Former ICE Agent Lands Jail Time Due To Extortion Charges

Arnaldo Echevarria was found to have extorted cash and sex from undocumented immigrants between 2012 and 2014

The word corruption has become synonymous with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents by now. The agency has come under continued scrutiny after relaxing its hiring practices after 9/11, doubling its size, and seeing most of its hire end up behind bars. In 2016, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report calling the corrupt CBP agents “a national security threat.”

However, now it is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the CBP’s sister agency, who finds itself under the magnifying glass for corruption.

Gabe Ortiz, a staff writer for Daily Kos, highlights a story from the L.A. Times regasrding the case of Arnaldo Echevarria, a former ICE agent who extorted tens of thousands of dollars from immigrants not yet in the United States.

Not only did Echevarria demand sex as part of one of his bribes, but he also lied to ICE officials by concealing the immigration status of his then girlfriend, employing her at his local business, and paying his employees to follow along with the scheme in order to avoid paperwork.

Additional coverage from this story via the Daily Kos:

Echevarria also lied to his superiors at ICE, after he claimed that his business wouldn’t conflict with his job as a federal immigration agent because he would hire only workers who had permission to work in the U.S. While this climate of lies, deception, and corruption within federal immigration agencies isn’t unique to any one administration, it is one that has recently been emboldened under Donald Trump.