25% of Border Agents to Resign Next Year, Survey Finds.

Roughly one-quarter of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who responded to a survey plan to quit their jobs in the coming year, according to Department of Homeland Security Office Inspector General Joseph Cuffari.

The survey, sent to 577,000 CBP and ICE agents, found that more than 9,300 agents responded. The report was presented to the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing on June 6.

Staffing Issues and Increased Workload

According to the report, neither agency has a plan to deal with staffing issues that may arise due to problems cited by the agents. These include an increased workload, irregular border policies, being assigned tasks unrelated to law enforcement, lack of adequate resources, and working excessive overtime.

The report states that staffing levels must catch up with the increased workload. In addition, the number of agents who qualify for retirement is expected to spike in 2027. This could be a problem, Cuffari said.

Demoralized Agents and Inadequate Equipment

Agents reported feeling demoralized because they must spend hours doing administrative work, helping manage migrant processing centers, and feeling pressured to process illegal migrants quickly instead of securing the border as they were trained to do.

The report shows that 71 percent of CBP agents and 61 percent of ICE agents that responded feel their stations are not adequately equipped. Cuffari told the subcommittee that many stations lack the technology for tracking illegal migrants. He said he found DHS personnel using paper records and whiteboards to track people.

Increased Gotaways

This has increased the number of so-called “gotaways.” These are illegal migrants that escape before they can be tracked. In FY 2019, there were a reported 150,090 gotaways. This quadrupled to 605,115 in FY 2022.

Political Criticism

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was critical of Cuffari as well as the report, which he called “deeply flawed, politicized, and problematic.” Subcommittee Chair Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) implied that Democrats’ criticism of Cuffari was politically based.

Conclusion

The report highlights the challenges faced by CBP and ICE agents and the need for a plan to address staffing issues and inadequate equipment. The increased workload and pressure to process illegal migrants quickly have demoralized agents and increased the number of gotaways. The report also shows that a significant number of agents plan to quit their jobs in the coming year, which could exacerbate staffing issues.