By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A 49-year-old Border Patrol agent who assaulted a migrant in U.S. custody has resigned in exchange for pleading guilty to a charge filed by the Justice Department.
Jason Andrew McGilvray was working at the Calexico Border Patrol Station in California in February 2019 when he spotted an undocumented migrant jump the international border fence. McGilvray apprehend the man and struck him “in the face with the intent to deprive [him] of his constitutional right against unreasonable force during search and seizure,” prosecutors said.
According to Quartz, which first reported on the arrest, it’s extremely rare for Border Patrol agents to be held charged for on-duty wrong-doing. Since 2016, only two Border Patrol agents have been arrested for “mission-related misconduct.”
By contrast, Border Patrol agents are five times more likely to be arrested for off-duty conduct than other federal agents.
Under McGilvray’s plea agreement, he dodged jail time and was sentenced to a year of probation.
McGilvray joined Border Patrol in 2006.
