In a previous post it was mentioned that more BP a
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Posted On: 03/17/2019 1:02:51 PM
In a previous post it was mentioned that more BP agents would be better than a wall!
Border Patrol agent shortfall
The first contact that most migrants have when arriving in the US is with Customs and Border Protection personnel -- whether at a legal port of entry or when crossing illegally.
But while the Trump administration has tried to hire more Border Patrol agents, it has fallen woefully short.
In 2017, the year Trump took office, there were 19,437 Border Patrol agents patrolling the nation's borders.
The administration wanted to hire an additional 5,000 agents on top of already-established hiring goals.
But that hasn't happened, and as of early February 2019, there were 19,443 Border Patrol agents, according to CBP data provided to the US Government Accountability Office.
Despite some recent small gains in both retention and hiring speed, Border Patrol is still nearly 7,000 agents below the target set by Trump, according to Rebecca Gambler, director of GAO's Homeland Security and Justice Team, who testified earlier this month.
High attrition, a long hiring process and competition with other law enforcement agencies are reasons CBP cited for its staffing troubles, Gambler said. Additionally, there are a limited number of qualified and interested candidates to live and work in remote locations along the borders, CBP officials say.
"While CBP has the ability to offer incentives for individuals to apply for, relocate to, or remain at these locations, incentives cannot solve basic, fundamental needs of our workforce and their families, such as readily accessible medical facilities, schools, and potable water," said CBP's Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner Carry Huffman and Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley sector chief Rodolfo Karisch in congressional testimony earlier this month.
One example is Lukeville, Arizona, an isolated outpost in a community of fewer than 50 people, which is a "particularly challenging" post to fill.
The closest school and medical clinic is 39 miles away and the nearest metropolitan area -- Phoenix -- is 150 miles away.
The groundwater in Lukeville also requires significant treatment to make it potable due to traces of arsenic, according to Huffman and Karisch.
In February, a group of 325 Central American immigrants was arrested near Lukeville after illegally entering the country and surrendering to agents.
Increasingly, CBP has been encountering large groups -- more than 100 -- of migrants crossing the southern border illegally.
Tony Reardon, National Treasury Employees Union president, whose union represents 27,000 CBP officers, agriculture specialists and trade enforcement personnel working at ports, told lawmakers earlier this month that the partial government shutdown had hurt efforts to improve retention and recruitment.
He said that the 35-day shutdown was hard on all employees, but especially so for those with the least means. He called it an "unconscionable way to treat" the agency's " dedicated employees."
"The employees I represent are frustrated and their morale is indeed low. These employees work hard and care deeply about their jobs and their country. These men and women are deserving of more staffing and resources to perform their jobs better and more efficiently," he said.
Although Customs and Border Protection for the first time in six years hired more employees than it lost to attrition, Huffman said," there is much more work to do."
"We enforce hundreds of US laws and regulations on issues from immigration to trade. This is noble and vital work, but there is one serious problem. There are not enough of us," he said during the House Homeland Security Committee hearing.
He even made a hiring pitch during the hearing.
"CBP is hiring. If you have friends, relatives or constituents of higher morale character and are looking a way to serve the greater good, there's no better organization in the federal government to do so than for US Customs and Border Protection," he said.
In December, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general found "serious performance issues" with a CBP hiring contract with Accenture. At the time of the watchdog report, Accenture had only processed two employees that accepted job offers. That number is now 56, according to John Goodman, chief executive of Accenture Federal Services.
Goodman said the report ignored the progress made but acknowledged that CBP had pressed "the pause button" on the contract to "determine how the program can move forward most effectively."
He said the most "significant challenge" the company faced was with polygraphs, calling it a "major choke point in the hiring process."
In addition to certifications and federal experience, there are training, monitoring and testing requirements that CBP uses "that makes it significantly harder to bring on new polygraphers," Goodman said.
