Return to Article: Bush seeks repeal of law enforcement benefits for CBP officers
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73268
When I went to the border in 1976 we practiced twice a year with weapons but were not required to wear them until one night someone stole a BP officer's weapon and shot up the place. Times have changed dramatically. We went from beat up patrol officer weapons to automatic. Not only is the border officer trained in law enforcement take down actions and arrest, the question travelers, and enforce every federal law ever written. They enforce every state and local law where they are stationed. They have the authority to search and seize based on laws that if you left the US you are subject to search. They now are immigration officers as well. Many left in 2003 when this chaos started. They not only enforce laws but have to be computer experts on their own systems as well as others. In many ports they work seven days on with the eighth day off, holidays, weekends, days and night shifts. I'm surprised these people still do these jobs.
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64450
Actually, DS is misinformed.
The elderly man that shot the CBP officer in Calexico did not kill the officer.
Three officers were shot. The one officer was shot in the face, lost a lot of teeth in the process, and the bullet lodged in his throat...
... but that officer did not die. HE was the one who shot and killed the shooter as he was falling to the ground. He still works for CBP today. The guy is a real-life hero.
And YES, we should get the retirement package. At the port I work at, we're making arrests on the daily, making seizures of 30+ Kilos of drugs just about every other week.
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53539
CBPOS have gotten the LEO coverage. It goes into effect on 7/06/08. Congrats guys, you deserve it.
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51910
Hey, I feel your pain. We drive police cars, look like police, why we even act like police. matter of fact, we even deal with crimes, we arrest, we deal with Domestic Violence, Gang, drugs, DUI's, etc.... yet we are not given so much as Law Enforcement status, much less covered status. So I sympathize with all of you. If you carry a gun and enforce laws and affect arrests, you should be recognized.
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47981
Every Law Enforcement agency has roles for employees that are not necessarily exposed to the daily risk typically associated with law enforcement duties; very few law enforcement officers are continuously exposed to real danger on minute by minute basis. The risks are intrinsic to the position. I agree with comments that some CBP Officers are not in positions that are traditionally identified with law enforcement, but many are, and all may be potentially exposed to risk at any time. Need one be reminded of the desk officer shot to death in Calexico several years ago by an elderly man? At any given moment, the risk level escalates and deascalates, usually with liitle or no warning. Other quote historic incompetence of our employees, but to that I say people make mistakes, some more seriouss than others. An entire class of employee or job series can not be typified by the limited errors of others. I challenge anyone to be on their game 24/7, and also keep in mind that professional criminals and terrorists work very hard at looking normal when they cross our borders. In effect, that is their job. Personally, I have been dragged by a car and injured, suffered numerous broken bones throughout several incidents, and effected hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand arrests in my career with CBP, even as a supervisor. I know and work with others who rival and exceed my own stats.
Does our agency have employees that do the bare minimum just to earn a paycheck? What agency doesn't? I am always amazed how the workforce as a whole is judged by those few non-performers.
6c-like coverage may help, because it pave the way to introduce higher standards of service, and recruit and retain from a higher qualified, more motivated pool, but let us not expect immediate improvement. Systemic changes such as these produce results that can be measured years down the road. Certainly, morale will improve in the short-term, and perhaps this gives our tired senior community an opportunity to exit gracefully.
I see a great deal of benefit with the enhanced retirement coverage overall, and hope that it remains intact, moreso that it matched true 6c coverage down the road.
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45101
I began my career in 1978 with INS. I have 1 year to retirement under CSRS. 6C retirement would be beneficial and well deserved. The biggest problem with CBP is the fact that the true CBP officer being trained since the merger does not have the expertise that we had with the old Legacy INS and Customs. The country will suffer. The ones with my expertise are retiring anyway and it will disappear with us upon retirement. CBP needs to be revamped into an INS division and a Customs division to provide that training and expertise. Bush has made many mistakes during his 8 year tenure and combining INS and Customs without keeping that expertise is one.
