The top watchdog for the Homeland Security Department told a House oversight panel today that turf battles over internal corruption investigations have subsided and his agency is not backlogged with employee misconduct cases, but he deflected questions about an ongoing criminal investigation of a Texas branch office.

When Luis Alarid was a child, his mother would seat him in the car while she smuggled people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. She was the sweet-talking commuter, he was her cute boy, and the mother-son ploy regularly kept customs inspectors from peeking inside the trunk.