By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A Border Patrol agent told a Senate committee Tuesday that Homeland Security is fudging border statistics to make the border seem safer than it actually is, The Business Insider reports.
“I want to be crystal clear – the border is not secure,” said border agent Chris Cabrera in prepared testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.
“That is not just my opinion or the position of the NBPC,” he said, speaking on behalf of the National Border Patrol Council. “Ask any line agent in the field and he or she will tell you that at best we apprehend 35 to 40 percent of the illegal immigrants attempting to cross. This number is even lower for drug smugglers who are much more adept at eluding capture.”
Cabrera said the number of footprints from immigrants, for example, are severely undercounted and that supervisors create incentives for agents to lie.
“Agents who repeatedly report groups larger than 20 face retribution,” he said. “Management will either take them out of the field and assign them to processing detainees at the station or assign them to a fixed position in low volume areas as punishment.”
“Needless to say agents got the message and now stay below this 20 person threshold no matter the actual size of the group,” he added.