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44781
If Bush is really saying that giving 6c coverage will encourage a mass-exit of all career-experienced, retirement-qualified, CBP Officers, I could understand. To lose the knowledge-pool of experienced personnel is crippling. Especially for border protection. However, be honest. If you are with CBP, and have an opportunity to retire early, or to transfer to another "covered" position and be better financially, you're being honest. Everyone in the world is looking for benefits. CBP is well deserved of 6c coverage. US Customs was the 1st Law Enforcement agency in the nation (now merged into CBP). They were the 1st model of Law Enforcement. INS had the authority to kick dangerous and illegal people out of our nation (now merged into CBP). Besides laws that CBP enforces from its own authority, granted by government, CBP also enforces over 40 laws from other federal, state and local authorities. The issue is really about retention within the ranks of CBP. The officers who do the work deserve the coverage. They look for terrorist (and yes- they are still kicking them out... it's just not news worthy for the media if the terrorist haven't blown anything up). CBP officers conduct law enforcement. They are not asking for senatorial benefits, executive benefits or even presidential benefits. Its law enforcement benefits. CBP Officers will continue to leave for "covered" positions until the position is "covered." The rational of a reasonable officer is, "Why would I leave a job that will give me better benefits under 6c-coverage... for doing the same job?" (The ones that bleed the system for benefits will always be there, and you can't stop their incompetency). Whether it's Bush or another President, the American debt is HUGE! Retracting 6c from CBP will benefit the "bad debt", not the true officers/personnel that sacrifice their lives to benefit other legitimate Americans of their livelihood- all 300 million of them. Well, minus the 18,000 CBP personnel that has been authorized to do their job. So, I'm bad with numbers. Does that means CBP adds up to less than 1% of the nation's population (or the exact number 0.00006%)?
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44749
give me a break, anyone who argues that they don't deserve law enforcement pay is a sucker of the system and you deserve whatever they hand you.
why does the goverment cry over a few extra pennies being spent on its hard working officers but says nothing about the gigantic waste of money being spent on IRAQ?,
how about the billions in "aid" we send to "friendly" nations?,
i think they can afford making these officers lives a little better for the price of one bomb they send to IRAQ
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44620
Tough call, because one size definitely doesn't fit all at CBP. Working on the border can be dangerous, and may well deserve LEO retirement benefits. However, CBPOs at JFK and LAX, and indeed most major airports, perform a very different job. It is less dangerous because for years, airline passengers have been screened for weapons before boarding their flights. A CBPO at a major airport, unless on a detail such as CET, will spend most of their time in a booth performing passport checks as part of primary inspection. No fault of theirs, that's just the nature of the job. Then there is the issue of officers who are over 70 and still on the job, as well as those weighing in at over 300 pounds (yes, they are out there). I personally knew a supervisory CBPO who was legally blind, yet carried a gun! Unless the requirements are tightened, it's hard to justify LEO retirement for ALL CBP officers, as things now stand.
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44564
I am working with CBP for more than 5 years. I don't see a lot CBPO to protect our homeland. Some CBPO did the piece count for shipment and then lunch, and then cheating the overtime for doing some stupid things. When I was in airport, i feel like CBPO are more than the passengers. When the airplane is not coming, they are just joking around. I think spending so much money to them is waste. Government should pour more money into education, social wealfare. I agree to give law retirement benefit for CBPO who are working in border. They are very dangereous. CBPO worked in the big cuty. They are very lazy.
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44199
fmrcbpo, Why are you fmr?
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44198
Dear fmrcbpo. We just don't check passports you idiot. You should have worked at a real port or at least tdy'ed to one. Then you would know the truth. I was a deputy sheriff for 5 years before I joined CBP (Customs) and to tell you the truth I did less of what people would consider law enforcement. I think you just could'nt handle the stress of a real job and you had to leave. But thats just my opinion. Just some advice when you leave the nest again learn to swim in the turtle pool before swiming with the adults. Just a thought, but enjoy your new job serving burgers. :)
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43931
This is an issue that is difficult to come down on one side or the other. On one hand we have a deserving hardworking workforce. on the other, we have an agency that ends up paying for 3 retirees for each current employee. This is a problem across teh country as peope live longer years in retirement, and the workforce as a whole ages. Is it fair to society that some people collect 30 years of retirement pay after working for 25 years? Though it is not true for every retiree, it is a possible scenario. however, there is quite a bit of fat to trim in government spending that should be cut well before retirement benefits. just food for thought...
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43724
To Mr. Jim Kaley: Thank you for your candor and appreciation, but most importantly, your professional endorsement of this much-needed benefit! I worked at a major East Coast airport for several years, and worked with many great agents, professionals all. We were simply doing different parts of the same job, protecting America and it's citizens against all violators of federal law. But we need younger, better educated officers/agents/whatever. 6c status is imperative, glad you recognize it. But retirement ain't too shabby either.
