Return to Article: Settlement paves way for retroactive language skills bonuses at CBP
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14032
I am a Legacy Immigration CBP Officer working at the San Ysidro POE. I am white, non-Hispanic, and I communicate with the traveling public in Spanish all of the time! I don't know how it works at other POEs, but at SYS we all speak at least some Spanish, otherwise it would be impossible to do the job.
The talk of racism disturbs me. Do people honestly feel that they are being discriminated against because someone asks them to talk to somebody? I can hold my own in Spanish, but sometimes when things get complicated I ask for help from a native speaker. Am I a racist?! My co-workers never seem to have a problem -- they are always willing to help. Same story for Koreans, Chinese, Arabic speakers, etc. We all try to help each other.
In any case, I agree that it is fundamentally unfair that L-Customs and new CBP Officers are offered the opportunity to earn language pay, but Aggies and Immigration Officers are not. One team, one fight? I'm sorry to say it, but I'm afraid not. Do your best with what you have, and try to be happy.
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13869
Agriculture Specialists and CBP Officers?? One face at the border?? One team, one fight?? It sounds nice but it doesn't work that way. Agriculture Specialists are not being treated equally. But why, if we are one agency with one mission in one nation?
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13812
"Forced to translate without compensation"? Are you kidding or what? The fact that CBP offers compensation for officers who speak other languages is a nice benefit, but one that is not found in most law enforcement agencies, who accept it as a necessary component of the job. Try working for the NYPD, and asking for more money because of your language skills, they'd laugh you out of the stationhouse. As for Hispanic officers being "singled out," who else would you have translate the Spanish language, maybe someone from Sweden? Grow up, stop whining, get over yourself, and do your job!
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13785
I find extreme offense to the lack of professionalism by the journalist writing this story. The journalist managed to miss the point that Hispanics are being singled out and forced to translate without compensation. The journalist has been advised of the harm his story has done in his attempts to mitigate mass discrimination into a mere labor issue. Your staff insists on using sources that it knows are not credible. This has to be one of the most irresponsibly reported stories I have ever seen.
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13739
I feel that agriculture specialists are discriminated against. We belong to DHS, and we are CBP employees too, but GS-401. I think that we deserve the same benefit regarding foreign language proficiency.
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13738
CBP, and this article, has forgotten the Agriculture Specialists (legacy USDA). The agency has always treated the AG Specialists as second-class employees. Not only we are not paid the language differential, but also we are denied the opportunity to take the language tests, and no one in the agency knows (or choose not to know) or give us any explanation. Seems that NTEU has chosen to protect its own people.
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