Details to Southern Border Cause Gaps in Enforcement, Hurt Morale at U.S.-Canada Border
A new report indicates detailing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel from the U.S.-Canada border to the U.S.-Mexico border is impacting morale and retention in at least one section of the northern border. However, the border facilities inspected in New York and Vermont are still meeting National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search (TEDS).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted unannounced inspections of various border facilities as part of its congressional mandate to inspect CBP holding facilities.
The OIG inspected CBP facilities along the U.S.-Canada border in Vermont and New York in May 2022; three border patrol stations in the Swanton sector (all of Vermont and parts of New York), three ports of entry in the Office of Field Operations (OFO) Boston Field Office area of responsibility, and one in the OFO Buffalo Field Office area of responsibility.
According to the report, the facilities generally met TEDS requirements and while no migrants were in custody at the time of the inspection, the report says CBP’s “contingency plans to obtain supplies, food, and medical care in the local community were sufficient for meeting TEDS standards.”
U.S. Border Patrol Impact
OIG inspectors noted that mandatory details to the southwest border are negatively impacting the U.S. Border Patrol workforce. The report says that details in the Swanton sector “negatively affected Border Patrol’s ability to schedule staff for enforcement operations and to recruit, retain, and maintain agents’ morale on the northern border.”
The Swanton details started early in FY 2021. Agents have been sent for in-person 30-day details and have also been assigned to 60-day rotations to conduct remote or virtual immigration processing. While agents were typically given 60 days before rotations, some had to return to the southwest border sooner when agents scheduled for the detail became sick.
According to the report, Swanton sector officials say the details are causing workers to retire at the minimum age or leave to work at another agency. In addition, sector officials mentioned they had “difficulty filling positions because agents were aware their duties would include frequent details to the southwest border.” They also cited the toll frequent absences takes on agents’ families.
Swanton officials say the details are also impacting enforcement of the northern border, citing the curtailing of boat controls on the St. Lawrence River as an example. Shifts were also understaffed or not staffed at all when agents had to take emergency leave. Swanton officials blame these issues as the reason why the Swanton sector Border Patrol “was less effective at disrupting cross-border smuggling and assisting with criminal cases.”
The report found that while OFO also sent details to the Southwest border, the impact was not felt as broadly. For example, OFO details were voluntary, and officials say those details “had limited effect on northern border operations.”
Along the northern border, encounters increased after it was reopened to travel following the Covid-19 pandemic.
In FY 2022, OFO had 107,297 encounters a 409 percent increase from FY 2921, while Border Patrol had 2,238 encounters, a 244 percent increase.
And the Swanton sector accounted for 48 percent of all Border Patrol encounters along the northern border in FY 2022.
DHS OIG Warns CBP on Staffing
This comes just weeks after another DHS OIG report warned of potential mass employee and staffing turnover at both CBP and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, due to “intensifying conditions” at the southwest border. That report warned that DHS’s current way of managing law enforcement staffing is “unsustainable” due to increased workloads. It also criticized DHS for replying on details and overtime as temporary plugs and not analyzing the effects of those measures on the broader workforce.