大象APP

Willcox border agent Bart Conrad Yager, 39, was also charged with six counts of 鈥減andering,鈥� or encouraging someone to engage in prostitution; one count of attempted child sex trafficking; and two counts of fraud, between July 2023 and March 2024 in Cochise County, indictments from the Cochise County Attorney鈥檚 Office show.

On Thursday, county prosecutors also charged Yager with five drug-related felonies: possession or use of the anabolic steroid trenbolone and testosterone; sale or transportation of trenbolone and testosterone; and possession of drug paraphernalia, all in 2025.

A CBP spokesman said the agency鈥檚 Office of Professional Responsibility arrested Yager in Willcox on June 17, and executed a search warrant based on allegations of child sex trafficking, fraudulent schemes and pandering.

鈥淐BP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the overwhelming majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe,鈥� an emailed CBP statement said. 鈥淎n arrest is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.鈥�

A decade ago, Yager was the suspect in a now-closed 大象APPrape case. But CBP never investigated the allegations against Yager, according to a CBP special agent鈥檚 statement filed in Cochise County Superior Court. The statement was first by the Herald/Review Media.

Special agent Bryin Cooper of CBP鈥檚 Office of Professional Responsibility said, in the 45-page statement, that the 大象APPPolice Department 鈥渄id not properly report鈥� the 2014 rape allegation against Yager to CBP, which is the Border Patrol鈥檚 parent agency.

But TPD disputes that. Spokesman Officer Frank Magos told the 大象APP on Thursday that 大象APPpolice reported the rape allegation to Border Patrol at the time.

CBP was unable to respond to TPD鈥檚 contention before the Star鈥檚 weekend deadline, a spokesman said.

The 2014 rape case is now closed, as the alleged victim 鈥渄id not wish to pursue the investigation鈥� after filing a police report in October 2014, TPD鈥檚 Magos said in an email.

Yager threatened the alleged victim with violence after she said she would contact police in 2014, according to text messages cited in Cooper鈥檚 probable cause statement, which details CBP鈥檚 recent investigation into Yager.

CBP鈥檚 investigation began in September 2023, looking into initial allegations that Yager misrepresented his location during work hours and fraudulently claimed travel reimbursements, according to agent Cooper鈥檚 statement.

The investigation found Yager often went home early, at times solicited sex acts for money while on duty, and got reimbursed with government funds for Pima County hotels where the sex acts took place, Cooper wrote. Between 2021 and 2024, Yager paid $42,400 in 231 transactions with women.

That includes $12,161 in 35 transactions to one sex worker who was a minor at the time, and who was previously documented as a sex trafficking victim in a Tempe police investigation, Cooper wrote. Cooper also described Yager鈥檚 interactions with underage girls in Willcox, as young as 13, some of whom expressed fear of Yager.

Yager demonstrated a pattern of workplace sexual harassment, Cooper wrote. Willcox Station Border Patrol managers were concerned about Yager鈥檚 anger, fearing he could 鈥渟nap,鈥� and nursing and contractor staff 鈥渒new him to be 鈥榗razy with a hatred towards women,鈥欌�� Cooper wrote.

Yager, who was hired by Border Patrol in 2011, is being held in Cochise County Jail.

Latest of several cases

Yager is the latest of several Arizona-based CBP employees, including border agents and a port officer in CBP鈥檚 Office of Field Operations, who have been charged with or convicted of sexual misconduct and other crimes.

Yuma Sector border agent Ramon Marquez, 31, was arrested in May and has been charged with 15 felonies, including 14 counts of sexual conduct with a 16-year-old between December 2024 and April 2025, and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, such as filming or photographing the encounter, according to a May 15 indictment in Yuma County Superior Court.

CBP port officer Aaron Thomas Mitchell, 30, was sentenced to 27 years in prison in March, after being convicted on federal charges of abducting and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old Douglas middle school student in 2022. Mitchell now faces state charges in Cochise County.

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Douglas Police Department found Mitchell approached the student as she waited for school to start, identified himself as a law enforcement officer and ordered her into his car. He then drove her to his home, where he sexually assaulted her for hours, according to a U.S. Justice Department .

In January, former 大象APPSector Border Patrol agent Efren Lopez Cornejo was sentenced to two counts of lifetime probation, but no jail time, after he accepted an October 2024 plea agreement, admitting to one count of child abuse and one count of indecent exposure.

Lopez Cornejo was initially charged with 14 felonies in 2021, including child molestation, sexual abuse of a minor and sexual conduct with a minor under 15, which allegedly took place mostly between 2011 and 2017. The two victims were family members, and one was 9 when the alleged abuse started, an interim complaint said.