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43522
What a wonderful collection of posts this is (except for Dan and his usual vitriol, maybe he can rise to the challenge and tell us from what experience it is derived).
Maybe someone should realize several of the posters advocating 6c coverage for CBPO's, including myself, are not Inspectors making self-serving statements, but Special Agents who had 6c status, are/were criminal investigators, worked closely with CBPO's on serious criminal violations, and know that many of them perform well in what is an absolutely needed role. In my role as an investigator and supervisor of investigators, I saw our relationship to the Inspectors as analogous to the uniform police officer's relationship to the detective. While I realize that relationship was in part destroyed by the brain dead idiots who decided to dice up the border agencies in their current configuration, it still does not change the facts as to the nature of the functions performed by a CBPO. They are often the people who have the sense to recognize a violation of law and then make the first acquisition of evidence and information that gets a criminal case rolling. Do they perform other tasks? Of course they do, who does not? And it is sad that much of their previous creativity and effectiveness has been yanked away by centralized decision making in the "Kremlin". However, is it not in doing their regulatory tasks that they find the criminal evidence, much like the observant uniformed police officer at a vehicle stop. No one has argued that is not law enforcement.
While this argument does have multiple issues, you could boil it down to what is the objective for government managers? Are we trying to make DHS the best possible department it can be by getting the best possible people or are we just drifting along running DHS as though it were merely some time and motion accounting task?
By the way, Dan, some cities have better retirement programs for their sanitation workers, as well as police officers, then any federal employees, including those with 6c. That is why market competition for labor is a factor here.
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43498
Well, Mr. Ketter, the usual venom from the usual snake. At least you know what I did for a living, you hide your experience behind a probably ficticious name. Absent ANY possible work experience in INS, Customs, or CBP, your opinions reflect, as I've said before, a mean-spirited view of the federal workforce. Well, you're entitled to your opinion, wrong and negative though it may be.
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43484
Hillary? President? Never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter.
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43477
Customs guy that rational makes the Bush repeal all the more revelant. No tickie no washie
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43432
Sorry, Itsjustme, but that's not how it works in law enforcement, which is NOT the military. The primary purpose of the 6c designation is to recruit young, able, intelligent officers who can be assigned anywhere they are needed, either on a TDY or permanent basis. Some cops spend their entire careers behind a desk, others are out on the street, so what? Any uniformed officer who is required to carry and qualify with a firearm, & has police powers deserves this bill. You can't "give" LEO status only to those officers who may be assigned to the Southern border, or on special teams, that's cumbersome and unfair, period.
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43402
Sailors do not receive sea pay unless they are at sea and soldiers don't receive combat pay unless they are in a combat zone. Maybe someone should consider applying this concept to this issue. Just a thought.
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43370
I personally know damn good CBPO's who died in the line of duty. Shame on all you folks who think they are not deserving of the same type of coverage that you and I have.
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43353
Let's see, here...
This administration and department (Homeland Security) have constantly harped over the past few years that improvements needed to be done to improve retention of highly qualified people. This has primarily been the excuse behind MaxHR, the new personnel system that they want to implement where your front line supervisor decides how much you're going to be paid from a pool of "available funds" (with this deficit, do you think they are going to fund it when they can't find enough money for copy machine paper?), implement a pay structure that is hazy at best, and only permit you to appeal to the same people that just fired you instead of an independent board. They say that this will attract the best and brightest.
Congress tells DHS that they can't have any money for this system that everyone knows is failed before it is even implemented. Instead, they want to give better retirement benefits to the CBP Officers, hoping they will stay around. After all, we wear blue uniforms, carry a weapon, and arrest people after investigating the crime. Hum, sounds like law enforcement work to me, doesn't it?
No, instead the Bush administration is saying that giving us the benefit is a threat to national security. However, overturning the Congressional ban on MaxHR seems to be more wiser course of action.
Trying to figure out their thought process is astounding. The only excuse I can find for it is that they want to force a corporate culture into federal service and to heck with anyone who gets in the way. I honestly think that they could care less about homeland security and more about providing opportunities for private companies to cash in...as long as that company is Halibu.....cough, cough.
