An officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) faces federal charges for allegedly helping a previously convicted felon and other illegal immigrants enter the country through his post at one of the international bridges in El Paso.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested Lawrence Madrid last week following an investigation into the claims made by two illegal immigrants about to be deported who said they had entered the country with the help of a CBP officer, later identified as Madrid, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed.
After arresting Madrid, HSI agents took him before U.S. Magistrate Anne Berton who formally charged him and set his bond at $20,000.
The case against Madrid began in January 2014 when HSI agents were interviewing an illegal immigrant identified in court records as MC that was about to be deported. MC was arrested in New Mexico and had been in the U.S. for about four years before his apprehension.
MC told the agents that his wife had paid a smuggler to help him cross into the U.S. in 2010 and that he had entered through the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso with the help of Madrid.
In May 2015, HSI agents interviewed a previously deported felon who told agents about how he was able to re-enter the country just days after getting deported with the help of a CBP officer.
The second man who was identified as ED told agents that on September 9, 2011, he was deported and just a week later his wife paid someone for him to be smuggled back into the U.S.
On September 23, ED went to the bridge where Madrid was working at and he helped him enter the country making it seem like if he had entered legally.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.