U.S. attorney disputes border report

SAN DIEGO – A U.S. attorney disputed a document that stated Border Patrol agents were demoralized by a lack of prosecutions of suspected immigrant smugglers, saying Monday the language reflected an individual’s opinion and was not approved for release by Border Patrol management.

The document, released last week by the office of Rep. Darrell Issa, offered a stark assessment of the Border Patrol station in El Cajon, which is responsible for guarding 13 miles of mountainous border east of San Diego.

The document said that government lawyers prosecuted only 6 percent of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers for that offense in the year ending September 2004. That led to low morale among the station’s agents, it said.

A statement released Monday by U.S. Attorney Carol Lam did not directly dispute those numbers but said the internal document had been “substantially altered and passed off as an official report.”

The office of Issa, R-Vista, said Monday night it stood by the document’s findings, which were supported in interviews with the head of the union representing Border Patrol agents.