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43347
As a CBP Chief, I'm serving in Colombo, Sri Lanka where, in the 3 months I've been here, 400 people have died and hundreds more have been injured in terrorist attacks. I'm working in the port of Colombo, a prime target, working with the locals to ensure no weapons or explosives are shipped to America in ocean containers - and the President apparently doen't support me.
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43344
THE FACTS,
The primary reason CBP Officers should have 6c is for retention purposes, this is what these guys do on any given day, CBP Officers:
1. Work 365 days per year 24 hours a day without holydays or weekends off; unlike other federal employees under the same retirement system which get weekend and holidays off which they are compared to.
2. Enforce 1000s of federal statutes: 8 U.S.C US Immigration Law, 19 U.S.C Customs Law, 21 U.S.C. Food and Drugs (Drug Seizures) 7 U.S.C Agriculture Law, any 18 U.S.C. Federal Criminal law.
3. Screen millions of visitors and residents entering the United States per year.
4. Screen millions of tons of cargo entering the United States via cargo ships, air cargo or land borders.
5. Primary intelligence collection agency of national and foreign nationals.
6. Seizes more illegal drugs than DEA, DEA agents are 6c covered.
7. Find inadmissible, arrest and depart more criminals aliens on any day than ICE, ICE agents are 6c covered.
8. Interview, place under oath, and charge more criminals on any day than FBI, FBI agents are 6c covered.
9. Supervise detainees/ prisoners, inadmissible into the United States as BOP, BOP correctional officers are 6c covered.
10. CBP officers welcome all foreign presidents, dignitaries, and heads of state entering the United States.
11. Lets be clear, INS now CBP was the only agency that had a minimal positive impact on 9/11. An INS Inspector deported a terrorist in Miami, FL. which allowed only 4 high-jackers on flight 93, which in turn allowed the passengers to overcome resistance and prevented the terrorist from using the airplane as a destruction device. Between the CIA and the FBI monstrous agencies they were not able to accomplish what an INS lonesome inspector did, Now CBP.
12. If any terrorist seeks admission into the United States, CBP Officers will be the first to intersect and alert FBI, CIA, and other national security agencies, Do you think you want the best and brightest on the front lines protecting our home; America day and night during blizzards, rain, snow, hail, at foreign and domestic air, sea, land port on all holidays and weekends. Yea, something like this Bush shouldn't support. Obviously he thinks these guys, I don't seem to deserve 6c.
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43325
Who says these folks aren't law enforcement officers in the duties they preform and the balance they provide in ensuring the balance between law enformcement and protection of the public?
We give them a gun, a badge, have them enforce our laws, put them in harms way, and hold our own legal system over thier heads as we require them to protect us under it, but we refuse to recognize and treat them as if they were law endorcement officers.
Shame on us and shame on Bush.
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43324
It seems that we are being taken for granted by the people who believe we shouldn't have law enforcement coverage. Our Border Patrol Agents are shot at by snipers and coyotes passing illegal immigrants crossing the border. Our CBP Officers are shot at point blank range by drug traffickers. Sometimes our Officers are runned down by fleeing suspects. We do not just scan passports, we intercept people with warrants, sexual offenders, money launderers,and drug mules/traffickers. After explaining what we do and experience on a daily basis, we deserve law enforcement coverage!
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43321
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Even those of you who have no clue, but choose to post despite this fact.
I have worked closely with Customs Inspectors, and CBP Officers over the past twenty-five (25) years. I have an opinion that is steeped in experience, and factually centered.
I have the greatest respect and admiration for the job these folks, (CBP Officers) do, but never get much credit for. If I were king for a day, they would all have 6(c) coverage, and if I could make it retroactive, I'd support that too.
Will it cause the G to have to hire more people, because these fine men and women have served and served honorably, and have earned that twenty year retirement? Yes it will.
Will it make it harder for ICE/OI and other investigative agencies to draw from the tremendous talent pool that CBP has, once they have 6(c) coverage? You bet.
But it is the right thing to do, and it is way overdue.
Just one tired old Customs Agent's perspective.
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43302
Wow, guess folks woke up on this one! What I can't understand is how the outgoing Bush team can decide that spouses of vets deserve veterans benefits, but uniformed CBP officers don't? As the expression has it: "nolo contestare", Bush WILL go down as the WORST president in the last 50 years. What a jerk!
