It seems like the only thing in the news recently is the increase in drug related problems between the U.S. and Mexico. This article by Reuters makes the claim that its not just Mexicans who are to blame for this growing problem. More and More U.S. Border Patrol Agents are accepting bribes from drug gangs. This article claims that many of these Agents even helped facilitate the smuggling in of drugs into the US. They think the problem stems from an increase in border patrol agents from 9K to over 14K over the past couple years.
One example is that: “U.S. Customs inspector Richard Elizalda, arrested in 2006, was paid $70,000 to let through hundreds of immigrants after a persuasive female smuggler he met at the San Ysidro crossing became his lover”. For that amount of money and pressure I can understand why it is so hard for 100% of agents to hold firm against the bribes.
This does however spark a question of integrity. When you accept a position like that you have to be ethically trained and prepared for the types of situations that you may find yourself. Even though that sum of money is immense, it is not worth the compromise of American integrity nor the jail time and repercussions that result from the transaction. This issue combines both the policy matters of counter-narcotics and illegal immigration, the two most central areas needed of reformation. I personally think there is no excuse, these agents should have been given thorough background investigations and practice scenarios to be prepared for these instances. Integrity is an extremely important thing to maintain within the government, any desecration of or shortage of can lead to large instances of corruption that can overpower a nation, i.e. Mexico and Columbia. The article is located here: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1531199420080715?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true
July 16, 2008 at 3:12 pm |
How Ironic is it that when you INCREASE SECURITY…. you INCREASE the chance of getting drugs into the country THROUGH security. It is sad that drug smugglers can offer so much more money than what the U.S. can offer border patrol agents per year… but not every agent can make 100,000+ every year. It poses such a problem because you can’t judge someone morals and honesty through a test or application… so it’s like what can you do? All I feel like you can do is send the message to the agents loud and clear that if don’t enforce the law on the drug smugglers the federal government is going to enforce it on YOU.
July 19, 2008 at 11:37 am |
I’m kind of not surprised by this. If you think about it these drug smugglers and people trying to get immigrants through are pretty desperate. So why not try and persuade border security. They will probably make more money from bribes then they would normally get paid. I think it’s all about the training and the pay they get. Either that or you won’t be able to stop everyone from taking bribes because that’s kind of hard to regulate.
July 21, 2008 at 3:57 pm |
I read the title was really was not moved which is sad. I think I watched Scareface to many times or something. When you think about it drug smugglers are trying to get money and so are agents. We do have corrupt people in our society and they work for our goverment. It happens but I hope that the US takes preventive steps to make sure that this ceases.