ICE Agent Andrew Pleviak Charged For Sending Police Documents To News Anchor

Andrew J. Pleviak, Immigration and Custom Enforcement officer (ICE) is now facing federal charges for sending sensitive police documents and sexually explicit texts to a Kansas news anchor.

ABC affiliate KAKE-TV news anchor Deb Farris said Tuesday that Pleviak came to her as a source offering information on future stories, Fox News reported.

Farris was alarmed when the texts that should have explicitly contained information related to the stories turned inappropriate. She then contacted Wichita police. The police, concerned for her safety, advised her to file a report and install security cameras. She later agreed to be interviewed by the police.

The stories provided by the agent were never aired by the editor of KAKE News Anthony Maisel, due to his concern for Farris' Safety. Maisel believed the station needed to look after the welfare of the reporter in case the source becomes unstable.

"There is a difference between being a source and providing information for the good of the public and for a source to go off the rails and become a threat," Maisel said.

According to Homeland Security Investigations Agent Brian Beach, Pleviak provided Farris with copies of murder suspects' computerized criminal history with regards to cases under investigation involving illegal immigrants.

"We never used a single thing he gave — nothing was really relevant," Farris said.

According to an affidavit, in March 2017 the Wichita Police Department interviewed Farris and acquired 183 screen shots of text messages supposedly sent by the ICE agent in order to gather evidence of the crime.

The probable-cause affidavit was made available to the public Monday after authorities filed a search warrant and sent it to Apple to access Pleviak’s text messages through his iCloud storage account. The account allegedly contained deleted messages from his government issued phone.

Pleviak was indicted in June on two counts of exceeding authorized access to a government computer and one count of destruction of records in a federal investigation. It is unclear whether the police are still investigating the harassment charges. He was jailed for violating his bond conditions and will face a hearing on Feb. 5.

ICE, in a statement emailed to the Associated Press, said all Department Of Homeland Security Employees are held "to the highest standards of behavior and ethics."

ICE faced severe criticism for the deportation of immigrants who’ve lived in the country for decades. Jorge Garcia, a man who lived in the U.S. for 30 years was deported to Mexico, sparking national attention. Garcia, a father of two lived in the U.S since 1989. He struggled in vain for years to become an American citizen.

The ICE office defended their stance saying they had previously exercised prosecution discretion in allowing him to remain in the country. However, the discretion ended in November.