Thread: Border Patrol Agent Arrested in Smuggling Case

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/08 ... 8_4_05.txt

Last modified Thursday, August 4, 2005 10:51 PM PDT

Border Patrol agent arrested in smuggling case
By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer

ESCONDIDO ---- Federal agents arrested a Border Patrol agent Thursday in Escondido who is suspected of being an illegal immigrant who was smuggling other illegal immigrants into the United States.

Department of Homeland Security agents, assisted by Escondido police, pulled over 28-year-old Oscar Antonio Ortiz of San Diego at about 2:30 p.m. while he was driving on Valley Parkway near Interstate 15 and took him into custody, authorities said.

They said a second Border Patrol agent who lives in Encinitas has also been under investigation.

Ortiz's application to work for the Border Patrol, filed in Oct. 30, 2001, claimed he was born in Chicago, Ill., and he submitted a birth certificate, according to U.S. District Court documents in San Diego.

"However, a records check revealed it was a doctored birth certificate," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Jennings said. "The records check revealed that he was born in Tijuana."

Ortiz was to appear in federal court today on one charge each of conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants into this country and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, Jennings said.

The maximum penalty for conviction could be 10 years for conspiracy and three for falsely claiming citizenship.

A Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego declined to comment, citing further investigation.

The case developed out of a U.S.-Mexico drug smuggling investigation tied to an Encinitas street gang.

At least 33 people, 10 of them believed to be members of the gang, were charged during the multi-agency Operation Straight Flush. North County Regional Gang Task Force detectives worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, as well as other agents.

Officials said Ortiz's home was among those searched in early June when the first arrests in the case were made.

The Border Patrol agent who lives in Encinitas has three cousins in the street gang and he was also under investigation, authorities said.

Cell phone conversations between Ortiz and the other agent as they discussed smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States east of Tecate are noted in the court documents.

During one call, a statement says, the other agent was intercepted telling a family member that he and Ortiz were smuggling 30 to 50 illegal immigrants at a time.

"We don't do anything, just clear the way, and we get 300 (dollars) per head," the agent allegedly said. "But if we put in, then it's 2,000 or 1,800."

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.

With all the gang bangers being held in the fed joints these low lifes are gonna love doing 15 yrs with them. I would pray that they are put in general population, after all they were just boarder patrol officers so maybe the feds won't believe they need keep away.

illegal alien border patrol agents. Aint that something!

Added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-593-thread-1-0.html

I guess i am slow or just in simple disbelief. I thought they done back ground checks, before hiring.

Found another article.

www.signonsandiego.com


Border agent said to also be smuggler

Feds alleging Mexican used fake birth certificate to get job
By Onell R. Soto and Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
August 5, 2005

A Mexican man who used a fake U.S. birth certificate to get into the Border Patrol was helping to smuggle illegal immigrants, authorities said yesterday.

Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, an El Cajon-based Border Patrol agent on administrative leave, was arrested yesterday and charged in San Diego federal court with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen.

He also is charged with conspiring with another Border Patrol agent to smuggle immigrants and is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court this morning.

There is no indication in court records that the other agent, who was not identified, has been arrested.

In wiretapped calls, the two agents talked repeatedly about smuggling illegal immigrants through the border area they patrolled east of Tecate this spring, according to a complaint filed in court.

In one instance, they are heard talking about how to negotiate with a Mexican smuggler. In another, the other agent talks to a family member about how much money he would get if he just let the smuggling happen as opposed to smuggling people himself.

The two were working with a man in Mexico identified only as "Sol" or "Soldado," which means soldier.

In a May 4 wiretapped conversation, the other agent told Ortiz, "Talk numbers and don't go too low with him."

"I don't know how the guy wants to work, but I'll talk with him," Ortiz said.

"If he's just going to use our area, we can't ask for anything more," the other agent said.

Two weeks later, the other patrol agent told a family member that he was helping to smuggle 30 to 50 immigrants at a time, according to the court filing.

"We don't do anything, just clear the way and we get $300 per head," the other agent said, according to the wiretap. "But if we put in, then it's $2,000 or $1,800."

Ortiz and the other agent were placed on administrative leave in early June, around the time authorities dismantled a drug ring headed by an Encinitas gang member.

The agents knew some of the 28 accused drug dealers, but the two groups weren't working together, a sheriff's lieutenant said at the time.

