DHS-ICE: Abuse of Power at the Office of Professional Responsibility

I posted this story on February 1, 2007 after the U.S. Congress failed to take any actions in this matter.

This story deals with the Legacy U.S. Customs Service’s (Customs) Offices of Investigations (OI) and Internal Affairs (OIA) and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Offices of Investigations (OI) and Professional Responsibility (OPR). The reader may wonder why I keep writing about this agency. This agency was part of my life from 1988 until I retired on October 3, 2006.

I am also posting a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report titled "Homeland Security: Better Management Practices Could Enhance DHS's Ability to Allocate Investigative Resources," where GAO mentions that ICE special agents when conducting certain immigration duties, are actually conducting non GS-1811 criminal investigative work.

I am sure the new U.S. Congress will be having some oversight hearings on the issues I am reporting on this story.

Let’s keep remembering one thing: no one is above the law – two names come to mind: Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

The crude reality is that if the Legacy US Customs or ICE OI and IA management wanted that an employee be investigated, all they had to do was to fax a memo or just call IA or the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and ask that an employee be immediately investigated.

The same goes when you write to your local U.S. Senator or House of Representative. They will just forward your complaint to your employer and chances are the allegations filed against a member of management would end up in the trash can but you the reporting employee suddenly would start experiencing a series of retaliatory actions by the supervisors or managers you reported.

To bring you up to date, I filed what is considered now the largest class action lawsuit of discrimination against a major federal law enforcement agency on behalf of a group of Legacy Customs Hispanic special agents in 1995. The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Court, DC before the Honorable Judge James Robertson but, now individual EEO lawsuits cas ne filed by former members of the class.

Since 1992, the Legacy Customs OI and OIA and later ICE OI and OPR attempted to fire me for a number of petty administrative offenses. I will refer them mistakes and/or errors that any non-supervisory special agent, supervisor or manager make in any law enforcement agency.

On this story I will be "boasting" that what I did was only necessary to defend myself from a zealot bunch of Customs and ICE high ranking officials who wanted to destroy my federal law enforcement career and pension for having filed my class action lawsuit. Like the Apostle Paul, I fought a good fight and won the race.

"Boasting" if taken in a different context, it could mean that the writer wants to glorify oneself in speech; talk in a self-admiring way, to speak of with excessive pride, or to speak about oneself with excessive pride.

It is worth mentioning that the Apostle Paul’s when wrote 2 Corinthians uses the word "boasting" 29 times "in the right way and context" to justify his Christian faith and his right to defend himself from all charges brought against him by his persecutors who wanted to kill him for preaching the Good News and for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will boast that most of the Customs officials who had some involvement with me in any personnel action matters or who initiated disciplinary and/or adverse action against me became themselves subjects of disciplinary or adverse personnel actions themselves.

Homer Williams, the Assistant Commissioner for Customs IA was indicted, arrested, and found non-guilty in a criminal jury trial. However, he allegedly was subsequently fired.

Thomas P. Rybczyk, the SAC for Customs IA and my former firs line supervisor, was forced out into retirement in lieu of getting indicted along with Homer Williams.

James "Breck" Ellis, the RAC for Customs IA Tucson, was forced out into retirement.

John Rabeler, an Associate SAC OI, Arizona District was forced out into retirement.

Loraine E. Brown, the ICE-SAC (OI) for Los Angeles, CA who at one time was my second-level supervisor was forced out into retirement.

Steven D. Arizaga, the RAC for Customs OI, Yuma, AZ was forced out into retirement.

Steve Minas, the SAC for Customs OI, Arizona District was demoted to an Associate SAC. He is now retired.

Dyann E. Medina, Office of Chief Counsel, Tucson, Arizona resigned from her position after several years of working for Customs as a legal consul.

Mike Turner, the SAC ICE (OI) Arizona District resigned after allegedly a long successful career with Customs and ICE.

Ronald Wood, an agent I hired to be a Customs IA agent GS-1811-13, resigned or retired as an Assistant SAC GS-1811-15.

Kenneth Cates, the SAC ICE (OI) Dallas, TX wax forced out into retirement.

The "Jury" is out on current ICE employees (some of them may have retired already) John P. Clark, Marcy Forman, Donald K. Shruhan, Traci Lembke, Roberto Medina, Richard Bailey, Mike Strom, Kyle "Bully" Barnette, Keith Perniciaro, Vincent Iglio, Kevin Evans, Kevin Jeter, Miguel Unzueta, Eric Peterson, Bruce Durbin, Charles Mazon, Matthew Issman and several others. For this group, our government system of justice soon or later will caught up with them, or some of them would "fall from grace" or end-up just like Frank Figueroa, getting arrested for some type of criminal activity. The one that was asked to resign such as Raymond Kelly, and others that retired such as Samuel Banks, Charles Winwood, Richard Hoglund, Bill Keefer, Joe Weber, Steve Arizaga, Thomas P. Rybczyk, Loraine E. Brown, Ron Wood and several others. I believe they will receive a different kind of justice.

