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Hispanics Bolster Border Patrol

More news stories on Immigration Law Enforcement

James Pinkerton, Houston Chronicle, December 29, 2008

Growing up along the Texas border, Edward Caballero remembers fearing the green-uniformed agents of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Now, the 32-year old Caballero—a former schoolteacher in the Rio Grande Valley—is one of thousands of new agents who have swelled the force’s ranks to more than 18,000, a product of an historic recruitment blitz.

And unlike the Border Patrol of his youth, which was overwhelmingly Anglo, the expanded border agency is now 54 percent minority. Hispanics like Caballero comprise 52 percent of the agents.

{snip}

Since the Bush administration mandated hiring 6,000 new agents to boost the force to 18,000 by the end of this year, the ranks of Hispanic agents have mushroomed. The roughly 6,400 Hispanic agents on duty in 2006 increased 45 percent to about 9,300 last month.

Caballero said his fluency in Spanish and his upbringing in the Rio Grande Valley, which is predominantly Hispanic, is an advantage when he encounters illegal immigrants trying to cross the winding Rio Grande and fade into riverside communities.

{snip}

Recruits’ advantage

Because southwest border communities are largely Latino, recruits there have an advantage in the required Spanish fluency as well as familiarity with the job. Applicants who can pass a Spanish proficiency test can skip 40 days of required language instruction at the academy.

{snip}

The government employed a diverse array of recruiting tools to meet the 18,000-agent goal. The Border Patrol sponsored NASCAR stock cars and bull-riding events, held job fairs in communities with high unemployment and visited black college campuses.

Though the Border Patrol force has become more ethnically diverse, it’s still 95 percent male. However, the recruiting drive boosted the number of female agents to nearly 1,000.

{snip}

What critics say

But there are some concerns about thousands of new agents enforcing laws in the same communities where they have strong family ties, some that extend across the border.

“The problem I think that will come up are with people who are born and raised there, and have associates on both sides of the border. I don’t think that’s especially good from an integrity standpoint,” said James Dorcy, a director of the National Association of Retired Border Patrol Officers.

“The drug cartels are trying to do everything they can to infiltrate the Border Patrol right now,” Dorcy said.

{snip}

Corrupt agents

Their concerns have some validity, as a number of agents have been caught taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants, as well as drugs, to cross the border.

Last week a federal judge in McAllen sentenced ex-Border Patrol officer Reynaldo Zuniga, 34, to seven years in prison for drug smuggling. The officer, from the Valley city of Harlingen, was paid to pick up a cocaine smuggler on the Rio Grande and drop him off at a hamburger stand nearby.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors returned a bribery and narcotics trafficking indictment against Leonel Morales, a 30-year-old Border Patrol agent from Zapata. He is charged with taking a $9,000 bribe to escort a load of narcotics this summer.

{snip}

Original article

Email James Pinkerton at james.pinkerton@chron.com.

(Posted on December 30, 2008)

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Comments

1 — Roger wrote at 5:52 PM on December 30:


I remember reading years ago about how the BP was one of the worst law agencies to be in.

Full of problem officers & corruption.

Bush likely knew this going in. He wants a totally inept BP.

2 — GB wrote at 6:29 PM on December 30:

I thought it was 100%. Has anyone EVER seen an Anglo border patrol agent in any TV new story?

3 — q wrote at 6:30 PM on December 30:

“Hispanics hold 52 percent of Border Patrol jobs.”

I’m surprised. I thought the percentage would be closer to 75.

4 — John D wrote at 6:39 PM on December 30:

Nothing like having the fox guard the hen house.

Hard to imagine a dumber strategy for guarding the borders.

5 — the Soviet Republic of New Jersey wrote at 7:14 PM on December 30:

Did Bush do the hiring in Mexico? How many of the guards are Illegal Aliens. No wounder arrests have dropped off on the boarder. Maybe IRANIANS will get hired to guard the Pentagon and US Nuclear Power Plants.

6 — White Man wrote at 7:31 PM on December 30:

52% of the jobs? from a group that’s only 12% of the population? There wont be any calls for ‘diversity’ here. Well, yeah there will, except they will be a calls for even more Hispanics, Asians and blacks, and more appeals to ‘tolerance’ and pledges to ‘do more’.

7 — Coeur d'alene wrote at 7:44 PM on December 30:

HA-HA. This is certainly a case of foxes guarding the henhouse. Come Balkanization/Revolution—- we need it to sort friend from foe.

8 — Fed Up wrote at 7:44 PM on December 30:

So THAT’s what the expression “letting the Fox guard the Henhouse” really means.

9 — Bobby wrote at 7:55 PM on December 30:

“Hispanics hold 52 percent of the border patrol jobs.”

If they held those jobs on the Canadian border, that might be one thing. But since they’re on the Mexican border, forget it. It is just recruiting people who will allow their clan to come in in any way they can think of. I’m speaking in general terms of course. There might be some Mexican border patrols with integrity, but integrity has a tough time against bribes from, say for instance, drug dealers.

10 — Anonymous wrote at 8:40 PM on December 30:

The answer will be to have a second Border Patrol consisting of non-Hispanics, to monitor the work of the first one.

11 — Uniculturalist wrote at 8:46 PM on December 30:

Ah, letting the foxes guard the hen house, are we? We’ll see how that fares….

12 — Anonymous wrote at 8:49 PM on December 30:

There is an obvious conflict of interest here.

13 — 24/7 wrote at 9:07 PM on December 30:

What the hell?!

