Associated Press
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The U.S. border inspector who ignored a warning to stop a man who had contracted a dangerous form of tuberculosis from entering the United States has retired, officials said yesterday.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the officer no longer works at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The inspector, an 18-year veteran whose name has not been disclosed, was under investigation and on administrative leave. The inspector was criticized last week at a congressional hearing on the case of Andrew Speaker.

Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer, sparked an international scare when health officials tried to find and isolate him because he was infected with a form of tuberculosis that is highly resistant to drugs.

Speaker was on his honeymoon in Italy last month when federal health officials reached him by phone, warned him not to fly on commercial aircraft and urged him to turn himself in to health officials.

Instead, Speaker and his bride flew to Montreal, rented a car and drove across the U.S. border.

The inspector who greeted them at a crossing station in Champlain, N.Y., received a computer alert to stop Speaker, don a protective mask and alert health officials, but the Customs and Border Protection employee let the couple pass.

Speaker is now being treated at a Denver hospital.

Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner W. Ralph Basham refused to defend the officer in congressional testimony. "I've got 12 grandchildren, Congressman. I do not know any one of them that would not know what to do in that situation," Basham said.

A spokeswoman for the union representing the agency's employees did not immediately return a call seeking comment.