Southwest Border Conditions Impacting Employee Morale, Health: Report
A new report says that “intensifying conditions” at the southwest border are negatively impacting employee morale and health at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) warns that if steps are not taken, it could lead to mass turnover in both workforces.
The IG based its findings on surveys that it sent to all 57,000 law enforcement personnel at CBP and ICE. It received 9,311 responses, or 16 percent of the total workforce, and the IG cautions the results may not be representative of the entire workforce.
Border Situation Exacerbates Staffing Challenges
The report says the current situation at the southwest border is exacerbating staffing challenges, pointing out that shifts in U.S. immigration and border security polices, COVID-19, migrant surges, and other factors have greatly increased the number of migrants attempting to cross into the U.S.
DHS personnel reported 2.4 million migrant encounters in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. That number is the highest-ever and is more than double from FY 2019.
CBP officers at legal ports of entry have seen the number of vehicles and travelers rise by 36 percent from FY 2021.
ICE agents averaged 17 cases per agent with a notice to appear before an immigration judge in FY 2022. In FY 2019 that number was only seven per agent.
The report says the current way of managing law enforcement staffing is “unsustainable” due to these increased workloads. The report also faults DHS for keeping staffing levels the same and using overtime and details as temporary plugs and not analyzing the effect of such measures on the workforce.
Understaffed and Overworked
According to the report, CBP and ICE workers feel overworked and unable to perform primary law enforcement duties.
And the numbers from the survey paint a troubling picture.
About nine out of ten ICE and CBP respondents told auditors their field locations are not adequately staffed to handle periods of high migrant encounters.
Seven out of ten CBP personnel and six out of ten ICE employees say they are understaffed at regular times.
In addition, front-line personnel say deployments often force them to do “non-law enforcement work” and leave their normal duty stations understaffed.
Some even said that management obscures the reality on the ground when top officials visit.
The results come with a warning from the IG.
“Unless CBP and ICE assess and strategically change their current staffing management at the border, heavier workloads and low morale may lead to higher turnover and earlier retirements. This could worsen staffing challenges and degrade CBP and ICE’s capacity to perform their mission,” the report states.
DHS Response
DHS criticized the survey over its low response rate, saying that the survey is "generally misleading and not necessarily representative" of the workforce.
The report contained three recommendations. DHS concurred with two and did not concur with the third.
DHS did not concur with a recommendation that DHS hire a contractor to assess staffing needs and the impact of details and overtime on the workforce. The agency said it does not have the funds to do so.
DHS did concur with recommendations that CBP and ICE review whether the Biden Administration’s border policies have been successful and also communicate the expectations of those policies to front-line workers.