Making border corruption harder

Houston Chronicle:
As the threat of internal corruption dogs the ranks of border security forces, the Obama administration is considering regularly rotating agents to other locations to distance them from the persuasive power and money of Mexico's drug cartels.
Such a decision would subject locally recruited U.S. Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers to the periodic relocations already required for agents within the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other premier federal law enforcement agencies.
"It is something we are looking at very carefully," James Tomsheck, chief of internal affairs for Customs and Border Protection, told the Houston Chronicle in an interview. "It is too early to make a (final) assessment, but we certainly believe it does have an impact."
Four CBP employees have been arrested on corruption-related charges in the last four months. Another 132 CBP employees have been arrested since 2005 as a result of investigations by Tomsheck's 214 internal affairs investigators across the country.
The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General's 213 criminal investigators have arrested 178 CBP employees across the country as well since 2003 for criminal misconduct - including 26 in the last three years on corruption-related charges.
...
Sen. John Cornyn points out that we would lose local knowledge that pays off in recognition and tips.  There is also the potential taht a shorter widown of opportunity could accelerate the corruption of agents.  The move maybe worth a try, but it can't replace improved screening, training and supervision.
 

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