Secretary Mayorkas Announces Reforms to Employee Misconduct Discipline Process

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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced last week reforms to disciplinary processes for handling department employee. The reforms are the result of a 45-day review led by the department’s General Counsel Jonathan Meyer.

“Based on the results of that review, I have directed the department to implement significant reforms to our employee misconduct discipline processes, including centralizing the decision-making process for disciplinary actions and overhauling agency policies regarding disciplinary penalties,” Security Mayorkas stated. “Reforming our policies regarding disciplinary penalties, including by providing more specific guidance, will promote accountability and ensure consequences are consistent and appropriate based on the severity of the misconduct.”

The Secretary ordered the internal review after the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) published an investigation in April alleging the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at DHS delayed and suppressed reports about sexual assault and domestic violence.

POGO released previously unpublished reports from the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) indicating more than 10,000 employees from the four law enforcement components were subjected to sexual harassment or misconduct in the workplace. POGO alleged the reports were deliberately left unreleased by the OIG.

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee respectively, responded to the POGO report with several inquiries to DHS Inspector General (IG) Joseph Cuffari.

IG Cuffari contested the claim that the OIG suppressed the report in a response letter to the Senators. Answering directly to the unpublished reports on sexual misconduct and harassment, IG Cuffari claimed the reports were not released because they failed to meet government quality standards.

 “[T]he report has been plagued by problems from the outset. The first problem was the failure of senior DHS OIG officials who preceded me to appreciate the significance of the survey results they received nearly four years ago and their choice to withhold information about the survey from me. The second problem was the intransigence of some inspectors, who refused to accept the input of subject matter experts. These problems caused serious delays,” IG Cuffari stated. “Any suggestion that I demanded changes to the draft reports for improper purposes is false as is the suggestion that I suppressed evidence of widespread sexual harassment in DHS law enforcement components.”

Further, IG Cuffari announced a fast-tracked survey on the topic would occur in Fiscal Year 2023.

According to the DHS release announcing new disciplinary processes, when Secretary Mayorkas became aware of the unpublished reports in April 2022 and the OIG’s alleged role in suppressing the reports, he immediately launched a review into department-wide employee misconduct discipline processes. The resulting disciplinary process reforms create a dedicated group of trained individuals, who are not an employees’ immediate supervisor, to review allegations of serious misconduct at each DHS component.

The department also plans to provide more specific guidance to “promote accountability and ensure consequences are consistent and appropriate based on the severity of the misconduct.”

“This important work is already underway and, as it proceeds through the coming months, DHS will continue to engage with the labor organizations representing our employees to ensure the continued protection of employees’ due process rights,” Secretary Mayorkas said.

In a statement, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) welcomed Secretary Mayorkas’ announcement of new misconduct policies. Nevertheless, she pointed to the committee’s 2021 investigation into the department’s handling of 60 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees involved in an offensive Facebook group disparaging migrants and lawmakers.

“[This] investigation into Border Patrol agents’ misconduct in secret Facebook groups revealed a broken process that lacked accountability and put migrants at risk,” Rep. Maloney said. “The department’s announcement takes steps to correct failures uncovered by the Committee, and I applaud Secretary Mayorkas for his efforts to reform CBP’s deeply flawed disciplinary process.”