Border Patrol agents must be U.S. citizens.

According to papers filed in court yesterday, Ortiz claimed to have been a U.S. citizen born in Chicago when he applied for the Border Patrol job in October 2001.

He provided a copy of an Illinois birth certificate. But when investigators checked the number on that document with records there, they discovered it belonged to someone else.

Ortiz, according to the court filing, was born in Tijuana and remains a Mexican citizen.

The idea that someone could be hired to guard the border by using false citizenship documents is "mind-boggling," said T.J. Bonner, the San Diego-based president of the National Border Patrol Council.

"I would think that would be the very first thing they would check," Bonner said.

Background checks for Border Patrol agents were once done by the FBI, Bonner said. For several years, though, subcontractors have been doing them, he said.

But he puts more of the blame for such security breaches on what he considers rushed hiring.

"These background checks are allowed to just poke along while the person is hired," Bonner said. "They are rushed to get that warm body on board, and they neglect to thoroughly conduct a background check."

Former local union president Joe Dassaro said he thinks subcontracting is a problem.

"They deal in quantity, not quality," said Dassaro, now a labor relations consultant. "By the nature of their contract they need to get people into the Border Patrol, not keep people out.

Ortiz shouldn't expect the union to rally behind him, Bonner said.

"We don't want people smuggling or breaking any laws being a Border Patrol agent," he said. "Don't expect the union to be representing this guy in court."

It would be naive to think that there aren't quote a few Oscars working in the BP these days, and probably some of them have moved up the chain of command.

Given the current administration's complete lack of interest in - or contempt for - enforcing the nation's laws, I imagine that Homeland Security has been infiltrated as well.

The clock's ticking, George. I wonder if you're going to be able to run it out before the next major attack happens here.

Another new article.

www.signonsandiego.com

No bail for ex-border agent in conspiracy

By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 6, 2005

A former Border Patrol agent accused of lying about his citizenship to get his job and then helping to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States was ordered held without bail yesterday.

Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, appeared in court dressed in a jail-issue orange jumpsuit and said little during a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony J. Battaglia.

The judge set a bail hearing for Wednesday. Prosecutors say Ortiz should remain behind bars until his case is decided.

Ortiz pleaded not guilty to lying about his citizenship and conspiracy to smuggle immigrants, felony charges that could result in up to 13 years in prison.

As in many cases, additional charges are possible as prosecutors evaluate the evidence and present it to a grand jury.

It's a crime – corruption – for public officials to violate the public trust in exchange for money.

It's also against the law for illegal immigrants to possess weapons in the United States, and all Border Patrol agents must carry firearms.

Ortiz was arrested Thursday afternoon in Escondido by agents of the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General.

Escondido police, members of the North County Regional Gang Task Force and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assisted.

Ortiz and another agent were placed on administrative in June, about the same time Ortiz's house was searched while 33 members of an Encinitas-based drug trafficking ring were arrested, authorities said.

The investigation of the two El Cajon-based agents began after investigators heard Ortiz while listening to wiretaps in the drug investigation, said sheriff's Lt. Derek Clark, head of the North County gang unit.

"We turned that over to the Inspector General's office," Clark said yesterday. "We're not an internal affairs unit and that's where that type of case needed to be dealt with. . . . It had no direct connection to our case."

He said there may be a family relationship between the agents and the defendants in the drug case.

Ortiz was born in Tijuana, but he presented a fake copy of an Illinois birth certificate when he applied for the Border Patrol on Oct. 30, 2001, an ICE agent said in court papers filed Thursday.

Ortiz worked with another rogue Border Patrol agent to look the other way – "just clear the way," as the other agent put it – while illegal immigrants were smuggled across the border east of Tecate, according to the court filing.

The agents were paid $300 per person, according to a wiretapped conversation cited in the filing, and up to $2,000 if they smuggled the immigrants themselves.

The other agent has not been arrested or charged.

"It's embarrassing. There are no two ways about it," said T.J. Bonner, the San Diego-based president of the National Border Patrol Council, a labor union, of the apparent hiring of an undocumented immigrant to work guarding the border.

Local representatives of the Border Patrol declined to say how it was that Ortiz got past their screening processes, but provided a written statement from agency Chief David V. Aguilar.

