Posted on 07/12/2007 6:52:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
EL PASO, Texas - An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent convicted of taking a $20,000 bribe was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in federal prison.
Santiago Efrain Valle, 44, was convicted in April of one count each of bribery and extortion under the color of law.
Valle denied that he offered to have an immigration charge dropped and the risk classification changed for a Mexican national jailed at the ICE detention center in El Paso in exchange for the bribe. He plans to appeal.
Valle, who could have received an 18-year sentence, received three years and eight months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Valle was arrested in 2006 after accepting the bribe from undercover federal agents. The agents learned about the bribe offer from a lawyer for the illegal immigrant, who was arrested in Alamogordo, N.M.
Christopher Antcliff, Valle's lawyer, asked for the lightest sentence possible.
"My client has worked in that camp for 10 years and to this day ... we maintain his innocence," Antcliff said. "He's a good man, who if the jury's verdict is to have any credibility, made a mistake."
U.S. District Judge David Briones said he agreed with the verdict.
"He's living in a fantasy world, sir," Briones said of Valle's claims of innocence.
Valle was ordered to report to prison Sept. 14. He remains on indefinite leave without pay, ICE officials in El Paso said Thursday.S. District Judge David Briones said he agreed with the verdict.
"He's living in a fantasy world, sir," Briones said of Valle's claims of innocence.
Valle was ordered to report to prison Sept. 14. He remains on indefinite leave without pay, ICE officials in El Paso said Thursday.
And the Border Patrol agent who smuggled over 100 illegals in only gets two years in jail? That’s poor justice.
It always helps to know your price and set it high. Mine is $25 million US dollars, wired to several bank accounts I will have set up for the payoff.
If your price is only $20k, you deserve a 3 year sentence.
The question is, does anyone know if Mr ville is an illegal himself?
Geez,Ramos and Compean gets 10 to 12 yrs for shooting an illegal and this guy gets 3 yrs for trying to help one. Can the Federal Government make up their mind which way they want to go ???
I guess this agent was framed by a Bush-Mexican CIA conspiracy.
Ha,ha, this whole illegal immigration thing is getting confusing !!!
I remember a movie about 30 years ago with Jack Nicholson and Valerie Perrine called “The Border”. It really made Border agents look bad.
Well if it had Nicholson and Perrine (though Val baby truly was sexy) in it, it’s an automatic the Border Guards would look bad !!!
Val played Jack’s nagging gold digger wife who spent his money faster than he could make it.
ping
I want to mention a disturbing trend that many will not dare to mention among the ranks of the law enforcement community. An alarming number of the agents and bad apples being arrested for corruption are Hispanic. I have seen co-workers arrested for various crimes such as bribery, theft, and child molestation. Nothing is more troubling than to see your co-workers and people that you trust with your life, be caught doing something illegal. They are the worst of the worst going against everything they swore to protect. Of course most Hispanic agents are great, but there is something to be said about cultural values and the different value systems attributed to various ethnic groups. I have often heard Hispanic agents crack jokes about “one million...one million and one...oh well,” which they said when we lost illegal aliens after a chase. I have heard many mention that being a Border Patrol agent was “just a job” and “it all pays the same (no matter how many illegal aliens you arrest).” I’m just mentioning examples from my personal experiences, but here in the Rio Grande Valley, the most diligent workers seemed to be the guys from other parts of the country. I don’t mean to be “divisive” by any means but I just wanted to mention the “unmentionable.”
You get more than 10 years for shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks!???
Criminals are notoriously bad at math.
Criminals also have no ambition, on balance.
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