A Border Patrol agent was sentenced this week to a year and a half in prison for trying to sell a free pass into the U.S. to an illegal immigrant.
Fernando Castillo was going to charge the migrant $5,000 for a fabricated immigration court summons, known as a Notice to Appear. He then altered the woman’s computer file to change her status.
Investigators said that combination of events would have meant the woman was “free to remain in the United States.”
But the migrant went to U.S. investigators after she said she found $500 missing from her property bag, and authorities were waiting for Castillo when he showed up to make the $5,000 sale of immigration papers.
“A federal officer who sells his office for personal gain shatters public trust in government officials,” said Jaime Esparza, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. “Unfortunately, Castillo’s crime unfairly tarnishes the honest officers who serve the public with dedication day in and day out.”
The incident came last June after President Biden canceled the Title 42 pandemic border expulsion power.
The illegal, who holds Mexican and Salvadoran citizenship, was being held at the border in preparation to be returned to Mexico. She’d been nabbed twice before by border agents but had no criminal charges on her record.
She said Castillo approached her and offered her “papales” for $5,000. She understood that to mean he was trying to sell her immigration papers.
He told her the papers would be in the system for only 10-12 days, then removed, but she would have a copy. Once the papers disappeared from the system she “would essentially be free to remain in the U.S.,” investigators said Castillo told the woman.
She said he also ripped open her sealed property bag and stole $500 from her. In Mexico, she realized the money was gone. She alerted U.S. border officers, who notified the FBI.
While she was speaking with authorities, Castillo was calling to try to carry out the $5,000 sale. She arranged the meetup with investigators monitoring everything. They swooped in and caught Castillo with a printed NTA for the woman in his possession.
They checked the computer system and found out he had altered her status in the file from “Voluntary return” to “Notice to Appear,” then reverted back a half hour later. Investigators figured Castillo had printed out the NTA during that time.
In a follow-up interview, investigators said, Castillo told them the NTA was an attempt to correct a wrongful return and that the woman was supposed to have been deported to El Salvador, not pushed back into Mexico.
He admitted to printing out the NTA and forging signatures of other agents.
Castillo pleaded guilty in February to a smuggling conspiracy charge.