More hours sought for CBP By VICTOR MORALES, Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2008 11:11 PM PDT
CALEXICO U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, some working double shifts three times per week and others maxed out on the amount of overtime allowed, could be given extra hours if a request made by their higher-ups gets approved.
The request to increase the monetary overtime cap set at $35,000 for CBP officers came from the San Diego Field Office, its director, Gurdit S. Dhillon, said Thursday.
He oversees all land ports on the California-Mexico border.
It was unclear how the overtime waiver would impact morale at the ports, where optimism remains low, according to a November 2007 General Accountability Office report.
But Calexico Port Director Billy Whitford said the cap waiver would likely improve morale by dispersing overtime duties to more officers.
“The overtime would be spread out more throughout the work force because right now many officers are restricted from being able to work overtime as a result of the policy. So the burden of overtime is on a smaller group of officers and if the cap is lifted, it will spread out throughout the work force as far as overtime,” he said.
Local and national representatives of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 22,000 CBP officers, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
But CBP officers did cite the 16-hour shifts, where they spend long stints in passenger lanes in order to keep lanes open and travelers’ times minimized, as a source of resentment, according to the GAO report.
Dhillon, interviewed after addressing the Border Ad-hoc Committee in Calexico, did not elaborate on when he filed the petition or when he anticipates getting an answer from the assistant commissioner for field operations in Washington D.C. But he said the request was among several to address staffing shortages.
“It’s been ongoing. We want to be visionary. You do it in anticipation of where you might be. So what I did was go on and ask whatever resources I might need and whatever waivers I need including the (overtime) cap waiver,” Dhillon said.
Clearly, CBP officials are struggling to fill vacancies while at the same time facing local pressure to speed up the wait times.
Unspecified numbers of CBP officers from the San Diego Field Office have begun to augment the forces in Calexico, where vacancies and high attrition rates persist, officials said. The length of their stay is indefinite, said Calexico Assistant Port Director Sergio Beltran.
There are 44 vacancies, down from 66 at the Calexico ports, and it has a 15 percent attrition rate.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management continues to list the job announcements for CBP officer as a demand and cites California as a geographic location with many openings.
To address the vacancies, local CBP officials pushed and succeeded to make Calexico ports its own geographic preference for applicants rather than listing it among the Southern California or San Diego region. It’s a measure they say will reduce attrition rates by avoiding disenchantment among recruits expecting more prosperous and climate-friendly areas. And now applicants requesting Calexico are guaranteed an expedited hiring process as a perk.
Two local and recent recruiting events yielded 441 applicants, a growing practice to entice local applicants wanting to stay in the Imperial Valley.
" hey can the border patrol work OT there?????that would be awesome!!! "
crazylegs wrote on Jul 25, 2008 10:09 AM:
" I think if we, US Citizens contribute our part by showing proper proof of Citizenship at the port of entry, CBP wouldn't be taking so much time inspecting every pedestrian and vehicles coming back to the US. I think this contributes to federal agents working double and even tripple over time! I can just imagine having to do what these folks do day in day out. A shout out to all you CBP people, even though you don't get all the love in the world, I salute you for keeping our borders secure of any foreign threat. Thank you. "
Log on
If you have an account already, just enter your Member ID and Password to access this page.
If you're new to our site, please create a new account.
Register FREE
To use certain features of ivpressonline.com, you must register FREE on the form provided. The Imperial Valley Press use of any personally identifying information you provide as part of registration is governed by the following privacy policy:
ivpressonline.com does not, and will not, release your personal information to any third party without your consent. We may, however, share some of the information we gather, in aggregate or demographic form, with advertisers and other partners. That is, we may provide general information about ways people use our site without identifying any particular individuals.
The opinions above are from readers of ivpressonline.com and in no way represent the views of the Imperial Valley Press staff or Schurz Communications Inc.
ivpressonline.com encourages readers to offer their opinions on our local stories. We ask readers keep their comments on topic and avoid derogatory comments about fellow readers. Our goal is to promote a civil discussion about the news.
We will never edit or alter comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain:
Subscribe Get the Imperial Valley Press every morning at your home or office. Start a subscription for your family, for yourself or give it to someone special. Click here.
Text Message AlertsReceive text message alerts on breaking news, latest updates, sports scores, offers and much more on your cellphone or PDA. Sign up here.
RegisterRegister free and start receiving email alerts on breaking news, a sneak preview of upcoming stories, reminders and much more. Click here to begin.
About UsWant to know more about the Imperial Valley Press? Want to contact us? Get general and contact information. Click here.
mexicanrasta wrote on Jul 25, 2008 7:20 PM: