when those implicated are in charge.

So it is deeply troubling that the current head of the U.S. Border Patrol was implicated - but not held responsible - in an alleged kickback scheme involving agents under his command in southern Arizona five years ago.

According to a Washington Post story published yesterday in the Tucson Citizen, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel concluded that top Border Patrol officials failed to act on reports in 2000 and 2001 of kickbacks paid to agents in southern Arizona.

At that time, David Aguilar headed the Border Patrol in Arizona; he now is national head of the agency.

This is not a new story. More than two years ago, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., reported that a federal inquiry found that failures by Border Patrol management allowed scores of agents to pad expense reports and falsify travel vouchers.

A massive influx of agents into Arizona had hotels and apartment complexes competing for agents as tenants. Some promised perks; others handed cash to agents.

Agents received "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in kickbacks or perks from hotels and apartment complexes they stayed in during temporary assignments, Kolbe said. The scheme also allegedly involved supervisors who rented rooms to agents and offered them kickbacks.

The Office of Special Counsel said of Aguilar's role: "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."

About 68 employees were suspected of wrongdoing, and 45 of them - almost all low-ranking agents - were punished to some degree, the special counsel reported. There was "little effort" to follow up on reports that management was involved, the report added, "creating the appearance of a whitewash."

The report illustrates the chaotic way the Border Patrol has been forced to operate as it seeks to keep up with the thousands of people who daily enter the country illegally through Mexico. Agents have been added at a frantic pace, with oversight and management sometimes lacking.

At best, Border Patrol management didn't know what was going on in its own offices; that's incompetence. At worst, it knew about the kickbacks and tolerated them; that's grounds for punishment.

This incident calls out for a complete investigation, one that does not spare the top management of the Border Patrol.

At best, Border Patrol management didn't know what was going on in its own offices; that's incompetence. At worst, it knew about the kickbacks and tolerated them; that's grounds for punishment.

Justice not served.