Just fill that quota. (I assumed there couldn’t be enough whites to do the job, but really!)

Border patrol is treated like any other no-brain job where workers follow the ‘rules’ step-by-step no matter what because they are too imcompetent to think on their feet or make a decision that’s outside of standard operating procedure. So, it doesn’t matter if corrupt Hispanics work the job, the white man gets the bill as always. We can’t pay this one off!

14 — Whiteplight wrote at 9:15 PM on December 30:

Now our tax dollars will pay for drugs to be smuggled into the U.S. All because America lacks the will to hire people who actually care about U.S. sovereignty.

15 — Unemployed WASP wrote at 9:19 PM on December 30:

“Their concerns have some validity, as a number of agents have been caught taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants, as well as drugs, to cross the border.”

Of course stupid is and stupid does.

16 — JOHN wrote at 9:48 PM on December 30:


As we all know, Border Patrol is America’s first line of defense against the constant and unrelenting efforts of drug and human smugglers to illegally enter the United States. Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos fulfilled their responsibilities as Border Patrol agents and rightfully pursued a suspected and fleeing drug smuggler. It is crazy to punish them with long prison terms. They received an additional 10 years for using their guns in attempting to apprehend a fleeing drug smuggler. This 10 year gun enhancment was never intended to apply to law enforcement officers.
It would seem that it is a “no brainer” for President Bush to issue pardons to these two good family men before he leaves office. To fail to do so would seem to have a very negative effect on his future legacy for the history books.


17 — Anonymous wrote at 10:45 PM on December 30:

Corruption is very common in Latin American countries. Hispanics living in the U.S. are not different from their south of the border brothers. With these new agents I’m sure narcotics trafficking will increase.

18 — David wrote at 11:28 PM on December 30:

That’s like hiring the fox to guard the chicken coop.

19 — jewamongyou wrote at 1:34 AM on December 31:

Here we see Mr. Pinkerton admitting that fears of corruption are justified. To him I say, if such fears are justified in border towns, let us consider the impact millions of Hispanics have on the U.S. as a whole when it comes to corruption. Will majority Hispanic juries practice jury nullification to let one of their own off the hook (as blacks so often do)?

20 — H. Dumpty wrote at 2:16 AM on December 31:

If some of these agents have relatives living in Mexico, the cartels can pressure the agents through threatening harm to those relatives.

I’d think it harder to bribe agents who DON’T speak Spanish, and who have no natural cultural affinities to the peoples they are policing.

This is just another case of non-whites gaining another strong foothold in this country.

21 — BigSteve wrote at 6:12 AM on December 31:

Liberals tell us that Mexicans come to this country to better themselves economically. The fact that they are willing to “jump the line” and enter illegally should tell us volumes about these people. It is understood in Mexico that Mexican citizens will not pay their federal taxes. In fact, a group of high-profile Mexican citizens sucessfully sued the Mexican government for prosecuting those who did not pay their taxes. If this group is so willing to ignore the laws of their own country, WHAT MAKES ANYONE THINK THEY ARE GOING TO MAGICALLY BECOME LAWFUL CITIZENS AFTER A DIPPING IN THE RIO GRANDE?

BigSteve

22 — Anonymous wrote at 6:17 PM on December 31:

Didn’t the Romans have a similar situation right they went down the tubes?

23 — Anonymous wrote at 11:22 PM on December 31:

At one time the BP was a top federal law enforcement agency. But not now. Part of the problem is that it was subsumed by the horrific DHS and placed under the Customs and Border Protection boondoggle. The US Customs Service is the absolute most worthless federal “law enforcement” agency ever. It is on average packed with lazy brain dead managers who are easily corruptible. They naturally train their charges to be the same. Those who don’t play the game are stuck in one grade forever and some are framed and eventually fired. Management doesn’t like these dissident types because they may become whistle blowers on management scams.

There are so many Hispanics in the Patrol because most can pass the Spanish test. Most “Anglo” recruits however can’t speak Spanish and many fail the phony Artificial language test and are not accepted, therefore the ratio of Anglos to Hispanics is tipped in favor of the latter. The test predicts success on academic tests and not conversational situations, which is needed on the job. Management uses this test to favor hiring Hispanics by eliminating a lot of Anglos on a criteria they can defend.

Unfortunately, the BP has become infiltrated by Hispanic gang members. Gangs do this by taking advantage of the lower standards and the demand for Spanish speakers. They push their “clean” members into the Patrol and wait for them to graduate and return to their home town as an agent. So, presto the gangs have their men on the inside. We read about those who have been caught, but how many haven’t been?

Most Hispanic agents are loyal, and, just as others, take their jobs seriously as is witnessed by Ramos and Compean who were railroaded by the corrupt US attorney Johny Sutton, who has allegedly has been compromised by Mexican drug cartels. Ramos and Compean were simply doing their jobs.

The article mentioned female agents. The physical fitness standards have been reduced on purpose exactly to ensure that females can pass. This puts them and other agents in danger. But this is no matter of concern for senior management, but the numbers are. They get fat bonuses and promotions based on them.

24 — Anonymous wrote at 12:45 PM on January 1:

Talk about letting the fox guard the hen house. Here is L.A. if cops believe an illegal alien though intoxicated can still drive, they just give them a warning and let them go. If one is not “Latino” (euphemism for mexican)cops, then one faces the full weight of the Law.

25 — Schoolteacher wrote at 12:17 PM on January 2:

It is my personal observation that many Hispanic government employees are Mexicans first, Americans second, if at all.


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