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43300
6C, has been on the table for as long as I could remember. Under REPUB nad DEM presidents also DEM AND REBUB controlled house. And it never passed. This 6c as it is wriiten would have not covered 60% of the current officers. If passed you could have said we did it. But who are the we for, 30%. And please don't say 0.5% applied to the retirement of 60% would have been a good deal. Don't work on a deal just to say "look we have a deal". NTEU how about working on a bill that covers 100% of the officers. Your membership may get a little bigger if you succeed. Bush is not running in 08..
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43298
In the 12 years I have of service with the U.S. Customs Service and later the U.S. Customs and Border Protection I have served in enforcement teams that have made 100s of arrest, seized thousands of pounds of narcotics, conducted intelligence research, interviewed suspects, recruited confidential informants, participated in controled deliveries and take downs. The only thing that I have not done is received recognition as a law enforcment officer from the Government that I took and oath to serve and protect. This recognition is essential to maintain a strong, motivated, and proffesional work force in CBP. We need it now more than ever before.
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43291
Quite frankly, and coming from a family heavily laden with Law Enforcement Officers, I never did see how Customs Officers could qualify for LEO Status. All the hazards of the CBP Officer position which are being used to justify the new status are offset by what most of them actually do on a daily basis. You're going to tell me that a workforce whose majority of employees spends their workdays sitting on an A/C booth swiping passports on a reader, doing Customs entry paperwork at a Customs House, interviewing passengers and looking at the readout from a VACIS deserve the same consideration as Police officers and FBI agents? It's ridiculous only to consider the possibility. I get that a number of officers, especially those in the AT-CET teams, are exposed to some dangers. But most CBP Officers are not part of AT-CET. The majority are overpaid greeters, data entry operators and X-Ray machine observators.
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43282
Take our coverage. Take our guns. Assign ICE Special Agents and Border Patrol Agents to the ports of entry. I have no problem with this.
As a legacy Immigration Officer and as a Customs and Border Protection Officer, I interview people, take their sworn statements, create and serve charging documents (Notice to Appear), send this file to the attorneys and in most cases, these individuals are locked up in a detention facility or local jail until their case is presented before an Immigration judge. Their freedom is taken away. If I am not law enforcement, I should have no authority to take away an individuals freedom.
Detention Officers, now Immigration Enforcement Agents, then pick up the aliens at the port of entry and transport them to the jail or detention facility, they have law enforcement coverage. The Officer that does the investigation, takes the sworn statement and serves the charging document and the warrant of arrest does not?
During primary inspections CBP Officers apprehend subjects with warrants for murder, narcotics trafficking, rape and other crimes. For too long our employer has had the best of both worlds. Make a decision. But if you take our coverage. Take our guns. Assign ICE Special Agents and Border Patrol Agents to the ports of entry. Let the Agents do the arrest. I have no problem with this.
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43281
Lemme get this straight. The current crop of politicians believe that patrolling our borders might be handled by the military. They want an exapnsion of Border Patrol into a heavier Law Enforcement role. And they extended law enforcement benefits to them.
Now, the current crop of executives want them to continue in a heavier law enforcement role, but not have law enforcement benefits.
If your head isn't spinning, it's because you're not paying attention.
PS- If you're afraid of a retirement tsunami in border patrol agents, issue a stop loss order. Contract the work out. This is a shabby way of going about it.
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43277
Still missing the point: "Legacy" Customs, Immigration, and Agriculture met LEO criteria. We enforced our laws +400 for 40 other agencies. Violence put more CBP officers on the "law enforcement" wall than other agencies. We found more fugitives than the Marshals; more money than Secret Service, more Drugs than DEA, more weapons than ATF, etc. Border search in our hands provided excellent National protection. Our procedure was to stop, question, determine if individuals and freight required further investigation - "traffic stop" if you will, in virtually every legal sense. I'm belaboring this:since 9/11 we've been maltreated as corrupt and incompetent fools by idiots who failed to find out how effectively expert officers REALLY function. We ALWAYS DID LEO work - some at Airports and HQ think of us as grinning greeters in tiny cubicles; but at the border - we do stops; question; conduct inspections and investigations; arrests (Miranda was Agent function PURELY on written agreement); when required, obtained and conducted warrant; we have been assaulted; we conducted searches; we bear arms. NOBODY has satisfactorily explained how we can do EVERYTHING local police officers do EXCEPT patrol and NOT be LEO; yet P3 Radar readers, Judges, and computer-bound investigators who never face a perp out of custody DO. We are Cops (many of us previously patrol officers or military leaders), and the only way to protect America is be given back our Border Search and individual volition to use it. This "phone Moscow" for permission to do our job, or ask "mother may I" to search a perp when supposedly the "best trained" CBP ever, yet 23 year old beat cops are trusted to make the level-of-search decision in the field for themselves..... to conclude, after 18 arrests, being involved in chases, and going hand to hand with "customers", 2500 seizures and referrals totalling over 1 1/4 million dollars, and 14 tons of narcotics, wearing a badge and gun for two decades, being wounded in the line of duty during a run thru incident,don't make me "worthy" of LEO; then we ARE Ridge's "Key Stone Kops" and tragically an ineffective circus that opens America to terrorism.