A CBP spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said the agency is "constantly working to strengthen its hiring capabilities to ensure staffing for critical frontline operations, while maintaining our high personnel standards."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/17/politics/trump...index.html
Border Patrol agent shortfall
The first contact that most migrants have when arriving in the US is with Customs and Border Protection personnel -- whether at a legal port of entry or when crossing illegally.
But while the Trump administration has tried to hire more Border Patrol agents, it has fallen woefully short.
In 2017, the year Trump took office, there were 19,437 Border Patrol agents patrolling the nation's borders.
The administration wanted to hire an additional 5,000 agents on top of already-established hiring goals.
But that hasn't happened, and as of early February 2019, there were 19,443 Border Patrol agents, according to CBP data provided to the US Government Accountability Office.
Despite some recent small gains in both retention and hiring speed, Border Patrol is still nearly 7,000 agents below the target set by Trump, according to Rebecca Gambler, director of GAO's Homeland Security and Justice Team, who testified earlier this month.
High attrition, a long hiring process and competition with other law enforcement agencies are reasons CBP cited for its staffing troubles, Gambler said. Additionally, there are a limited number of qualified and interested candidates to live and work in remote locations along the borders, CBP officials say.
"While CBP has the ability to offer incentives for individuals to apply for, relocate to, or remain at these locations, incentives cannot solve basic, fundamental needs of our workforce and their families, such as readily accessible medical facilities, schools, and potable water," said CBP's Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner Carry Huffman and Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley sector chief Rodolfo Karisch in congressional testimony earlier this month.
One example is Lukeville, Arizona, an isolated outpost in a community of fewer than 50 people, which is a "particularly challenging" post to fill.
The closest school and medical clinic is 39 miles away and the nearest metropolitan area -- Phoenix -- is 150 miles away.
The groundwater in Lukeville also requires significant treatment to make it potable due to traces of arsenic, according to Huffman and Karisch.
In February, a group of 325 Central American immigrants was arrested near Lukeville after illegally entering the country and surrendering to agents.
Increasingly, CBP has been encountering large groups -- more than 100 -- of migrants crossing the southern border illegally.
Tony Reardon, National Treasury Employees Union president, whose union represents 27,000 CBP officers, agriculture specialists and trade enforcement personnel working at ports, told lawmakers earlier this month that the partial government shutdown had hurt efforts to improve retention and recruitment.
He said that the 35-day shutdown was hard on all employees, but especially so for those with the least means. He called it an "unconscionable way to treat" the agency's " dedicated employees."
"The employees I represent are frustrated and their morale is indeed low. These employees work hard and care deeply about their jobs and their country. These men and women are deserving of more staffing and resources to perform their jobs better and more efficiently," he said.
Although Customs and Border Protection for the first time in six years hired more employees than it lost to attrition, Huffman said," there is much more work to do."
"We enforce hundreds of US laws and regulations on issues from immigration to trade. This is noble and vital work, but there is one serious problem. There are not enough of us," he said during the House Homeland Security Committee hearing.
He even made a hiring pitch during the hearing.
"CBP is hiring. If you have friends, relatives or constituents of higher morale character and are looking a way to serve the greater good, there's no better organization in the federal government to do so than for US Customs and Border Protection," he said.
In December, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general found "serious performance issues" with a CBP hiring contract with Accenture. At the time of the watchdog report, Accenture had only processed two employees that accepted job offers. That number is now 56, according to John Goodman, chief executive of Accenture Federal Services.
Goodman said the report ignored the progress made but acknowledged that CBP had pressed "the pause button" on the contract to "determine how the program can move forward most effectively."
He said the most "significant challenge" the company faced was with polygraphs, calling it a "major choke point in the hiring process."
In addition to certifications and federal experience, there are training, monitoring and testing requirements that CBP uses "that makes it significantly harder to bring on new polygraphers," Goodman said.
A CBP spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said the agency is "constantly working to strengthen its hiring capabilities to ensure staffing for critical frontline operations, while maintaining our high personnel standards."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/17/politics/trump...index.html
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