Andrew Meehan, the assistant commissioner for public affairs at the Border Patrol, said the agency was fully cooperating with investigators in the case. Two years ago, a senior Border Patrol agent stationed farther north up the border in Del Rio, Tex., was taken into custody and charged with distributing child pornography and attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. Federal prosecutors said the agent, Salvador Contreras, 50, sent child-porn images to an undercover agent whom Mr. Contreras believed was the mother of 8-year-old and 14-year-old girls. In another case, from 2014, a Border Patrol agent in Texas kidnapped, attacked and sexually assaulted three undocumented immigrants: a woman and two teenage girls from Honduras. In its most recent report in 2016, the agency showed that from October 2014 to September 2015 there were 52 allegations of sexual abuse and sexual assault by Customs and Border Protection employees, including Border Patrol agents.

Source: New York Times September 15, 2018 22:07 UTC