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43276
100% agree that the benefits should be repealed. Border Guards and Custom "Officers" DO NOT do the same type of work that other law enforcement agents do (FBI DEA). Giving them the same benefits was a mistake. However, I do feel that the grade structures for these positions are too low and should be revised upward.
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43265
I'm a Special Agent with 6c retirement coverage. I was unaware that my retirement system was endangering national security (huh?). My apologies to those families I've hurt. Shame on CBP for following in my hurtful footsteps. Go Democrats (from a Conservative)!
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43264
I would leave CBP benefits and take away those of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Investigations (OI).
For LEO retirement credit, one must show that the primary duties of the position are the investigation, apprehension, and detention of criminals or suspects. The most important factors, are: 1) frequently pursuing or detaining criminals; 2) an early mandatory retirement age; 3) a youthful maximum entry age; 4) the job is physically demanding requiring a youthful workforce; and 5) exposure to hazard or danger. The factors (above) may also be considered as appropriate.
NRC OI duties and authorities do not match these criteria, especially since NRC lacks statutory authority for performing criminal investigations. They lack arrest responsibilities, agency authority to carry firearms or other weapons, do not perform undercover work, do not execute search or seizure warrants, do not give Miranda warnings, and are not exposed to hazardous conditions nor inclement weather. Most work takes place in an office setting, and is not "rigorous." OI investigations do not involve felonies, but violations of the regulations contained in 10 Code of Federal Regulations (Energy). None of their work is "frontline law enforcement work, entailing unusual physical demands and hazards." In March 2007, the Director of OI admitted that OI personnel have never performed a single arrest. When OI was created, a proposed desk audit of investigative positions to determine the correct job classification was cancelled. OI personnel have indicated that "NRC is the best-kept secret on the 1811 circuit!"
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43263
If you'll read the Homeland Security Act of 2002 you will understand that the mission of Department of Homeland Security has little to do with law enforcement or being fair to its employees but rather with prevention, protection and recovery from natural and man made threats. These goals are imposible to achieve through law enforcement. Our current homeland security strategy reflects that. Secondly if our president believes that granting law enforcement status to our CBPO's would jeopardize national security, he is correct, because being the chairman of National Security Council gives him access to more reliable information and advice than what is available to the rank and file CBPOs and their first line supervisors through TECS and the rumor mill combined.
Finally there are thousands of police officers working for federal government like Amtrak and VA that will never going to be covered. They get paid less have less attrition and morale was never a problem? P.S. Ketter, Sanitation engeneers (plumbers) were used extensively during Nixon's two presidential administrations. That will not fly again.
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43257
Whoa, Scott K are you reading the same article as everyone else? NTEU was and is at the fore front of granting 6c to CBP Officers. As for CBP Officer doing LEO work. Less see, in my 12 years as a Customs Inspector/CBPO I have:
1. Arrested, Transported and guarded criminals
2. Along with Agents of Customs, INS, FBI and local LE have served warrants and search businesses for evidence.
3. Done surveillance on suspected drug carriers
4. Served on protection duty for VIPs, Heads of States and foreign dignitaries.
I did all this working at a major international airport. Granted most CBP Officer don't have the opportunity to do such things but the job they do isn't less important. I am sure if narcotics smuggling was primary mission of CBP, there would be a shift in assigned work. -
43256
Dear President Bush,
The endangerment to National Security will worsen the day the LEO status for CBPO's is repealed by you after you already agreed to it. Stopping the bleeding, (loss of CBPOs) should be your greater concern. This is the real endangerment to National Security. CBPOs have no reason to continue a career that is not seriously recognized as securing the US borders by Enforceing Laws passed by Congress. Your Department of Homeland Security is badly bleeding because the CBPO's work long hours and abnormal shifts with no regard for their personal lives. So Mr. President, why would anyone want to work for an agency that even yourself will not give it the respect it is due by repealing Law Enforcement Pay for CBPOs? -
43253
Hillary recently said that on day one of her administration, that she will roll-back all the failures that this administration has implemented. Let's hope that she does, so that we can bring this great country back to the American people.
