美国国家公共电台 NPR Combating Corruption: U.S. Customs And Border Protection Seeks Deep Reform

Combating Corruption¹: U.S. Customs And Border Protection Seeks Deep Reform

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The nation's largest law enforcement agency is trying to reform itself, The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. The federal government spends more on border control and immigration enforcement than every other federal law enforcement agency combined.

Border Patrol is beset³ by complaints of bribery⁴ and excessive force within the ranks of its 56,000 agents. As NPR's John Burnett reports, there's progress. But much work remains⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: (Speaking Spanish).

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁶: A grove⁷ of salt cedars⁸ down by the Rio Grande in south Texas - a group of women and children from El Salvador fleeing gang violence has just crossed the river illegally. A Border Patrol agent follows them into the brush.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: The kids are terrified of the uniformed officer.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: A sweating mother collapses⁹ in the tall grass in 90-degree heat.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Do you want to get some water?

BURNETT: In a few minutes, a van arrives. The immigrants climb in. And they leave for the station, where they'll ask for asylum¹⁰. On this day, the agents are good guys. They're rescuers. The exhausted¹¹ immigrants are grateful.

That's not always the case. Some agents of Customs and Border Protection or CBP have darker reputations. There have been frequent arrests for corruption and harsh criticism over the use of excessive force against migrants with no consequences. An independent review panel faulted the agency for its, quote, "broken disciplinary process."

Under new leadership, CBP is trying to bring about more transparency and accountability and train its personnel to de-escalate violent encounters. Agents who work on the border everyday say it's unlike any environment in American law enforcement. A patrol boat speeds along the International River between curtains of thick Carrizo cane¹².

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Coming into the area - you guys need help?

BURNETT: Mullet flop¹³ in the muddy water. And white egrets fly ahead. Agent Omar Puente says federal officers make easy targets.

OMAR PUENTE: All kinds of people throw rocks. Even little kids still in Pampers¹⁴ - they see us, and they just lob rocks at us. And there's been areas in Weslaco where we were parked. And there would be, like - 10 guys show up to the bank, start throwing rocks. And then - the thing to do, I guess.

BURNETT: While Puente steers¹⁵, Guillermo Mata scans the riverbank, shouldering an M4 assault rifle.

Agent Mata, how has use-of-force training changed in the years that you've been in the border patrol?

GUILLERMO MATA: I guess the main goal would be to try to remove yourself from the area first. That's what - personally the change that I've seen.

BURNETT: CBP asked the respected Police Executive Research Forum¹⁶, a best-practices policy group, to look at 67 fatal shootings by border agents between 2010 and 2012. Its conclusion - some agents were firing at moving vehicles and rock throwers even though they posed no lethal¹⁷ threat.

In an attempt to reduce shootings, CBP has handed down stricter rules on use of force. The agency has created interactive¹⁸ scenarios¹⁹ like this one at the national training center in Harpers Ferry, W. Va., that mimic²⁰ confrontations²¹ with rock throwers shouting taunts²² at agents. Every sworn officer is required to go through it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED AGENT: Hands up. Drop the rock. Drop it.

(SOUNDBITE OF TASER)

BURNETT: The agent uses his Taser rather than his handgun. This type of training is an attempt to avoid incidents like the death of Sergio Hernandez Guereca. The Mexican teenager was standing²³ on the Juarez side of the international river when he was shot and killed by a federal agent who was in El Paso on the U.S. side.

The agent maintains the boy was throwing rocks, though cellphone video contradicts this account. Neither CBP nor the Justice Department decided²⁴ to take action against the officer. Guereca's mother, Maria Guadalupe Hernandez, sits in the living room of her rundown house in Juarez.

MARIA GUADALUPE HERNANDEZ: (Through interpreter) The Border Patrol has to change its policy of how they do things. My son didn't want to cross into the U.S. And when he was hit, he was hit in his back. I can't believe that this is allowed to happen - that a border patrol agent is allowed to kill someone on the Mexican side, and nothing happens.

BURNETT: The Supreme²⁵ Court will now decide whether Guereca's parents have a constitutional right to sue the federal officer in civil court. CBP has still not publicly explained this or other high-profile cross-border shootings that happened in the past. But the agency has made important changes going forward.

It now publishes data on use-of-force incidents. And it's encouraging. Since 2013, use of firearms has fallen 42 percent. And use of less lethal devices like Tasers and pepper balls has declined 38 percent. CBP created a new national use-of-force review board. So far, it has absolved²⁶ agents in all four shooting incidents that it's investigated.

And notably²⁷, the agency took the unprecedented²⁸ step of appointing an outsider, Assistant FBI Director Mark Morgan, to lead the Border Patrol, believing that real reform would not come from within.

JIM TOMSHECK: I think there's been some progress but not enough.

BURNETT: Jim Tomsheck headed up CBP Internal Affairs for eight years. The challenge, he says, is how to change the culture of an agency that believes deeply in its own exceptionalism.

TOMSHECK: In the 40 years I spent practicing law enforcement in three different agencies, it was my experience that the U.S. Border Patrol had a identity and a culture that was very different from the rest of U.S. law enforcement - that they were an agency that had not always been held accountable.

BURNETT: The Border Patrol traces some of its problems to the mandate²⁹ to double its size under President George W. Bush. Tomsheck says some agents were hired that never should've pinned on a badge.

