Grassley Hearing to Focus on Corruption Threat on Southwest Border


- Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa has planned a hearing for next week to review a federal government report on the continued threat of corruption among U.S. law enforcement officers on the Mexican border.

Grassley will conduct the hearing as chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. The hearing will begin at two o'clock on Wednesday, April 21, in room 216 of the Senate Hart Office Building.

Grassley requested the report of the General Accounting Office that will be reviewed at the hearing. The GAO found that corruption is still a major threat to U.S. operations along the Southwest border.

The witnesses scheduled to testify are Customs Service Commissioner Raymond W. Kelley, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and the GAO's Associate Director for Administration of Justice Issues in the General Government Division, Richard M. Stana.

In its report, the GAO said that both the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Customs Service suffered from a lack of strong internal procedures and evaluation methods which could help root out employees who engaged in illegal activities.

Specifically, GAO found:

  • Neither the INS nor Customs had completed an evaluation of their integrity policies and procedures.
  • The lack of documentation detailing corruption cases of convicted employees also prevented the agencies from learning from pervious mistakes and taking satisfactory steps to correct internal weaknesses.
  • Inspectors for the INS and border patrol are not required to fully disclose assets.
  • In its March 1999 report, the GAO recommended that the INS and Customs:
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of integrity procedures including background investigations, reinvestigating and integrity training.
  • Begin documenting all cases of employee corruption and re-evaluate procedures used in the cases where employees were convicted.
  • Require complete financial disclosures by all employees, along with full review and prompt action by INS and Customs.

Grassley requested this GAO study after a 1997 hearing he convened to examine the threat of corruption along the border. The report - GAO/GGD-99-31 - is titled "Drug Control. INS and Customs Can Do More To Prevent Drug-Related Employee Corruption."