[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 15812-15813]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1830
                           BORDER CORRUPTION

  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, I request permission to take Mr. Jones's time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from Texas 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, there is more news from the second front. This 
is the border, and the news is not good. It is disturbing.
  There is word tonight that some men and women charged with protecting 
our borders could be making their yearly salary in just a matter of 
days by taking bribes. That is right, bribes.
  Border Patrol agents, our the first line of defense in the fight to 
secure America's borders, may have dirty money on their mind instead of 
illegals, all the while they are compromising national security for a 
fist full of dollars.
  This month, two Border Patrol supervisors pleaded guilty after 
accepting $200,000 in bribes and working with the illegals to come into 
the United States. These supervisors were working on a test program set 
up between the Border Patrol and the Mexican Government where human 
smugglers, coyotes as we call them, were arrested in the United States 
and were supposed to be deported back to Mexico for prosecution. This 
is the same program that these officials have been raving about. They 
even came to Washington and testified before Congress that 82 suspected 
smugglers were returned back to Mexico last year.
  But what is worse is these supervisors used a government vehicle to 
bring two smugglers across the border. One bought his way out of jail 
for a $10,000 bribe while another shelled out $6,000 in bribes so he 
wouldn't be shipped back to Mexico. Then these two agents, new best 
friends of these two individuals, dropped them off at a Wal-Mart 
parking lot.
  Their case isn't the only one that is under investigation. In fact, 
it is far from it. Other Border Patrol agents charged with upholding 
our laws and our sovereign borders are facing Federal charges and 
investigations. Border Patrol agent Oscar Ortiz was in fact not even a 
United States citizen, an illegal himself, and he used a false birth 
certificate to, get this, Mr. Speaker, become a U.S. border agent and 
work on our border. His lies were only discovered as he conspired to 
smuggle in over 100 different people into the United States.
  Another example: two Border Patrol agents, brothers, have vanished 
into the darkness of Mexico because they were being investigated for 
smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States. Once 
they figured out that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was out to 
capture them, they

[[Page 15813]]

took off and disappeared, as I said, into Mexico.
  Two other agents were indicted for taking bribes and allowing 
illegals to cross our border for a few dollars.
  Experts say targeting border agents is an easy task. You see, here is 
what happens. On the other side of the river, they watch our border 
agents with binoculars. They say coyotes look for weak inspectors and 
then they test them to see whether or not they are lawful.
  The way they do it is they send someone across the border, someone 
like a woman, who will flirt with the agent until he lets her in and 
the people that are with her in. Once this occurs, then these 
individuals are approached by these coyotes to see if they will let 
more people in, all in the name of money.
  Mr. Speaker, our national leaders are divided over what to do with 
immigration, what to do with the people that are here illegally; but 
the country cannot be divided over corruption on the border by border 
agents. Americans aren't okay with people buying and flirting their way 
into the United States. They demand safe and secure borders and honest 
and upstanding Border Patrol agents.
  Make no doubt about it, most of our Border Patrol agents are honest 
hardworking men and women. But we must make an example of anyone who 
breaks the immigration laws, no matter which side of the border they 
live on. From time to time, we point out even on this House floor 
corruption of some Mexican Government officials that work along the 
southern border when they are helping drug smugglers and coyotes all in 
the name of filthy lucre. So we cannot tolerate a few border agents 
who, in the name of money, sell out America and insult the good name of 
most of our border agents.
  So all of those who make money off of illegal entrants should be 
accountable, and it makes no difference, Mr. Speaker, who they are. The 
rule of law should be enforced. It is illegal to enter the United 
States without permission. That is the rule, and it should be enforced 
by honest border agents. And people that enter illegally should be held 
accountable.
  It makes no difference who those people are, whether they are 
illegals that cross, whether they are narcoterrorists that bring money 
or drugs into the United States to sell, whether they are coyotes, or 
whether they are illicit businesses in the United States that exploit 
illegals that are working here, or whether they are corrupt border 
agents. All of these must be held accountable for the actions they 
commit, because the border is a national security issue.
  And that's just the way it is.

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