Who polices the Border Patrol?
by Claudine Lomonaco on Jul. 12, 2006, under LocalComplaints go unanswered, U.S. study finds
With President Bush calling for the hiring of an additional 6,000 Border Patrol agents by 2008, some Pima County residents are expressing concern about who the agents answer to while they live and work in a community. ABOVE: Border Patrol candidates undergo the weapon qualification portion of tryouts on the New Mexico side of Fort Bliss.
It is the largest law enforcement agency in southern Arizona, and some critics say that, unlike police departments, the U.S. Border Patrol is accountable to no one in the community.
The Arizona Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Human Rights in 2005 found that complaints against the federal agency go unanswered so often, many border residents largely give up on the process.
Pima County residents Mark Meszaros and Rick and Carol Morgan said they have been waiting for two months for a promised investigation into why a Border Patrol agent threw down tire spikes on a dangerous mountain highway, causing them to lose control of their motorcycles.
Michael Nicley, chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, declined to be interviewed for this article, but a spokesman said the agency takes complaints seriously.
“We’re very committed to the people we protect,” said Senior Patrol Agent Gustavo Soto. “We’ll go through a process where phone calls will be made and the situation will be dealt with.”
Meszaros and the Morgans said they want to know when.
“(We) could have died out there that night,” said Meszaros, 54, a Vietnam War veteran and retired postal worker from Green Valley. “I support the mission of the Border Patrol, but what that agent did was reckless and negligent, and he should be punished. I don’t want this happening to anyone else.”
The Tucson sector, with more than 2,400 agents, may double in the next two years.
President Bush has called for the hiring of 6,000 more agents by 2008, with 2,500 slated for Arizona.
The Border Patrol’s growing presence has some residents demanding greater accountability from the agency, which has become an increasing part of daily life.
Meszaros and the Morgans never dreamed they would have a problem with the Border Patrol.
On the night of May 13, the trio were traveling north on State Route 83 near a dangerous curve. Morgan, 55, of Tucson, remembers seeing a Border Patrol truck parked in the southbound lane.
As Morgan passed the agent, his Harley-Davidson ran over something that sounded like a piece of metal.
Suddenly, the bike, with his wife, Carol, 54, on the back, started to wobble as he struggled to maintain control.
Meszaros, close behind, ran over the same thing. The back of his bike started to fishtail.
“The next second, my front tire went crazy,” Meszaros said.
He had two major blowouts.
“It was a nightmare,” he said.
A pickup behind him hit the metal and spun out of control.
Meszaros’ bike veered off the highway toward a 15-foot drop and came to a stop less than a foot from the edge, he said.
Morgan, a Vietnam War-era veteran and retired truck driver, managed to stop his bike about a quarter of a mile down the road.
An Arizona Department of Public Safety officer appeared soon after and searched the road for what they’d run over. By that time, whatever it was had disappeared. So had the Border Patrol agent.
They thought it was a freak accident until the next morning, when Rick Morgan inspected his bike and found a spike in the flat tire. Meszaros found three spikes. The pickup driver, another.
The Morgans and Meszaros took the spikes to the Sonoita Border Patrol station to file a complaint, and an agent acknowledged the spikes belonged to the agency and promised an investigation.
Jim Oien, a spokesman for DPS, said his agency didn’t begin an investigation because there was no indication at the time that spikes were involved.
He was at a loss as to why any officer would put out spikes that a motorcycle could hit, something his agency does not allow because it’s so dangerous.
“Unless maybe it was an ax murderer who had just killed five people and was getting away,” Oien said. “I can’t think of any officer that would do that unless he was out of his mind.”
According to the Border Patrol, criminal, civil rights or abuse of power allegations are investigated by the Department of Homeland Security’s Joint Intake Center.
Minor allegations are handled locally, and there is no standard protocol for responding, Lisa Reed of the Tucson sector’s community relations office told the Human Rights Commission.
The committee has recommended that the Border Patrol reform its policies to ensure that complaints are “investigated, results released and action taken.”
For now, the complaints from the Morgans and Meszaros are being treated as a minor allegation.
Soto confirmed last week that a supervisor from the Sonoita station was internally investigating the incident to see if policy was followed. Because it is an ongoing investigation, he said, he could not discuss details.
Officials at DPS and the Tucson Police Department said they would have handled the investigation differently. Both said such an allegation would merit an independent investigation by their offices of professional standards. DPS said it would contact the complainants within the next business day.
Tucson police Chief Richard Miranda said an investigator would likely make contact even sooner.
“We all make mistakes in our job,” Miranda said. “The actions might have been justified. Let’s deal with that mistake, but the issue of them taking the spikes away and not rendering aid and helping these people is a very serious allegation of misconduct.”
One Border Patrol critic believes the agency’s accountability problems begin with its screening practices, which “fail to meet the accepted standard in American policing,” said Kevin Gilmartin, a retired 20-year TPD veteran who is now a law enforcement expert and conducts training for policing agencies around the world and across the county, including the FBI.
Ninety-five percent of large law enforcement agencies subject applicants to lie detector tests, but the Border Patrol does not, Gilmartin said.
The polygraph is an important tool and can reveal previous drug use and criminal behavior, Gilmartin said.
The Border Patrol reserves the right to use lie tests, but does not do so on a regular basis, said Mike Freil, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington, D.C.
“It’s a very rigorous process to become an agent,” he said. “For every 30 applicants, only one becomes an agent.”
Gilmartin said the unique nature of Border Patrol work should require the most rigorous screening.
Agents work in remote locations far from supervision, where human and drug smuggling is rampant, they have great powers of search and seizure and apprehend people with scant understanding of their rights, Gilmartin said.
“Can you tell me another agency that is exposed, even remotely, to as much temptation?”
He found spikes in his motorcycle tire two months ago, Mark Meszaros says, and is still waiting to hear from U.S. Border Patrol officials.
———
ON PATROL
Pima County Sheriff’s Department: 507
Tucson Police Department: 1,008
Department of Public Safety: 1,179*
U.S. Border Patrol, Tucson sector: 2,400+
* statewide
Source: Agency statistics
———
