For more than a decade, the same government systems built to screen travelers and flag smugglers were quietly repurposed by the people who ran them — used to chase exes, hit on strangers, and settle personal scores. That's the picture painted by internal case files U.S. Customs and Border Protection released under a Freedom of Information Act request, first reported by Wired.
The records, pulled from CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, catalog close to 300 misconduct allegations stretching from 2009 through 2022 — a span long enough to show how far routine access to sensitive law-enforcement data can drift from its intended purpose.
