By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Drug smugglers have tried all kinds of clever – and not so clever – ways to get their products across the Mexican border and into the U.S. On Tuesday morning, Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector seized nearly $100,000 worth of marijuana dropped from an ultralight aircraft Tuesday, AZ Family reports….
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com CBP plans to hire 2,000 officers by the end of the 2015 fiscal year, the Tucson News reports. Most of the new officers will serve along the southwest border. Some of the jobs entail checking passports at the border and enforcing immigration laws. Applicants will undergo a thorough screening process to…
By Washington Post Editorial Board Few federal government agencies have grown as quickly as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the 21,000 agents, double the number in 2004, who patrol the nation’s frontiers with Mexico and Canada. That growth has been accompanied by an alarming number of incidents involving the use of lethal force,…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A Border Patrol agent has been charged with assaulting a 14-year-old immigrant for having a cellphone in detention, the Los Angeles Times reports. Aldo Francisco Arteaga of Tucson was arrested Thursday on felony charges of assaulting a minor. CBP officials said Arteaga surrendered Thursday after Jan. 3o video showed him assaulting…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com CBP needs more than 4,300 new officers to adequately protect the borders, acting Customs and Border Patrol Assistant Commissioner John P. Wagner, from the Office of Field Operations, told PJ Media. With the increased dangers of ISIS and the influx of immigrants, Wagner said a lot more manpower is needed….
By Los Angeles Times Editorial Board The new head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s internal affairs office made a troubling assertion late last week. Since 2004, he said, the agency has apparently taken no disciplinary action against any of its agents who have used deadly force. That follows a report released in February by…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Civil rights lawyers are suing federal government to force the disclosure of the name of the Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a 16-year-old teen in the back. “This is an extraordinary request by the government and just one more example of how the Border Patrol attempts to shield its…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com James Tomsheck, who was forced to resign as internal affairs for CBP, said the agency made it difficult for him to investigate internal complaints. NPR reports that Tomscheck believes some Border Patrol agents aren’t being held accountable because of a culture that evades legal restraints. Tomscheck said about a quarter of…
