HR 2213, which would allow Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to waive the polygraph test for certain new hires, a Senate committee holds a hearing on their version of the bill – the Boots on the Border Act authored by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
The budget proposed by the White House on Tuesday includes $2.6 billion for border security Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters on Monday.
The budget will make further requests for immigration enforcement, including $300 million to support recruiting, hiring and training for the vast increase in agents for Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Trump has called for.
CBP underwent a rapid hiring surge in the years after 9/11, similar to the kind of hiring surge Donald Trump wants today. At the time, CBP didn’t use polygraph tests to vet applicants, and some agents were sent into the field before background checks were complete a polygraph exam was piloted – and immediately uncovered 30 applicants sent by cartels to infiltrate CBP. Though the polygraph is now administered for all new hires, it was not retroactively tested on those hired before the exam was required – and today, officials conservatively believe that 5% of CBP (about 1,000 agents) could be corrupt.
A Border Patrol agent was recently accused of sexually assaulting a young asylum seeker and her sister. Between 2010 and 2016, there were 33,126 complaints of sexual and/or physical abuse against DHS agencies, 31% of which were filed against CBP.
In January, the government settled a $1 million case where a teenager died after CBP told him to drink liquid meth – the agents involved still work for the agency CBP
ACLU sued DHS “for its failure to produce records related to the abuse and mistreatment of children in the custody of” CBP In 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported that just “13 of 809 abuse complaints sent to the [Border Patrol] agency’s internal affairs unit between January 2009 and January 2012 led to disciplinary action.”
A Politico expose on CBP from 2014 called Border Patrol “America’s most out-of-control enforcement agency” A 2014 independent review found that CBP agents would deliberately step into the path of cars to justify shooting at the drivers
CBP officers have shot and killed teenagers for throwing rocks, then been cleared of wrongdoing by the agency’s internal affairs office
A 2013 report from the Office for the Inspector General for DHS found that CBP has been lodging so many complaints of excessive force – and recording them so poorly – that a proper tally couldn’t be identified.
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