If you are a Christian you understand what kind of justice they will receive.

As a true Christian I believe that soon or later we pay for our misdeeds and wrongdoings in this world or in the other…..wonder if I will ever meet Bonni Tischler – If I don’t, this means I am in the right place in heaven.

I want to make sure that the above referenced individuals know that the only reason I am listing their names in this story is to show how our federal internal affairs agencies selectively pick and select who they are going to investigate.

These individuals were mentioned in complaints I filed with different federal "watch-dog" agencies, but it is very hard for an agency to investigate a manager who is above the grade GS-15 or someone in the Senior Executive Services series.

Such was the case when I asked Richard Bailey to review my allegations against Arizaga, Strom and Evans without any success.

I am still a firm believer that "what goes around comes around" - This is an incentive for all those Legacy U.S. Customs and ICE employees whose justice have been denied.

I have already forgiven what all of the above referenced individuals did to me.

My boasting is that when I filed my class action lawsuit of discrimination against the Legacy U.S. Customs in 1995, I did it not for Miguel Contreras, but for the benefit of all former, current and future Hispanic special agents.

In 1995, I used almost $10,000 out of my own pocket to pay a law firm to get my class action certified at the EEOC.

I knew also the price I was to pay in the years ahead.

Now, let’s get down to business where the rubber meets the road.

In January 2002, I went to China for a two week personal vacation. When I returned to the USA, I became sick.

In February 2002, I sought medical help from my private medical doctor and he requested that I stay home for two weeks.

Subsequently, a limited fitness for duty medical examination was requested from my doctor and he returned me to work with no restrictions at all and to full law enforcement duties. Customs (OI) took me back.

Subsequently after I returned back to work I filed a worker’s compensation (OWCP) claim (CA-2). My claim was accepted but the OWCP needed additional information.

On May 15, 2002, I sent Mark Head, a Claims Examiner, ESA-OWCP. US Department of Labor, information he had previously requested from me regarding my worker's compensation claim (CA-2).

Head specifically requested information supporting my claim that the hostile working environment had caused me my medical condition.

I claimed among other things that my depression was caused by the hostile working environment of which I had been subjected.

The claim contained names of current and former Customs employees and other individuals who have or may have witnessed some of the allegations mentioned in this claim.

I was asked if I was taking medication concerning my illness, I answered that I had been prescribed antidepressants. Subsequently, my worker’s compensation claim was denied.

I did not appeal the denial because I already had two legal matters pending regarding discrimination and retaliation with two other federal administrative agencies.

The May 15, 2002 OWCP report submitted, contained detail acts of corruption, criminal and administrative activity by several Customs OI managers and supervisors.

The report was sent to the US Department of Labor’s Office of Workers Compensation through my immediate supervisor Kevin Evans, by following standards agency's OWCP protocols.

I asked Evans to submit a copy to the Tucson IA office. In this report, I alleged that Steven D. Arizaga, Mike Strom, Kevin Evans, Kyle Barnette and other Customs officials had caused me the depression, stress, and my abuse of alcohol due to the extreme micromanaging.

Further, I reported incidents of retaliation, harassment, and hostile working environment by Arizaga, Strom, and Evans.

In addition, I reported criminal misconduct by Arizaga and Strom. These allegations were referred to the Office of Internal Affairs in Tucson, AZ.

I assumed Kevin Evans disclosed my worker’s compensation claim to Arizaga - thus, Arizaga, after reading the Worker’s Compensation report knew that I had filed reports with Customs IA and the Treasury’s OIG against him, Strom, Barnette, Evans, and other Tucson, Arizona Customs OI management officials.

On May 16, 2002, the agency immediately retaliated. I was suspended and sent home from the Legacy U.S. Customs and never went back to work. The players: Steve Arizaga, Mike Strom, Kevin Evans, Kyle "Bully" Barnette, Steve Minas, Dyann Medina and an LER specialist.

As a former Resident Agent in Charge for Customs’ internal affairs, I had experience in the area of subordinates submitting OWCP reports directly to my supervisors without my involvement in the review process of the report due to the allegations of misconduct.

This practice had been approved by Customs IA upper management, where I was allegedly the supervisor who caused my employee the alleged "emotional distress."

As a manager and supervisor, dealing with these types of scenarios is part of the job of being a supervisor. Employees, sometimes, file frivolous allegations so the agency is stuck with some hospital and medical bills.

When an allegation was filed against me such as an OWCP claim, I always recused myself from the review process to give my employee to freely write any allegations against me.

Whe I filed my OWCP report through supervisory channels, I warned and cautioned Kevin Evans about disclosing sensitive internal affairs information to the alleged suspects, in this case Arizaga and Strom.

Evans, a former IA GS-13 special agent knew the IA non-disclosures agency’s policy.

Evans was also a very new first line supervisor who apparently not only lacked knowledge of internal affairs’ policies and procedures, but supervisory skills. Yet, he disregarded my warnings and decided to disclosed my OWCP report to Arizaga and Strom.