"Any agent who defies the Border Patrol's motto of 'Honor First' and chooses to violate the trust of the citizens they swore to protect will be held accountable," Aguilar said in the statement. "There is no place in the Border Patrol for behavior that tarnishes and discredits the badge we proudly wear."

Ortiz won't wear that badge again.

"He has now resigned from the Border Patrol," Assistant U.S. Attorney Alana Wong told the judge.

It doesn't appear as though Ortiz entered the United States legally.

A review of Department of Homeland Security immigration records yesterday did not produce any record of a person with the same name and date of birth as those of Ortiz.

How Ortiz managed to scrape through the requisite background check for Border Patrol agents, who must be U.S. citizens, is still a mystery.

Union officials have pinned the blame on rushed hiring and the subcontracting of background screenings for new hires, a practice they say places a highly sensitive matter in the hands of contractors who don't have a vested interest in national security.

In the rush to hire, there have been instances in which background checks have not been completed until people have already been on board for months, Bonner said.

"We are not talking about people who are working at a 7-Eleven," Bonner said.

He said such charges are highly unusual.

"The public needs to understand that these are a few rogue agents," Bonner said. "It is not the culture of the Border Patrol. The overwhelming majority of the agents are out there risking their lives, enforcing immigration laws, doing a daunting and largely thankless task."

In April, an El Centro-based Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty to drug smuggling, admitting he used his patrol vehicle to smuggle about 750 pounds of Mexican marijuana in a duffel bag.

Luis Higareda is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 12 to at least five years in prison.

AGAIN??????????

There have been 8 arrests of Border Patrol agents trafficking illegals in recent months--but it's been kept pretty quiet . Depending upon whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, you could either say HEY they are really cracking down OR you could say DAMN how far has the Border Patrol been compromised?

Now it is revealed he was in the Navy for four years.

www.signonsandiego.com

Bail urged for ex-border agent
Four years in Navy cited by attorney
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 9, 2005

A former Border Patrol agent charged last week with lying about his citizenship and with helping to smuggle illegal immigrants served aboard a San Diego-based Navy ship, where he maintained, among other things, navigational equipment.

A federal magistrate judge is scheduled to decide tomorrow whether Oscar Antonio Ortiz should be released on bail.

Prosecutors are opposing his release, but defense lawyer Stephen White said yesterday that Ortiz, 27, doesn't pose a danger to anyone and isn't likely to flee to avoid prosecution.

"He's an honorably discharged Navy veteran," White said. "He served four years in the Navy."

He said Navy superiors were satisfied with Ortiz's service.

"He was promoted through the ranks," White said. "He served in various ports throughout the world."

Navy officials familiar with Ortiz and his service were unavailable yesterday afternoon.

Ortiz is accused of using a doctored Illinois birth certificate when he applied for the Border Patrol in October 2001. Investigators say in court filings that he was born in Tijuana and is a Mexican citizen. Border Patrol agents must be U.S. citizens.

Investigators also say Ortiz was working with another Border Patrol agent to help smuggle groups of 30 to 50 immigrants through the mountains near Tecate.

Meanwhile, Jenaro Barajas, who served with Ortiz on the amphibious assault ship Tarawa, said he considered Ortiz, who worked on maintenance and navigation systems, a true blue warrior. "I did trust him with my life," he said.

Barajas said he and Ortiz were on at least one deployment to the Persian Gulf together and they socialized, although they worked in different parts of the ship.

Barajas said he was surprised to learn of the charges against Ortiz. "To me, that's even out of character," he said, noting that Ortiz told him he was born in Chicago.

It's unclear what documents Ortiz used to enter the Navy.

A Navy spokesman said it's not necessary to be a U.S. citizen to join the service, noting that it regularly holds naturalization ceremonies. However, he said, it is necessary to be in the country legally.

Immigration records show that no one with Ortiz's name and birth date ever applied to enter the United States legally.

White, Ortiz's lawyer, wouldn't say whether Ortiz believed he was a U.S. citizen when he applied for the Border Patrol, but he said that would likely be the crux of the case.

It is unusual for people born abroad but raised in the United States to incorrectly think they're citizens, said lawyer Lilia Velazquez, who has worked immigration cases for 24 years and is not directly involved in this case.

"You'd have to have parents that lied to you from the beginning about where you were born," she said.

More common, she said, are parents who have children while working in the United States and then return to their home countries where the children are raised without knowing of their U.S. citizenship.