Martha Garnica was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A bill aimed at preventing corruption among border agents and keeping drug cartels from infiltrating the ranks of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has moved out of committee and will now be considered by the full Senate.
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Eric Macias was sentenced to six years in prison.
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Martha Garnica was arrested in November 2009.
Homeland Security IG Often in Conflict With Agencies on Corruption Probes
By Andrew Becker | The Washington Post | March 30, 2010
A turf battle between the inspector general's office in the Department of Homeland Security and the agency's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division and the FBI has delayed some investigations and threatens to undermine enforcement actions, records and interviews show. CIR's Andrew Becker reports for The Washington Post.
>> Read the full article.
By Andrew Becker
Many of the thousands of new border agents hired in recent years as part of a push to block drug traffickers and other safety threats from entering the country might actually pose security risks themselves, a Homeland Security official testified today.
An ongoing drug trial in U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas, provides an uncommon glimpse into the violent battle for Juarez, just across the U.S.-Mexico border. The trial has had as many twists and turns as the Rio Grande, which splits these New Wild West towns into something like Heaven and Hell.
Mexico’s brutal drug war has rattled that country’s sense of security, deepened its economic crisis and shifted attention from other pressing concerns. Leading journalists and scholars explore the roots of the violence, what its lasting impact may be, and how the drug war might be resolved. They examine ways that the narco-violence is affecting – and affected by – the United States. And they discuss how the U.S. press is covering the issue and what stories about Mexico we might be missing.
Corruption-related investigations of federal immigration and border agents in the Southwest has increased for the third year in a row, according to records obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting through a Freedom of Information Act request.
More than 80 investigations were opened last year by the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General in the four Southwest border states against employees of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agencies that police the border and immigration.
A retired Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced today in San Diego by a federal judge to three years probation for allowing an illegal immigrant to be smuggled through his inspection lane, according to court records.
Alonso Vasquez, 64, was arrested in May 2008 at his home in Escondido following an investigation by the FBI-led Border Corruption Task Force in San Diego, federal agents said.
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