[Marine Inspector]

Three Mexican citizens who work in the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, have been charged with running an illegal visa-selling scheme, the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston announced Friday.

This is a problem with all of our embassies and consulates.

We hire nationals from the country were the office is located and have them do the jobs, with US citizens supervising.

[Dubya]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that.
We need to improve on how we watch our borders.

[waxhaw]

Marine Inspector is right; this is a major problem. Making matters worse, very often the State Department American employee is also involved in the corruption. I know of one case in Mexico in which the INS, coordinating with the FBI, attempted to arrest a State Dept. consular officer. The State Dept. Consular Section learned of what was going on and warned the consular officer. Every embassy I've worked at in Latin America (Peru, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico) has (and still has) corrupt national and corrupt American employees. Since the State Dept. has its own law enforcement and security organization, the law-breakers are generally given a free pass. Things have not changed one bit under Bush; visas are still being sold on a daily basis.