Evans committed a serious "administrative ethic violation" that required a formal IA investigation for "unauthorized disclosure of law enforcement information (corruption) to the alleged suspects. In 1999, Lregacy Customs attempted to fire me for a similar offense.

For example, among the acts I reported involved Kyle "Bully" Barnett, Associate Special Agent in Charge. I reported that he had committed prohibited personnel actions when he defamed my name and obstructed my promotion job opportunities when I applied for a supervisory position with an Office of Inspector General.

Barnett admitted to her supervisor Awilda Villafane, "to taking care" of my chances of getting hired when he was contacted by an OIG management official conducting employment reference inquiries.

I also reported a felony trespass incident involving my then immediate supervisor Michael Strom when he admitted to me that he looked inside my residence through a garage door window, which was 7 feet high.

He is a former Yuma Police officer and knew that his actions were of criminal in nature, although no sign was posted in my property.

I reported this crime with the Yuma Police Department but I was told that this incident would be better addressed by Customs.

However, Strom learned about this report when I submitted my OWCP detailed report on May 15, 2002 which was reviewed by my new supervisor Kevin Evans.

I also reported the misuse of a government-owned aircraft by Arizaga, and Strom, when they authorized agents Phil Coffeen and another agent to fly to the Safford, AZ Federal Institution to interview an inmate.

Keefer advised me that he had forwarded my allegation to the OIG because agent Coffeen was in internal affairs.

I know the Treasury OIG declined operational interest on the misuse of a Customs aircraft and referred the allegation back to Customs IA who in turn referred back to Customs OI as an "administrative Inquiry."

This inquired consisted of calling the air-branch managers involved in the incident and obtaining their telephonic explanation that the aircraft had been deployed to fulfill a "Customs enforcement action" – case closed.

I also reported Steven D. Arizaga and Michael J. Strom for stealing plants from Bureau of Land Management property.

A US Border Patrol agent intercepted the two when they were loading up their government-owned pick-up truck with the plants.

The Border patrol agent wrote and submitted a memorandum through channels to Customs.

Because no action was taken against Arizaga and Strom, I reported the same incident to William Keefer. I don’t know if there was an investigation conducted since I was not contacted by the OIG or any other internal affairs unit, regarding this allegation.

On May 16, 2002 I was suspended and placed on administrative leave with pay. Kevin Evans and Steven Arizaga confiscated my badge credentials, gun, and government-owned vehicle. Further a fitness for duty medical examination was initiated to determine if I was fit to be a law enforcement officer.

On the same day, I contacted Richard Bailey, by phone, who was the Resident Agent in Charge for Customs IA in charge of all Customs offices in the entire state of Arizona to report the unauthorized disclosure of IA information by Evans and the ensuing retaliation by Arizaga by having read my report.

During our conversation, Bailey got himself special agent Donald M. Lorentz to witness and listen to our conversation.

In summary the reason I called was to make sure he got a copy of my OWCP report. He admitted that he got his copy.

Bailey worked under my supervision with the Office of Internal Affairs, and I asked and pleaded with him to look into my allegation of unauthorized disclosures by Evans.

I don’t know what Bailey did with my allegation since I was never contacted by Customs’ IA or the Treasury’s OIG.

I can assure you that if Customs OI and IA decided not to do anything with my allegations, this would not surprise me. This is one of the reason I became a prolific writer with Narco News with regards to corruption at Legacy Customs and ICE’s OI and IA.

It is like the old saying: when a lion is wounded, weak and down, he becomes a prey and a meal beacuse he cannot defend himself. This is how I felt from 1995 until my retirment on October 3, 2006.

I want to thank Awilda Villafane for calling me to apologize for allowing his subordinates to attack me.

She is the only person who I believe that was brave enough to admit her mistakes to me and to ask for forgiveness.

Of course, I forgive her and wish Awilda the best and pray that she finds closure some day and forgive all those who wronged her at Customs.

The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct involving employees of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Some non-U.S. citizens detained by the government for violating immigration laws are kept in rat-infested, cramped detention centers, fed noxious food and denied basic hygiene items such as clean socks and underpants.

Those are the findings of a new study from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency's internal watchdog.

The report found that the agency violated the government's own guidelines on the treatment of immigrant detainees in jails and prisons.

Christina Deconcini helped write the Justice Department's official guidelines for the treatment of immigrant detainees in the 1990s.

She says the average U.S. citizen would be appalled by the allegations in the report and failure to respond to grievances which it documents.

2006 First Annual Report of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This agency was created on March 1, 2003. It took almost three years to submit its first report.

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil.

For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.

But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.

The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.

But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.

Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.

The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever.

In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

But the wicked will perish: The LORD's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish-vanish like smoke.

The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously; those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be cut off.

If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.

Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.

For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off; the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.

The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip.

The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, seeking their very lives; but the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned when brought to trial.

Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil, but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found.

But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off.

The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.

Reference

GAO Report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06462t.pdf