TOPICS
TOPICS
Border Patrol wins control of Homeland Security aircraft
Under an evolving plan to streamline the management of aviation assets within Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection bureau, Border Patrol sector chiefs along the land borders with Mexico and Canada will assume tactical control of aircraft in their sectors.
CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner announced the changes earlier this week at a conference of Border Patrol sector chiefs and Air and Marine Office field directors in Riverside, Calif. Most field directors will now report to Border Patrol sector chiefs.
The move is intended to enhance border security by putting more aviation assets along the borders, and will effectively give the Border Patrol operational control over nearly all of CBP's helicopters and fixed-wing planes, more than 250 aircraft and 500 pilots - "the largest law enforcement air force in the world," Bonner wrote in a message to employees Wednesday.
There are 20 Border Patrol sectors, including the Ramey Sector, which covers Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The other 19 sectors cover the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. It's not yet clear if Air and Marine Office assets will be dedicated to the Caribbean.
Last month Bonner announced the merger of Border Patrol and AMO aviation assets into a unified structure, but he left open the question of how those assets would be controlled. AMO, formerly part of the U.S. Customs Service before it was rolled into the Homeland Security Department in 2003, was created to interdict drug smuggling in the Caribbean and across the Southwest border.
Some AMO officials question the decision. AMO pilots have provided aviation support to Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau in the past. ICE and CBP have had a troubled relationship since the department's inception, and the extent to which AMO will continue to support ICE missions is not clear, especially if those missions compete with Border Patrol missions.
By putting aviation assets under the control of individual Border Patrol sector chiefs, Homeland Security is limiting the use of a national law enforcement air force that could be employed more effectively in broader security missions, says one AMO official who asked to not be identified.
"This is basically handing these assets to the Border Patrol sector chiefs. Instead of a national homeland security aviation force, this will become a local Border Patrol force," the official says.
Effective Oct. 1, all pilot positions will convert to a new occupational designation, CBP Air Interdiction Agent, Bonner said. A new personnel series, GS-1881, will standardize pilot personnel management across CBP and reflect the pilots' unique role in federal law enforcement. Pilots will receive law enforcement officer retirement benefits.
"This is not a bad thing for pilots," said Gary Bracken, an AMO spokesman. "This gives everyone the same overtime pay benefits and the same training opportunities."
COMMENTS
- CBP Air was supposed to be in effect starting on October 1, 2005. Yet when Katrina hit NOLA and three legacy Customs UH-60's were sent to assist in the disaster, they were relegated to flying bureaucrats from DC and news crews over the disaster sites. At the same time that CBP Air could muster three helicopters for NOLA, it maintained a dozen aircraft in Yuma, AZ, to include two UH-60's whose primary mission is to provide search and rescue services for illegal aliens in the desert. Only when the Border Patrol agents were ready to fly on the Friday after the hurricane hit did CBP Air get into it in New Orleans. All legacy Customs avaition assets are being deployed to the border to look for illegal aliens. No longer will CBP Air support FBI JTTF missions in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Catching Mexicans is far more important than drug dealers, terrorists or other criminals. INS won. GovExec.com reader Posted September 14, 2005 6:21 PM
- Is this the same Border Patrol where a sector chief refused to let ICE agents conduct a controlled delivery through his sector, because he thought they might lose the load? Actually, it was none of his business, but he abruptly ended an investigation before the intended recipients could be identified and arrested. Also, ICE agents have been told by CBP officers that they cannot enter ports of entry unescorted or unannounced, despite ICE agents retaining the border search authority they previously had with Customs and INS. Want to hear more? How about the Coast Guard finding out about an ICE lookout on a cargo vessel, and then unilaterally boarding the ship to search for narcotics, thereby destroying a planned surveillance and the investigation itself? Or the CBP refusing to let ICE agents see airline travel records, citing the "3rd Agency Rule"? Now the Border Patrol will control all air assets for CBP, only a short while after they were transferred from ICE to CBP? Where is the cooperation, and where in the jointness? All these reasons and more demonstrate why it was so foolish to separate the investigative (plainclothes) and inspection/patrol (uniformed) functions of DHS into ICE and CBP. Read the DHS OIG report on the question of merging these agencies back together again. It's a very compelling argument. Otherwise, we in ICE will be nothing but the old INS once again, with a new name, while traditional Customs missions will continue to atrophy, and then fade away altogether. The insanity continues... GovExec.com reader Posted September 13, 2005 6:27 PM
- Has anyone considered how this will affect ICE investigations? As a legacy Customs agent, I and my colleagues at SAC/NY often utilized Air Branch assets during investigations, surveillances and controlled deliveries. They were able to follow suspects better than ground units, especially in the heavy city traffic here. They also had great video capabilities to capture key meetings and other events which made for dynamite evidence at trial. In fact, many suspects pleaded guilty when confronted with this as well as other evidence. Another real problem is that our narcotics division has already been told by CBP not to call them for canine assistance during search warrants, because we are now "different agencies". They referred us to the NYPD or other local law enforcement agencies instead! This NEVER happened when we were all together in Customs, and everybody helped each other, be they special agents, air officers and pilots, marine officers, inspectors, import specialists or canine officers. This is yet another powerful and compelling reason to merge ICE and CBP, so that we can all work together again, instead of competing with or engaging in turf battles with each other. Mr. Chertoff, are you aware of these and the many other very real and serious concerns we face in the field, or are they being kept from you by the Kool-Aid drinkers at Headquarters? If you don't act and do what is right, what will you say to Congress when they ask why these issues aren't being addressed and resolved? GovExec.com reader Posted August 31, 2005 11:33 AM
