U.S. FALTERS IN SCREENING BORDER PATROL NEAR MEXICO

Federal anticorruption investigators continue to struggle to keep up
with the screening of newly hired United States law enforcement
officers working on the Mexican border and have fallen far behind in
checking current employees as well, federal officials testified on Thursday.

The testimony came during a hearing in Washington before a
subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on rising
corruption among the ranks of federal law enforcement officers who
patrol the border and guard ports of entry.

Representatives from the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland
Security painted a grave picture of drug trafficking organizations
trying to recruit federal officers to work for them and infiltrate the ranks.

Although the vast majority of officers do not betray their jobs, the
corruption problem, said Kevin L. Perkins, an F.B.I. agent who helps
supervise corruption investigations, "is significantly pervasive."

Internal affairs officials from the Department of Homeland Security
said that the rapid post-9/11 growth of Customs and Border Protection
- -- the agency has swelled in recent years to more than 41,000
frontline border agents and officers -- has meant that not all new
hires are thoroughly vetted.

Polygraph examinations, which officials call an important tool to
help weed out bad hires, were administered to about 15 percent of
applicants by the end of 2009.

That was an increase from the 10 percent of the previous year, but
made possible only because hiring slowed for the first time in several years.

James F. Tomsheck, who is in charge of internal affairs for Customs
and Border Protection, said that about 60 percent of candidates
failed the test and were turned away, including some who officials
believed had ties to criminal organizations.

Senator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat and chairman of the
subcommittee that held the hearing, described the failure rate as
"alarming to me."

"It is to me, too, sir," Mr. Tomsheck replied.

He said the agency had 31 polygraph examiners but needed 50 more to
reach a goal of screening all new hires.

In addition, he said, the agency is far behind in conducting periodic
background checks of current law enforcement employees.

He also proposed giving periodic polygraph examinations to those
employees but said that Congressional authorization and financing
would be needed.

Mr. Pryor pledged to help, saying, "We are on very dangerous ground
here with this corruption."

The hearing was called in response to an article in The New York
Times in December about drug organizations making efforts to
infiltrate the ranks of border enforcement, said Lisa Ackerman, a
spokeswoman for Mr. Pryor.