Agents: No confidence in border chief

The leaders of the U.S. Border Patrol's rank-and-file agents have unanimously voted a no-confidence resolution against Chief David V. Aguilar, citing, among other things, his willingness to believe the "perjured allegations" of criminal aliens over his own agents.

The resolution won endorsement from all 100 top leaders of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all 11,000 of the U.S. Border Patrol's nonsupervisory field agents, and targeted Chief Aguilar's lack of support for field agents, several of whom have been prosecuted on civil rights grounds involving arrests of illegal aliens and drug-smuggling suspects.

"Front-line Border Patrol agents who risk their lives protecting our borders have every reason to expect that the leadership of their own agency will support them," T.J. Bonner, NBPC president, told The Washington Times yesterday. "When this does not occur, and instead they are undermined by their so-called leaders, no one should be surprised when they express a loss of confidence in those managers."

The NBPC leadership and rank-and-file agents have criticized the chief for failing to publicly support Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, convicted in Texas and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for violating the civil rights of a drug-smuggling suspect they shot in the buttocks as he fled back into Mexico after abandoning 743 pounds of marijuana. [snip]

This is a statement Mike Cutler, former INS agent issued about the article and action by border agents.

Hi Gang:

I wish I could say that I was surprised by the article I attached below that appears in today's edition of the Washington Times. Unfortunately I am not. Their is a great Yiddish expression that says that, "When a fish goes bad, it smells from the head." Of late there have been a number of smelling fish heads. The two most recent and prominent are Attorney General Gonzalez, United States Attorney Johnny Sutton and now the chief of the Border Patrol, David V. Aguilar.

How can anyone be surprised that Chief Aguilar is not trusted by the men and women he sends in harms way each day? These valiant Border Patrol agents comprise the "Thin Green Line" that is supposed to secure our borders and all of these law enforcement professionals know what folly the Guest Worker Amnesty Program being pushed by the President represents. Yet, Aguilar, the apparent consummate politician who knows the way the wind is blowing touts this insane program as being a way of "taking pressure off the borders!" I have a close friend who used to work at INS Headquarters who has a favorite expression. He always says, "You will either stand for something or you will fall for anything!" Clearly Mr. Aguilar is a human weather vane who will not only not provide leadership by speaking his mind, but will publicly say whatever he is told to say. This is not what leadership is all about. I understand that he may be limited in criticizing the Presidents statements, but to support statements that he has to know are baseless and carry such risks is not acceptable!

Furthermore, the arrest and prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean represented, in my judgement, a gross miscarriage of justice, yet Mr. Aguilar has not spoken out in support of his agents. The President now wants to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents to get the number of agents on the border up to 18,000 agents by next year. However there is a reall problem here. It is the attrition rate and the lack of the ability to engage in such a massive recruiting and training operation that would preserve the integrity of the Border Patrol. T.J. Bonner, the president of the Border Patrol Council that represents the 11,000 field agents of the Border Patrol has expressed his concerns. He needs to be listened to. The Border Patrol is bleeding green and to attempt to hire enough agents to increase the numbers as the President now wants to do is dangerous, especially when you consider the high attrition rate of agents who fear that if they do their jobs they may well be prosecuted. Efforts to inflate the number of agents along the border are akin to attempting to inflate a tire that has suffered a blowout!

Once again the administration is suffering from a lack of leadership!

Meanwhile, our borders are not being adequately defended and the immigration bureaucracy is failing to create a system that has integrity. These critical issues have a huge impact on our nation's security.

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

-michael cutler-

More Texas cronyism:

Mr. Aguilar served as Patrol Agent in Charge of three different Border Patrol Stations in Texas from 1988 to August 1996. He was first promoted to Patrol Agent in Charge of the Dallas Border Patrol Station in January 1988. He was promoted to the Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station in 1992. The Rio Grande City Station is one of the most active stations for narcotics interdiction along the Texas-Mexico border. He was promoted to the Brownsville Station in July 1995. The Brownsville Station was the largest Border Patrol Station in the Central Region of the INS at that time.

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/organization/assist_comm_off/border_patrol.xml

Border Patrol Agent Who Shot Illegal Immigrant Charged With Murder

Posted: April 24th, 2007 02:48 PM EDT

BRANDY McCOMBS
The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

“BISBEE, Ariz.— A U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot a Mexican illegal entrant in January has been charged with murder by the Cochise County Attorney who said Monday that the shooting was not justified....

...........The decision is a part of a nationwide pattern of politically motivated prosecutions against Border Patrol agents, said Brandon Judd, vice president of Local 2544, the Arizona Chapter of the National Border Patrol Council.

The matching testimony from three witnesses has more to do with their blood ties and influence from the Mexican Consulate than what actually happened, Judd says. He also disagrees with Rheinheimer’s assertion that the physical evidence contradicts Corbett’s statements.

“I’ve looked over the reports and I have a hard time seeing how they could do it unless of course this was politically motivated,” Judd said Monday........”

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=8&id=35836

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