Cheating Down on the Border
A kickback scheme among federal agents in Arizona results in some charges--and plenty of questions
Aguilar runs an agency that is a critical component in the nation's war on terrorism, one faced with a daunting task. Among their other duties, agents must cover a 4,000-mile border with Canada and 2,000 miles along the Mexican border. It's tough work, especially on the Mexican border, dealing with illegal immigrants, drug smugglers, and potential terrorists.
Aguilar was named head of the Border Patrol in July of last year. Before that, he served as the chief patrol agent for the Tucson region, which includes the Douglas station and covers a 260-mile stretch along the U.S.-Mexico border. The kickback scheme in Douglas took place on Aguilar's watch. What happened is this: Dozens of agents detailed to Douglas to crack down on illegal immigration accepted kickbacks from some supervisors, who rented them places to stay, or from hotel or apartment owners. Some agents, detailed to Douglas, filed expense reports claiming they had paid their full $55-a-day housing allowance when they had actually paid less. Property owners furnished them with a receipt for $55 but kicked back anywhere from $8 to $15 a day, several federal investigations said.
Davenport was one of the agents assigned to work in the Douglas station. Too bad for the Border Patrol, because Davenport soon learned, he says, that some agents who were supposed to enforce the law were breaking it. The way Davenport tells it, he got his first inkling that something was wrong when he first arrived in Douglas, in October 2000. At an orientation meeting for newly detailed agents at the National Guard Armory there, he says, he was talking with Aguilar and two other managers when they were approached by two supervisors who urged Davenport to rent living quarters from yet another supervisor. "I said it was unethical for a Border Patrol agent to have business relations with a subordinate," Davenport recalled in an interview. He says nothing was mentioned about kickbacks.
Not long after, however, Davenport learned of the kickback scheme when a private homeowner who was renting a room to him left $240 of Davenport's rental payment at his office. He says [he] returned the funds to the man. Soon, he and his immediate supervisor, Forester--also outraged by the kickbacks--began collecting information on the scheme. Davenport says that another agent, Russ Jensen, who rented a house to a detailed agent, gave him a memo he had written to Aguilar complaining that the agent had demanded a kickback. Davenport turned the memo over to the Tucson office of the Justice Department's inspector general in February 2001, he said.
"Burden." In an interview, Jensen confirmed that he wrote a memo to Aguilar about the alleged kickback but said a copy of a memo in his office computer was dated May 11, 2001, which is three months after Davenport says he took the document to the Justice Department. Jensen said he isn't sure the May 11 memo is the same document he sent to Aguilar. In any event, Jensen said, he was never interviewed by federal investigators who examined the kickback allegations.
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