A former US Border Patrol agent working at a processing center in Texas has been sentenced to 1-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to a bribery of a public official charge. Fernando Castillo, a 42-year-old former agent in El Paso, solicited a $5,000 bribe from a migrant from El Salvador and Mexico in exchange for immigration paperwork that would allow the individual to stay in the US.
Castillo made false entries in the migrant's immigration file and printed a fraudulent document. The charges of 'alien smuggling' and 'wire fraud and deprivation of right to honest services' were dismissed. Castillo entered a plea agreement in mid-January and later pleaded guilty to the bribery charge.
