AZMEX SPECIAL 21 AUG 2016
Note; should not necessarily be read as an attack on sector chief Padilla, as so many on the border have similar family situations.
But it should be read as yet another indictment of the corrupt Obama regime.
thx
Border Patrol sector chief's brother is a convicted drug trafficker
KRISTIAN HERNANDEZ | STAFF WRITER 20 hrs ago (3)
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/border-patrol-sector-chief-s-brother-is-a-convicted-drug/article_7da47cf0-6744-11e6-b9be-237c6c233e8e.html
EDINBURG — Border Patrol Chief Manuel Padilla held a mugshot Thursday afternoon of his younger brother, a convicted drug trafficker born in Mexico who has been deported several times.
"Wow that's eerie," Padilla said as he looked at a recent jailhouse photo of his 45-year-old brother Miguel-Angel Padilla. "He looked a lot like me when he was young."
It's been years since Padilla, who heads the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector, has seen or heard from him, but every five years during Customs and Border Protection's internal affairs review, his brother's past comes back to haunt him.
"It's part of maintaining a security clearance; you have to report these things," Padilla said. "So he is already in my background investigations, and it comes up every five years, so it should be coming up here pretty quick."
But this time his brother's criminal past came up earlier than expected and in public. A letter dated July 26 from Ron Johnson, Wisconsin senator and chairman of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked the Department of Homeland Security and the Inspector General to investigate Padilla and his brother, who was released from prison in 2013 after serving time for drug trafficking charges.
Miguel-Angel's rap sheet dates back to 1990 in Santa Cruz, California, when he was convicted of forgery and spent two years in prison. In 1996, he pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery in Pima County and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
He was released in April 2013 and deported back to Mexico, according to Padilla, who recalled speaking to him that Thanksgiving. In December, Miguel-Angel was back in the United States attempting to smuggle about 84 pounds of marijuana past the Border Patrol checkpoint near Amado, Arizona. At the time of Miguel-Angel's arrest, Padilla was the sector chief in Tucson.
"While the Committee is not aware of any direct evidence that Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla took any action on behalf of his brother, the fact that his brother allegedly entered the country illegally during the time of Chief Patrol Agent Padilla's leadership of the Tucson Sector raises concerns," reads the letter from Sen. Johnson.
The letter also questions if Padilla had any influence on his brother's immigration status and his brother's whereabouts. Chief Padilla said the incident was thoroughly investigated when it happened and the findings showed he had no involvement or knowledge.
He said his brother, the only one of five born outside the U.S., was deported to Mexico in 2015 after he was released from prison and he never had any involvement with his immigration status. He described their relationship as non-existent.
"He is six years younger than I am," Padilla said. "When I got in the Border Patrol in Sierra Blanca, I brought him with me because he was already 14 or 15, at that age when he was getting in trouble, so I brought him with me, and he convinced my mother to take him back and the rest is history, because you can't change that."
A Delayed Response
Even though his brother's convictions are public record and his superiors in the department knew about it, many people who work close to Padilla in the Rio Grande Valley were not aware of this part of his personal life when the news first broke on Aug. 4.
"When this came out, I settled down a little bit and processed it, and I said if we get any media requests, I want to address it. I don't want to say, 'No comment,'" Padilla said Thursday, more than a week after The Monitor began requesting information from his office.
The day after the story first aired, Padilla granted two interviews to local TV stations KVEO and KGBT, but The Monitor was not allowed past the lobby when a reporter showed up to the sector headquarters the same day. Public information officer Marlene Castro came outside and said Padilla had instructed her not to accept any more interviews and that CBP would be issuing a statement.
An email from Castro dated Aug. 8 reads, "Chief Padilla is no longer doing interviews regarding this matter. CBP will be issuing a statement." The Monitor followed up every day for the next week trying to obtain the promised statement to no avail.
Monday, The Monitor reached out to local CBP spokesman Roderick Kise, who said he had no knowledge of any pending statement by CBP.
"When somebody opened this door, there was no option for anyone to tell me not to address it. Even if I would have been told to stay quiet, I wouldn't have because that was my integrity," Padilla said.
"I said, 'I'll get with ( The Monitor ) when I get back from New Orleans,' and I said, 'There is going to be a statement coming out of headquarters,' so the statement has been drafted now and I've seen the letter," Padilla said. "It's going to be a letter from Chief Morgan to all our partners saying that this was investigated back then, so that statement turned into that letter."
Padilla returned from New Orleans earlier this week and met with The Monitor for an interview on Thursday. He said he was caught off guard by the letter and hopes it doesn't get in the way of the agency's mission in the Rio Grande Valley.
He also questioned the intent and timing of the letter, which was sent days before he met with other department heads in New Orleans for a conference, attended by the newly appointed Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Mark Morgan, who also visited the Rio Grande Valley sector this week.
"If I had a curious mind, I would ask what the motive was," Padilla said.
Several attempts to reach DHS in regards to the letter or an investigation prompted by its contents went unanswered. Sen. Ron Johnson's staff did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment about the letter.
khernandez@themonitor.com
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