Homeland Security reassigns hundreds of agents to northern border

More than 375 Border Patrol agents will be reassigned to the country's northern border as part of the Homeland Security Department's ongoing effort to increase security on the 4,000-mile boundary between the United States and Canada.

The voluntary reassignments, which include veteran agents who have worked on the U.S.-Mexico border, are in addition to the 245 agents transferred to the northern border in May 2002.

The bureau hopes to have 1,000 agents stationed on the northern border by the end of 2003. Approximately 9,500 agents patrol the southern border.

The timing of the move is part of the department's periodic "enhancements to the northern border," and not in response to any particular incident or piece of information, said Mario Villarreal, a spokesman for the Homeland Security Department's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Villarreal said he did not know how many agents the department eventually would assign to the U.S.-Canada border.

Villarreal said the quality, not just the quantity, of agents assigned to the northern border was significant. "It is important to emphasize that the benefits of redeploying veteran agents compared to new recruits and trainees out of the academy provide an immediate impact in protecting the homeland," he said. "The agents reassigned from along the southwest border, which has historically been an outstanding proving ground, will definitely have the skills needed to do their job."

Villarreal said the new assignments were "one of the many opportunities for agents within the ranks to move laterally or get promoted in the agency," but T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said morale among agents is very low.

"There is an uncertainty about what is going to happen to [agents'] rights and protections when the personnel system is implemented next year," said Bonner. The 2002 Homeland Security Act granted the new department power to redesign rules in six personnel areas: hiring, pay and classification, labor relations, employee discipline, employee appeal rights and performance evaluation systems. In April, Homeland Security and the Office of Personnel Management set up a design team of 45 management officials and employees-including union representatives-to develop a list of options by September for personnel reform at the department.

Bonner said the administration's effort to work with unions on crafting the new personnel system was "clever," but expressed skepticism about the administration's intentions. "I don't see unions having any meaningful input in that process. You can be as gracious as you want to be . . . but at the end of the day, [Bush officials] can do whatever they want to do," Bonner said. "If they get their way with this new personnel system, the attrition rate [among agents] will undoubtedly soar."

Villarreal acknowledged that the attrition rate at the Border Patrol has been "historically high" for several reasons, including the fact that the agency recruits nationally, as opposed to locally, but said morale within the ranks is "as high as I have ever seen it." "This redeployment of agents to the northern border is an example of support to the agency and to the ultimate mission of protecting the homeland," Villarreal said.