Congress Lowers Hiring Standards for Corruption and Abuse Plagued Border Patrol

The House of Representatives passed The Anti-Border Corruption Reauthorization Act  (H.R.2213) on Wednesday evening. The measure—which passed the House by a vote of 282-137, which includes 51 yes votes from Democrats and no opposition from Republicans—is designed to weaken Customs and Border Protection hiring standards by exempting some applicants from polygraph testing before being hired.  Unfortunately the bill will do nothing to ensure good hiring practices by the Border Patrol which has a history of staffing issues related to corruption, excessive use of force, and abuse. These same problems prompted Congress to pass the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010, which required additional hiring measures including mandatory polygraph testing. This bill will now moves over to the Senate, where the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee passed a similar bill out of committee last month.