Immigration Watch International (2): US Border Agents ‘Providing Care, Welfare Services’ to Illegal Immigrants: Official

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

US Border Agents ‘Providing Care, Welfare Services’ to Illegal Immigrants: Official

The Biden administration’s agents working along the U.S.–Mexico border are primarily providing illegal immigrants with “care and welfare” services, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official.

DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari made the claims during a hearing before a House Oversight subcommittee on June 6 to discuss the ongoing law enforcement staffing challenges relating to the southern border.

During the hearing, Cuffari cited a report (pdf) published in May detailing how Border Patrol agents were suffering from low morale owing to widespread staffing shortages and improper management of resources and planning during a surge in immigrant crossings.

The report also noted issues with recruitment and hiring. These issues combined, according to the report, had led to many officers having to take on responsibilities outside their typical roles, which has affected their own operations.

“It’s concerning that agents are not performing their primary law enforcement roles,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) said in response to the report’s findings during the hearing.

“America is largely under the impression that we’re moving border agents down [to the border] to enhance law enforcement. Is that the role that these agents are primarily performing, Mr. Cuffari?” he asked.

In response, Cuffari explained that Border Patrol agents and federal criminal investigators deployed to the border were supposed to perform law enforcement activities but were instead “doing some law enforcement” while also “providing care and welfare services to the detained and those individuals who they’re processing.”

Report Findings

Cuffari’s May 3 report was based on an audit and survey responses involving interviews with 9,311 law enforcement personnel.

It found that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) current method of managing law enforcement staffing is “unsustainable.”

“CBP and ICE workloads have grown significantly due to factors beyond the Department of Homeland Security’s control, namely increasing border encounters and travel volume,” the report states. “Despite greater workloads, staffing levels have remained the same, with CBP and ICE using details and overtime to temporarily address the rising number of encounters along the Southwest border.”

Specifically, the report noted that the situation at the border—staffing challenges and an increased number of illegal immigrants crossing—has “negatively impacted the health and morale of law enforcement personnel, who feel overworked and unable to perform their primary law enforcement duties.”

“Although CBP and ICE annually assess their staffing needs, neither has assessed how using details and overtime has affected the workforce and operations,” the report states.

Unless CBP and ICE assess and strategically change their current staffing management at the border, heavier workloads and low morale may lead to higher turnover and earlier retirements. This could worsen staffing challenges and degrade CBP and ICE’s capacity to perform their mission,” the report said.

According to the report, both CBP and ICE were “consistently staffed close to their authorized hiring levels” between 2019 and 2021, but the number of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border rose drastically in 2022, while staffing at the border did not grow at the same pace.

In 2021 and 2022, for example, there were roughly 7,800 officers assigned to the southwest border, meaning that roughly the same number of officers who processed about 6,300 immigrant encounters per month in 2021 processed nearly 14,400 encounters per month in 2022, according to the report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/senior-dhs-official-says-border-agents-providing-care-welfare-services-to-illegal-immigrants_5322922.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.

The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:

1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.

2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.

3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.

4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.

5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.

6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.

I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.

Immigration Watch International (2)

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

US Border Agents ‘Providing Care, Welfare Services’ to Illegal Immigrants: Official

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