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Homeland Security, IG dispute impact of merging agencies
The Homeland Security Department and its inspector general's office on Tuesday disagreed over how much of a disruption a merger of two of the department's law enforcement agencies would cause.
Stewart Baker, DHS' recently confirmed assistant secretary for policy, told a House subcommittee that merging the bureaus of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement would result in "staggering" costs and would set back border security efforts by "a year or more."
A merger would create a new set of problems, such as defining missions and jobs, choosing leadership, and establishing a new culture, Baker said. The department's reluctance to merge the two agencies is the direct result of having gone through a major reorganization when DHS was created in 2003, he said.
"We would lose a year in the effort to control the border," Baker said.
Baker testified before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Integration and Oversight on the same day that the department's inspector general released a controversial report recommending the bureaus be merged.
Robert Ashbaugh, assistant inspector general for inspections and special reviews, also testified and acknowledged that a merger would result in turmoil and confusion. But, he said, a merger is the most favorable option in the long run.
The inspector general did not examine the drawbacks to a merger, Baker shot back.
Ashbaugh, however, said the IG did look at the negative impact. "We don't see an adverse consequence to it," he said.
Lawmakers expressed interest in moving ahead with a merger. Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., said he expects legislation on the issue to be introduced this week.
"I do feel very strongly that we can merge," Meek said. "I don't feel it'll take a year."
Baker acknowledged many of the problems identified by the IG report, but said he believes they are being addressed. When pressed by lawmakers for timelines, he said the department intends to have "a properly functioning mechanism for handling detention and removal within six months" and "substantial improvements" in intelligence sharing between ICE and CBP "within a year."
"We're not perfect yet, that's for sure. But I think we are on the road and can see the way forward to addressing a lot of these problems," Baker said.
COMMENTS
- Well, it's the end of the year, and my office is losing almost a dozen veteran, legacy Customs agents to retirement. Only a couple are leaving because they have reached the mandatory retirement age, while most have chosen to leave for jobs in the private sector, as soon as they were eligible to leave. I myself have over 25 years in, and will become eligible next year. For the first time, I am seriously considering my options. Like most of my now departed colleagues, I really enjoyed my job, and thought I would stay around until I had to leave. Now, the attitude is, get out as soon as you can, because ICE is a losing proposition, created solely as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11. There was no need to dismantle a good agency like Customs, with a 214 year history of service and honor, especially when the Homeland Security legislation called for the Customs Service to go to DHS intact, just like the Coast Guard and the Secret Service did. Who are the idiots who decided to change that? Wherever they are, they are apparently afraid to come forward and admit their role in this debacle, because they did more harm to this country instead of fixing what needed to be fixed, namely, the intelligence community and the INS. It's almost as if our nation's enemies decided to infiltrate our government, and then deliberately weaken our national security. Who else but an enemy of the United States would have taken such destructive actions? It's time Congress fully investigated just what happened. Are you listening, Congressman King? How about you, Senators Collins and Lieberman? GovExec.com reader Posted December 15, 2005 11:43 AM
- Larry, the disconnect between Agent and Inspector in Customs was always there stemming from many factors, some job related, some not: Agents with take home G-rides and plain clothes; the inspector's mission is civil/admin penalty (51 percent burden of proof), the agents criminal (100 percent); agents take the investigation farther than the inspector needs to go, and some agents had no respect for that; agents' work is unscheduled, unsupervised, and unstructured, inspectors the exact opposite; and many other reasons. Pay was not necessarily a reason for jealousy, because even the lowliest of inspectors made plenty of money on overtime. Inspectors saw themselves as the core, the workers, of the agency mission, and they were absolutely right. At any time, however, a quarter of the workforce of inspectors had applications in to become agents, because of the independence and perks of the agent job. I would say that fully 25 percent to 30 percent of Customs special agents on the job were former Customs Inspectors, traitors to the perceived real mission of the inspectors who stayed. I always overcame the disconnect on a personal level, just by being around and responsive. When the inspector needed something, I would do something to help. The connection was made by me, but it was always reinforced by the fact that we worked for the same mission under the same entity. These days, CBP has no reason to regard ICE any differently than an FBI agent, DEA, Commerce, whatever. Even better, CBPO's get to stick it to the ICE primadonnas by going elsewhere. It's up to the agents to maintain relationships on a rank-and-file basis, but it's up to DHS to recreate the sense of common mission. DHS is failing at it, and allowing the opposite to happen by letting the infighting continue. GovExec.com reader Posted December 1, 2005 9:50 PM
- Private industry and corporations have a concept to solve this type of organizational challenge. It is called teamwork. What a novel idea. Unfortunately, due to the bureaucratic organizational model, CBP and ICE will never be able to act as a team functioning as separate entities. Joe Customs - 1789 Joe Customs - 1789 Posted November 18, 2005 10:48 AM
GovExec Live!
Conspicuously missing from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's July strategy for a departmental reorganization, was a plan to merge two troubled law enforcement agencies. Calls for connecting the bureaus of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been circulating for some time, and continue despite Chertoff's rejection of the idea. The release of an inspector general report backing a merger is only adding fuel to the fire.
At 12 p.m. EST on Wed., Nov. 16, staff correspondent Justin Rood and GovExec.com reporter Chris Strohm will answer your questions about the recommended merger and management challenges facing the Homeland Security Department. You can submit your questions early or during the live online discussion.
