Federal prosecutors have indicted a Border Patrol agent in connection with a human-smuggling operation that jammed illegal aliens into stash houses in south Texas.
Border agents raided the houses in early May; an indictment of the unnamed agent followed a week or so later.
The arrest is the second of a crooked agent since February. On May 14, another agent pleaded guilty to sneaking an illegal into the country to serve as her nanny.
The question in the latest case is how many illegals the agent smuggled in before he was caught.
180 Stashed
The trouble for the agent began when his colleagues raided the three stash houses on May 4.
“Within hours of each other on May 4, Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents and law enforcement partners shut down three stash houses and apprehended over 180 undocumented individuals throughout the City of Laredo,” CBP reported.
The first stash house was packed with 68 illegals. The second housed 50. Agents found 65 in the third. All the illegals were Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans.
“Stash houses continue to be a threat to national security and to the citizens of our nation not only because of their use by criminal organizations but they are also a danger to the people they exploit by concealing them in dilapidated close quarters such as these,” CBP said. “All of the people rescued from these Stash Houses were being held against their will.”
CBP provided a statement that didn’t include much detail about the agent or how the agency discovered his ruse.
“Laredo Sector Border Patrol Agent was arrested in Laredo, Texas, on May 21, after being indicted by a grand jury,” the agency reported. Authorities charged the agents, who joined CBP in 2008, with multiple felonies for “transporting undocumented individuals for private gain.”
CBP has been raiding stash houses with great frequency since the Biden Rush to the border began. On Monday, agents in the Rio Grande Valley Border Sector raided two houses packed with 98 illegals. One of them held 82. Last week, they raided four houses jammed with 21, 27, 45, and 69 illegals. Total catch: 162.
Guilty Plea
On August 9, a judge will sentence former agent Rhonda Lee Walker, who pleaded guilty to bringing in the illegal-alien nanny.
“Walker used her official position to assist a foreign national into the country,” the criminal complaint said:
Walker improperly used another officer’s computer login information to help the Mexican woman to enter the United States through the Laredo Port of Entry. The woman allegedly had no legal status to reside or work in the United States. However, Walker intended for the woman to illegally enter the country and work for her as a housekeeper and nanny, according to the complaint. The charges also allege she had sent money to the woman in Mexico to facilitate her arrival.
Walker also lied to authorities when she told them the woman was her aunt. She also denied sending money to the woman and falsely claimed the woman was her aunt.
In exchange for the plea, the Associated Press reported that prosecutors dropped the felony counts of illegally transporting the woman and lying about her crimes.
Walker could land in prison for 10 years.
Authorities arrested Walker after “CBP received an anonymous tip saying that Walker had employed a Mexican citizen with a B1/B2 visa as a nanny and housekeeper at her home in violation of law and agency policy,” the Laredo Morning Times reported.
Late last year, a border agent landed in prison for drug trafficking and threatening a colleague.
H/T: Daily Mail
