WE MAY NOT have Chief Border Patrol Agent David Aguilar to kick around anymore.
Anonymous sources within the Border Patrol told the Weekly that Aguilar may be promoted to an executive position within the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). If and when this occurs, Aguilar will have former INS commissioner Doris Meissner to thank for the hand-up. Meissner's last day as INS commissioner was last Friday, but we are told she wired Aguilar's promotion before she left.
Since it is not clear when or if Aguilar will be leaving us, it's a little early to do a post-mortem on his 16-month tenure as the head of the patrol's Tucson Sector. Instead, the Weekly prepared a short list of issues the chief could carry back to HQ INS policy makers.
1. Incidents such as rapes, theft and drug running just might be reduced if applicants for patrol agent positions were given lie detector tests, such as those given by local law enforcement agencies throughout Southern Arizona.
2. Along that same line, background checks on agent applicants should be conducted by the FBI, not a low-bid contract agency that then turns around and sub-contracts to a regional low bidder for the final product.