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43250
I was just waiting for our friend "Skeeter" to come out of his cave and say something negative about DHS employees. He is as predictable as he is boring. Change the tune, man..
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43249
Inspectors apprehend and arrest alien felons and remove excludable/deportable aliens. The drug cartel and alien smuggling rings' routes are between and through the ports of entry. Drugs are smuggled in various modes of transportation using secreted compartments or body carriers.
Border inspectors, like Border Patrol Agents, are subject to the same dangerous working conditions. Inspectors carry firearms for which they qualify each quarter, trained in self-defense tactics, observational skills, and have legal authority to search and seize. These inspectors are highly trained law enforcement officers who must undergo months of training in laws and regulations relating to both immigration and customs laws and regulations.
The officers are the front line of defense against potential terrorists, drug traffickers, alien smugglers, immigration violaters while protecting the economy of this country. Counterfeit products purchased abroad cost the U.S. ecomony "BILLIONS" of dollars in lost revenues.
"BILLIONS" of dollars are spent to house the undocumented or criminal aliens, welfare benefits they receive, free education, and a myriad of other benefits that should be given to only to legal residents and US citizens. The inspectors at the ports of entry deport as many as they can apprehend.
Inspectors work shifts; work outdoor in inclement, extreme hot or cold weather; alone in a booth or in a commercial lane while making instant decisions of admissibility of persons and goods.
Inspectors working in commercial airports perform inspections at private air and cargo facilities. Drug smugglers, alien smugglers, etc. etc. also use these modes of transportation to introduce their wares into the U.S.
To those who have opined that an inspector is a sanitation worker and not a law enforcement officer: I invite you to the next inspector's funeral who died in the line of duty protecting our border.
I will not address specific issues relating to our President. He's another politician without a clue and I'll leave it at that.
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43233
To Mr. D. Ketter, what's your problem? I seldom use the "ad hominem" argument, but this is an exception! What first hand knowledge do you have re the CBP uniformed officer's job? Judging by your previous mean-spirited posts, nothing! You sound like another poster, aka Taxpayer, who had nothing good to say about any efforts to help civilian government workers. Do you work for GW?
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43227
Such a ruckus over a minor change. In reading what these folks do I would reclassify their job's as sanation engineers rather than law enforcement and pay them accordingly
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43218
For 33 years when asked my occupation, I said Customs Officer. All that time this was a heavily discussed topic.
Fmrcbpo is correct when he describes the setting up of DHS as horrendous. (i.e. ignoring the structure mandates of the Homeland Security Act.) He is correct, Customs and Immigration Inspectors did not meet the prior requirements to be categorized as LEO's. That argument now lacks relevance as Congress has changed the statutory definition to include CBPO's.
This is about three things - staffing, money, and fairness.
Staffing: DHS, and CBP particularly, is having a tough time recruiting. It needs to make its jobs more attractive to increase the pool of applicants. All of the LE agencies (USMS, FBI, ICE, USSS, ATF) recruit some small portion of their hires from CBP. If the pay and benefits at CBP are high enough that pool of quality people might stay in DHS. Smarter, more capable CBPO's who stay in DHS longer will eventually make a stronger DHS. What DOJ advocate wants that? These nuances should be easy for a Yale MBA to grasp.
Money: Unlike the position taken at the start of DHS that its creation had to be cost neutral, if you really want results you actually have to pay for them. DHS's greatest resource should be its people. They should not be its most vilified resource, you know, "a threat to national security".
Fairness: Searching filthy ships, bug infested containers of rotting food, oxygen deprived ship hulls, cleaning excreted drug packages, hurting your back moving cargo, going to the ER when the cocaine package bursts in your face, wrenching your rotator cuff on a Jacob's ladder over ice cold water on a moving ship, and wondering if the coughing person who just handed you a passport has TB, may not be strictly speaking LE work. However, how can you argue the FBI agent who spends a career looking at documents in Medicaid fraud cases should get an early retirement and not the CBPO?
