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| Dept. Homeland Security to Probe Border Patrol Kickback Scheme |
| 2005-06-11 |
| The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security plans to investigate allegations that senior Border Patrol managers, including the current head of the organization, looked the other way when a Border Patrol kickback scheme surfaced in Arizona several years ago. The investigation is the latest development in a case involving whistle-blowers' charges that David Aguilar, the head of the Border Patrol in Washington, and other managers knew of the kickback scheme but did nothing to stop it. Aguilar, who directs the enforcement efforts of 11,000 agents nationwide, has strongly denied the charges. Robert Bonner, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, requested the inspector general's review in a June 3 memo he sent to Richard Skinner, the acting DHS inspector general. Bonner also rejected charges that his agency, which includes the Border Patrol, had failed to conduct a thorough investigation of the kickback scheme. In a phone conversation with Skinner on June 3, Bonner expressed the "utmost confidence" in Aguilar, according to Kristi Clemens, a Bonner aide. The investigation, says Skinner's spokesperson, Tamara Faulkner, will be conducted "as quickly and thoroughly as possible." The case involves charges by two former Border Patrol agents, Larry Davenport and Willie Forester. In February 2001, the two men complained to the Justice Department about a kickback scheme involving agents temporarily assigned to the Douglas, Ariz., station. In a subsequent report, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General confirmed their allegations. Its report said that some agents had accepted cash kickbacks from supervisors who rented rooms to them, or had taken cash and other inducements from hotels and apartments that sought their business. The agents had been detailed to Douglas as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration. |
| Posted by:Pappy |