Border Patrol Agent Arrested in Sexual Assault : Crime: Eight-year veteran of Imperial Beach station is jailed on suspicion of attacking Salvadoran immigrant.

Police arrested a U.S. Border Patrol agent Wednesday on suspicion of accosting and sexually assaulting a female Salvadoran immigrant near the border.

The crime allegedly took place shortly after dawn last Friday in a lonely area near the Tijuana River, investigators said. The distraught victim reported the assault to other Border Patrol agents, who called San Diego police.

Detectives arrested Agent Charles Vinson, 41, Wednesday afternoon at his home in suburban Chula Vista. The eight-year veteran of the Imperial Beach station, the biggest and busiest Border Patrol outpost on the Southwest border, was jailed pending arraignment on multiple charges of felony sexual assault, Capt. Tom Hall said.

Vinson’s arrest comes as the agency continues a buildup of border defenses and a simultaneous campaign to get tough on abuse and misconduct within its ranks. In October, the chief of the agency in San Diego decided to fire five agents accused of hitting an illegal immigrant on the head with a rock and covering up for one another. Earlier this year, an immigration inspector was charged with using his authority to coerce sex.

The case also raised questions about the long-discussed issues of screening, supervision and discipline of agents. “This goes again to our constant contentions that the much-touted reforms don’t amount to a whole lot,” said Claudia Smith, regional counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance. “From recruitment to training to supervision, there are still incredible deficiencies.”

The victim reportedly crossed from Tijuana alone last Friday about 6 a.m. near Dairy Mart Road, a prime illegal crossing spot, according to police and federal sources. Vinson confronted her in the brush-filled area, forced her to perform oral sex and left the scene, according to a Justice Department official.

After being released, the woman flagged down a Border Patrol vehicle, Hall said. She was very upset and almost incoherent at first, but agents called the police when she made it clear that she had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.

A Border Patrol agent who saw the victim shortly afterward described her as a woman from El Salvador in her 20s. She was not seriously injured and later helped detectives identify Vinson.

The incident underscores the vulnerability of illegal immigrants, particularly women. During recent years, Border Patrol agents in El Centro and Arizona have been charged with similar on-duty sexual crimes. And Mexican police also have been accused of extortion and abuse at the border.

The potential for crime and abuse will increase as the Border Patrol presses its strategy of pushing the flow of immigrants into more isolated areas, Smith said.

“As they force women into these very isolated areas, these kinds of worse nightmares that we have for them are bound to multiply,” Smith said.