Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto via AP
A former Border Patrol agent has admitted he ordered at least two female border-crossers to show him their breasts — in one case telling a woman she couldn’t enter the U.S. until she complied, according to a shocking report.
Shane Millan, 53, pleaded guilty to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law last week, admitting that he demanded multiple women lift up their shirts and expose themselves to him as he conducted virtual hearings at the Eagle Pass crossing in Texas.
Millan was based in Jefferson County, New York, but conducted interviews via webcam.
During one such interview, on Aug. 10, 2023, Millan told a woman with a 1-year-old child that he needed to see a “tattoo” on her chest, The Miami Herald reported. When she claimed she didn’t have one, he demanded she lift up her shirt to prove it and she complied.
But later in the interview, he demanded she lift up her shirt again. When she said no, Millan told her he wouldn’t sign off on her paperwork unless she agreed to show him her bare chest again.
When she did, he reportedly told her, “OK … Welcome to the USA.”
“Millan admitted that, while acting under color of law as a Border Patrol Agent, he willfully deprived multiple victims of their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York said in a statement. “He told these women that his requests were for legitimate searches incident to admission into the United States, but he knew his demands to see the victims’ breasts were for his own gratification.”
Millan also searched the internet for various Spanish translations, including phrases like, “I will need you to lift your shirt and bra also, please” and “to verify I will need you to lift your shirt, please,” the Herald reported, citing court records.
Millan will be sentenced in July. He faces up to two years in prison and a $200,000 fine.
Information about Millan’s legal representation was not immediately available.
