Border Agents, Lured by the Other Side

Corruption is on the rise among U.S. border patrol agents.

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.

Part of the problem is that border patrol’s internal affairs unit was dissolved when the agency was integrated into DHS. Now it’s been reconstituted, and it has a lot of work to do.