Border Patrol agents say they have “been targeted to absorb the largest share of salary cuts within the CPB “family.” Agents say that Border Patrol agents have been targeted “for $248 million in salary cuts with the looming sequestration.”
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency “the sequestration order will require CBP to make $754 million in reductions in FY13. To meet this extreme requirement, CBP will enact reductions in travel, training expenses, facilities and supplies, delay or reduce scope of certain contracts, reduce overtime for officers and agents, and implement an agency-wide hiring freeze.
In addition to these programmatic reductions, to meet the savings required by sequestration, CBP will also be required to implement an agency-wide furlough of up to fourteen (14) non-consecutive work days for each employee.”
Border Patrol agents say that “because Secretary Napolitano and others value the uninterrupted flow of traffic through the ports of entry more than they do the security of the areas between the ports” the cuts target Border patrol agents not Customs agents.
They say that the type of cuts go “hand in hand with Secretary Napolitano flying around the country telling everyone how “secure” our border is.”
Agents say that since the border is “so secure” she feels as though it’s appropriate to cut our salary and hours much more. This plays right into her role as the facilitator of more amnesty to reward all the millions of illegal aliens who are getting by us at the supposedly “secure” border.”
The agents say that they were cut out of discussions about sequestration measures. They note that they tried “numerous times to engage the agency in a dialogue about ways to save money and each time they were shut down. It’s well documented on email messages, even up to yesterday when the agency’s letter came out. The agency was extremely tight-lipped about their plans. Secretary Napolitano was even chastised during her recent congressional testimony by a liberal Democrat for not being forthcoming about DHS plans for sequestration measures.”
In a letter dated February 19, officials wrote agent representatives that the “sequestration order is due to take effect March 1, 2013 and CBP must provide notice of its intent to implement the changes to the automatic budget reductions stemming from sequestration.”