I spent the past year looking at corruption along the U.S.-Mexico border, focusing primarily on U.S. law enforcement. The reporting resulted in a joint collaboration between The New York Times, and PBS Frontline/World.
Increased corruption is linked, in part, to tougher enforcement, driving smugglers to recruit federal employees as accomplices. It has grown so worrisome that job applicants will soon be subject to lie detector tests to ensure that they are not already working for smuggling organizations. In addition, homeland security officials have reconstituted an internal affairs unit at Customs and Border Protection, one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, overseeing both border agents and customs officers.
Of course, the issue of corruption isn’t particularly new, as evidenced here. But, we found that there has been an increase in corruption related to human smuggling, particularly in California.
I’ll continue to report on corruption-related items as well as other border issues. (more…)
