Anger grows in Congress over border agents’ case

Carolyn Hileman* | March 14, 2007

Filed Under Immigration, Liberals, Mexico

Some in House dismiss Homeland official’s apology, say punish staff for misstatementsWASHINGTON — Republican congressmen’s outrage over the imprisonment of two Border Patrol agents from Texas intensified Wednesday as the top Homeland Security investigative official apologized for his aides’ misleading statements to lawmakers about the case.

The agents, sent to federal prison for wounding a fleeing Mexican drug trafficker and hiding evidence, never told investigators that they went on patrol intending to “shoot a Mexican,” admitted Richard Skinner, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, under questioning during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.

The misstatements occurred when aides briefed four Texas congressmen in September about the 2005 shooting near Fabens, southeast of El Paso.

“It was an unfortunate mischaracterization,” Skinner told Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, whose district stretches to Harris County. “I apologize on behalf of our staff, and I just want to make perfectly clear this was not intentional.”

But McCaul and several other House members from the Houston area who are involved in the Border Patrol agents’ case said the misstatements never would have come to light had they not forced Skinner’s office to release an investigative report on the shooting.

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