Under the plea deal, overseen by Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley, Lopez Cornejo does not have to register as a sex offender.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said the plea deal came after the trial ended with a hung jury, and prosecutors decided not to pursue a second trial.

鈥淭rials can bring some measure of closure and healing,鈥� Conover said. 鈥淏ut all too often trials are another trauma鈥� for the victims.

Prosecutors pushed for prison time for Lopez Cornejo, in addition to lifetime probation, but ultimately, 鈥渋t was the judge鈥檚 decision,鈥� Conover said.

鈥楥ulture of impunity鈥�

Critics and civil rights advocates say a long-standing lack of accountability and weak oversight within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security 鈥� the parent agency of CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE 鈥� has meant agents haven鈥檛 faced consequences for abusive behavior, sexual harassment of colleagues and excessive use of force in the field.

鈥淎buse by CBP agents is not an issue of just a few rogue agents, but is a systemic problem across the agency that has existed from its very start,鈥� said Ricky Garza, border policy counsel for the Southern Border Communities Coalition, which advocates for 鈥渞ational鈥� immigration policies, humane and accountable border-enforcement practices and quality of life in border communities.

鈥淭he agency has a longstanding culture of impunity, of racism, of abuse and use of force against people in the border region,鈥� Garza said.

Former Border Patrol senior patrol agent Jenn Budd has become a vocal critic of the agency, and an immigrant-rights advocate, since she resigned in 2001. Budd told the Star she鈥檚 been tracking border agents鈥� crimes for three years, hoping to bring attention to what she calls excessive criminality at the agency, dating back decades.

Only 5% of Border Patrol agents are women, said Budd, who recounted in a 2022 memoir being raped during her Border Patrol Academy training in the 1990s, and the retaliation she experienced due to trying to report it, and due to her gender.

鈥淏order Patrol agents are taught that women lie, and that they (agents) are the victims,鈥� she said.

A 2022 from the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, found the DHS鈥檚 Office of Inspector General had systemically suppressed reports of its agents committing domestic violence and reports of sexual harassment among its employees.

In response to what he called the 鈥渄eeply concerning鈥� report, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Biden nominee, called for a 45-day review of employee misconduct discipline processes.

Based on the results, Mayorkas said in a June 2022 the department would 鈥渋mplement significant reforms to our employee misconduct discipline processes, including centralizing the decision-making process for disciplinary actions and overhauling agency policies regarding disciplinary penalties.鈥�

Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst at POGO, said there鈥檚 been scant detail on those reforms.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been hard to get insight into the details of what they were and how they鈥檙e working,鈥� she said. The OIG had previously said it would republish the reports POGO found had been suppressed.

But, Hawkins said, 鈥淣othing ever came out and it鈥檚 not listed as ongoing project anymore (at DHS), so I think it was just abandoned.鈥�

CBP was unable to respond to the Star鈥檚 Thursday questions on those reforms before deadline.

Until 2022, Border Patrol teams investigated their fellow agents following 鈥渃ritical incidents,鈥� such as use-of-force cases or in-custody deaths, in what critics called a clear conflict of interest.

Facing pressure from U.S. Congress and groups including the Southern Border Communities Coalition, CBP disbanded the controversial 鈥渃ritical incident teams鈥� in 2022, under CBP鈥檚 then-commissioner Chris Magnus, former 大象APPpolice chief.

CBP鈥檚 Office of Professional Responsibility took over investigations of critical incidents but, especially in use-of-force cases, those investigations are 鈥渟till extremely deferential to the agency,鈥� Hawkins said.

Ramped-up hiring, less oversight

Now, at a time when federal funding for immigration enforcement has surged to unprecedented levels, and as ICE and CBP thousands more agents, DHS is reducing oversight when it鈥檚 needed most, Garza said.

Under the second Trump administration, DHS has dramatically reduced staff in three oversight agencies: the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and in the independent Office of Immigration Detention Ombudsman and the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, he said.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a March statement that the offices have 鈥渙bstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles. ... Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.鈥�

Migrants are particularly vulnerable to abuse and often have little or no ability to report it, and with the gutting of DHS oversight offices, even more abuses will go unreported, advocates say.

鈥淚f the agency鈥檚 internal processes aren鈥檛 protecting their own employees, they have even less incentive to protect migrants,鈥� Hawkins said. 鈥淎lthough there are individual agents who treat people respectfully, there鈥檚 a culture of hostility and dehumanization toward migrants.鈥