By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Nearly 200 employees and contract workers for Homeland Security have accepted bribes totaling about $150 million over the past 10 years, the New York Times reports.
At the time, the employees were getting paid to protect the borders and enforce immigration laws.
The employees and contract workers have allowed tons of dugs and thousands of undocumented immigrants to be smuggled into the U.S. in exchange for bribes. They also illegally sold green cards and other immigration documents and provided sensitive information to drug cartels.
“It does absolutely no good to talk about the building of walls or tougher enforcement if you can’t secure the integrity of the immigration system, when you have fraud and corruption with your own employees,” said an internal affairs official at the Department of Homeland Security who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Although these employees represent less than 1% of the more than 250,000 people who work for Homeland Security, the impact is still broad.
“Any amount is bad, and one person alone can do a lot of damage,” said John Roth, the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. “It doesn’t have to be widespread.”
