A U.S. Border Patrol agent will spend a year and a half in prison for trying to smuggle a female migrant from El Salvador into Texas.
This week, 42-year-old Fernando Castillo went before a U.S. District Judge in El Paso, who sentenced him to 18 months in prison. According to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, Castillo pleaded guilty in February to one count of bribery of a public official.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, Castillo had been working at a migrant processing center in El Paso when a female migrant from El Salvador, who also was a citizen from Mexico, came in. Initially, the woman was going to be removed to El Salvador. However, Castillo said he would help her and have her released to Mexico.
While the woman was in custody, Castillo drove her in a van and told her that he could get her immigration papers for $5,000. The papers would allow her to be released and allowed to stay in the country. Castillo claimed that he would give the woman a Notice to Appear document and remove her from the system so that she could stay indefinitely.
The woman initially declined and was removed to Mexico. Once in Mexico, the woman discovered that Castillo had stolen $500 from her belongings. She returned to the port of entry to tell authorities. At that point, she met with federal investigators who began to investigate Castillo, who had been trying to call the woman’s cell phone.
The agents had the woman speak with Castillo and agree to his offer of getting false documents for $5,000 while they continued the investigation. A few days later, they arrested Castillo after he logged into a computer system and made changes to the woman’s file to obtain fraudulent documents so she could enter the country.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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