Internal CBP records show that, on average, more than one agent has been arrested every month for the past 11 years, frequently for drug or human trafficking. That's a vastly higher rate than other federal police forces. CBP has tried to root out bad agents through aggressive polygraphing. But the Border Patrol union has resisted. Again, Jim Tomsheck.

TOMSHECK: We came to clearly understand that many of those persons who sought out positions with the Border Patrol and field operations were doing so solely³⁰ for the purpose of seeking out criminal opportunities and profit.

(SOUNDBITE OF SEAGULLS)

BURNETT: South Padre is a popular barrier island on the lower Texas coast. It's dotted with cantinas and high-rise condos. This is where CBP is confronting what may be the latest lurid³¹ example of corruption in its ranks.

Last year, anglers out for redfish made a grisly discovery. They spotted³² the nude³³, headless body of a suspected drug smuggler³⁴ floating in the bay. The investigation³⁵ led to a safe owned by a Border Patrol agent. He has since been charged with capital murder. And inside that safe...

GUSTAVO GARZA: There was approximately a kilo of cocaine³⁶, $90,000 in cash. There's a ledger³⁷ that included the sale price for different quantities of cocaine.

BURNETT: And what else was in the safe?

GARZA: Border Patrol badge - commemorative badge belonging to Joel Luna and documents and records.

BURNETT: Gustavo Garza is the assistant district attorney in Cameron County. He's prosecuting³⁸ five men for capital murder in the gruesome case. Among them - border patrol Agent Joel Luna and his two brothers. Agent Luna has pleaded not guilty. The Luna case is a black eye for every officer on the force, says Harlingen agent-in-charge Henry Leo.

HENRY LEO: We don't want the public's confidence to be, you know, diminished, you know, if they see us, and they see Luna, right? But the good thing is I think we police each other. Like, in some of the cases that I know about personally, it's been other agents that report it and take the lead in bringing this person down.

BURNETT: CBP critics welcome the changes. And they want more. They point to highway checkpoints where motorists complain of racial profiling and ports of entry where agents are accused of roughing up people who cross. For U.S. Customs and Border Protection, deep reform is a work in progress. John Burnett, NPR News.

1 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 beset   

v.镶嵌；困扰，包围

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• The plan was beset with difficulties from the beginning.这项计划自开始就困难重重。

4 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

8 cedars   

雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The old cedars were badly damaged in the storm. 风暴严重损害了古老的雪松。
• Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. 1黎巴嫩哪，开开你的门，任火烧灭你的香柏树。

9 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

10 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

11 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

12 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

13 flop   

n.失败(者)，扑通一声；vi.笨重地行动，沉重地落下

参考例句：

• The fish gave a flop and landed back in the water.鱼扑通一声又跳回水里。
• The marketing campaign was a flop.The product didn't sell.市场宣传彻底失败，产品卖不出去。

14 pampers   

v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The biggest is Pampers nappies, which collected more than $7 billion last year. 最大的是帮宝适(Pampers)纸尿裤，去年收获超过70亿美元。 来自互联网
• She pampers her own spoiled children and brings Jane up as little better than a servant. 她对她那些被宠坏了的孩子娇生惯养，但对简则有如对待佣仆。 来自辞典例句

15 steers   

n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• This car steers easily. 这部车子易于驾驶。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Good fodder fleshed the steers up. 优质饲料使菜牛长肉。 来自辞典例句

16 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

17 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

18 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

19 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

20 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

21 confrontations   

n.对抗，对抗的事物( confrontation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At times, this potential has escalated into actual confrontations. 有时，这一矛盾升级为实际的对抗。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• These confrontations and uncertainties were bing played out for the first time on a global scale. 所有这一切对抗和不稳定，第一次在全球范围内得到充分的表演。 来自辞典例句

22 taunts   

嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He had to endure the racist taunts of the crowd. 他不得不忍受那群人种族歧视的奚落。
• He had to endure the taunts of his successful rival. 他不得不忍受成功了的对手的讥笑。

23 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

24 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

25 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

26 absolved   

宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责）

参考例句：

• The court absolved him of all responsibility for the accident. 法院宣告他对该事故不负任何责任。
• The court absolved him of guilt in her death. 法庭赦免了他在她的死亡中所犯的罪。

27 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

28 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

29 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

30 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

31 lurid   

adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的

参考例句：

• The paper gave all the lurid details of the murder.这份报纸对这起凶杀案耸人听闻的细节描写得淋漓尽致。
• The lurid sunset puts a red light on their faces.血红一般的夕阳映红了他们的脸。

32 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

33 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

34 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

35 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

36 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

37 ledger   

n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿

参考例句：

• The young man bowed his head and bent over his ledger again.那个年轻人点头应诺，然后又埋头写起分类帐。
• She is a real accountant who even keeps a detailed household ledger.她不愧是搞财务的，家庭分类账记得清楚详细。

38 prosecuting   

检举、告发某人( prosecute的现在分词 )； 对某人提起公诉； 继续从事（某事物）； 担任控方律师

参考例句：

• The witness was cross-examined by the prosecuting counsel. 证人接受控方律师的盘问。
• Every point made by the prosecuting attorney was telling. 检查官提出的每一点都是有力的。