AFGE DENOUNCES SINGLING OUT OF BORDER
PATROL FOR LARGEST SEQUESTRATION HIT
Union says DHS decision will have dire consequences for border security
Union says DHS decision will have dire consequences for border security
WASHINGTON—J. David Cox Sr.,
national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, today
issued the following statement on sequestration’s impact on border security:
“On Friday, March 1,
hours after he signed the sequester order, President Obama tried to describe to
the press the impact of sequester on federal employees, active duty military and
their families. He referred to ‘Border Patrol agents in the hot sun getting a 10
percent pay cut…’
“Just as ‘the hot sun’
is hardly the biggest risk Border Patrol agents take while performing their
duties, the 10 percent pay cut to which the president referred is only a small
portion of the economic pain the Department of Homeland Security has in store
for them. In fact, DHS has singled out Border Patrol agents to receive by far
the largest financial penalty of any other group of federal workers. The plan
DHS has chosen for Border Patrol agents will mean a 35 percent decline in their
paychecks for the rest of the fiscal year and beyond.
“Border Patrol agents
have been singled out to lose 75 percent more of their paychecks than even
civilian Department of Defense workers who face 22 days without pay (for a 20
percent pay cut). Secretary Napolitano has announced that she intends not only
to furlough Border Patrol agents for 14 days, but also to impose a total
moratorium on routine overtime pay. Together these policies will reduce the
paycheck of a typical Border Patrol agent by 35 percent. Even within their own
agency, these cuts stand out for lopsidedness and severity. For example,
officers who police the ports and provide customs enforcement will be furloughed
14 days but retain overtime; there is every reason to believe that they will
make up wages lost to furlough with compensatory overtime so that cargo and
passengers will continue to move through ports of entry. But with this
anti-Border Patrol policy, illegal “cargo and passengers” will
likely flow into the U.S. as well.
“Guarding the border is
not a nine-to-five job. Overtime work is routine, and when they are hired,
agents are informed that they will almost never work a regular eight-hour shift.
Instead, they are expected to work at least 10 hours every day and often more
because they do not stop when they are in pursuit of drug and gun smugglers and
others engaging in criminal activity on the border. But with the sequester
policy DHS has fashioned for Border Patrol, agents will be instructed to stop
working at the moment their straight shift ends. Good news for criminals and
others who would enter our country illegally; but very bad news for Americans
who rely on the courage and devotion of Border Patrol agents who risk their
lives every day to keep drugs and guns and gangs outside our borders.
“We urge Secretary
Napolitano to rethink this terrible decision. It is wrong for border security,
and it is wrong to single out Border Patrol agents for such drastic and
undeserved economic pain. Border Patrol agents are law enforcement
professionals, and this policy will undermine their ability to carry out their
mission to guard the border and protect American citizens. Apart from the
inequity in the size of the economic sacrifice being demanded of them, they do
not want to let criminal gangs and smugglers go just because their shift has
ended. The moratorium on overtime combined with 14 furlough days must be
reconsidered.”
The American Federation
of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union,
representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the
District of Columbia.