Just like the Clintonista, the Bushies are free trade, open border advocates, supported by multi-nationals like ITT (the people who gave our taxpayer funded night vision technology to China). After 15 years who still expects any of them to help DHS manage border security (people and merchandise) better? Quo vadis?
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43217
Scott K you are misinformed. NTEU got us this 6c and will fight to keep it. George Bush IS the worst president probably ever. His statement about CBPOs receiving LEO retirement being harmful to national security is a perfect example of the B.S. dripping from his 8 year reign as "king". I guess he hasn't figured out yet that most of us with half a clue don't buy into that garbage anymore. He must think the American people are all dopes, but we all know who the real dope is. 11 months and counting Georgie boy.
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43215
Not all CBPO sit at an airport primary and look at passports.
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43210
I was 40 when I joined Customs and found many other inspectors who had experience and expertise in many fields that they could bring to bear in their Customs jobs. My fear for 6c was that it would restrict recruiting to 20-somethings with little or no work experience anywhere else. That has proven to be the case--and 6c hasn't even been implemented yet. On the other hand, CBP officers endure more assaults and on-the-job injuries and deaths than members of any of the other federal law enforcement agencies. And if people in booths shouldn't receive law enforcement benefits, than neither should managers who sit in offices.
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43194
I always see it as a red flag when King George says something like granting law enforcement benefits to CBP officers could "endanger national security." Bush has successfully used his fear factor to get his way--witness the National Security Personnel System. By the way, I don't think all the CBP officers sit in toll booths. Seems that I recall reading several articles about CBP officers being murdered or maimed in trying to protect out nation's borders.
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43188
My Compliments to "Retired Air Traffic Controller" for his/her post to another subject, seems to fit here also!
"A federal employee that votes for a republican is like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders."
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43175
About time this was looked at.
There are so may CBP officers who do genuine LE work that puts them in danger and they deserve coverage ab initio.
But sorry, sitting in a booth doing immigration primary at an airport doesn't cut it. More like examinations work.
And as far as the hybrid, this is BS and an insult to those who went before. I worked with too many guys who did real LE work after retirement from NYPD, and they got screwed when they went out in their 60's because they didn't have the 20 covered for 6(c).
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43174
Well, what else did you expect from arguably the worst president in the last 50 years? President Shrub is trying, for some bizarre reason to upset a much needed and deserved benefits for the uniformed officers in CBP. As a gratefully retired officer, I arrested people, testified in federal court, did all that was expected. Now we need young people, not the same old folks still working for the OT. You simply are not going to attract younger people without 6c status. It took decades to get this passed, write to your elected reps to complain.
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43173
It appears that the Shrub wants to take the $50 million Congress appropriated to fund LEO status for CBPO's and instead use it to fund MaxHR. It's fiscally irresponsible to keep implementing personnel practices that cause such high attrition and resulting exorbitant hiring costs. But, silly me, DHS & CBP have always been about getting rid of experienced INS people and hiring in new, inexperienced employees they can deploy at will, abuse, and degrade who will not know any better. DHS certainly doesn't worry about fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers, nor does this administration. It appears that MaxHR is being implemented under the table, anyway.
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43172
Don't think for one minute that Bush and other republicans won't came after all federal retirement pay. VOTE Democratic in Nov. and save yourself and your retirement pay
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43158
Out of all the things our President has got wrong with respect to organizing department of homeland security this is the first thing he's done right. He understood that sitting in a booth whether in an airport or at a land border and checking passports, is not a law enforcement function, but a border security one (the former being reactive and latter being proactive) and law enforcement status should not be used as a tool to trick people to join cbp. The new employees who came seeking law enforcement functions would quickly become dissapointed and leave. Secondly repeal of law enforcement status could lead to long awaited house cleaning to boost morale and reduce attrition.
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43149
Bush has always been against the working man. He is anti union and opposes Federal civil service, except for his political appointees and cronies. He has done nothing good for the average working stiff.
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43146
Great. NTEU screwed over all of the Officers who earned this Law Enforcement Retirement and want to give it to those who are coming in. It's too bad we do not have a way to get our union dues back. The union is a joke.
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