The surge of illegal migrants crossing into the US on a daily basis is only part of the border crisis. According to Joseph Cuffari, inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), border patrol personnel are overworked, understaffed, and suffering from low morale. In a June 6 hearing titled “Help Wanted: Law Enforcement Staffing Challenges at the Border,” members of Congress questioned Cuffari on the negative impact this has had on job performance, including more gotaways, drug trafficking going undetected, and added danger in the region.

Border Patrol Not Getting Help It Needs

The DHS inspector general released a report on May 3 describing an audit of interviews involving more than 9,000 staff members. According to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability website, the investigation “found that migrant surges have ‘magnified existing staffing challenges’ at DHS, such that law enforcement personnel ‘feel overworked and unable to perform their primary law enforcement duties.’”

The Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, discussed the findings with Cuffari as members pressed for solutions. Chairman of the subcommittee, Glenn Grothman (R-WI), said the border crisis can be laid squarely at the Biden administration’s feet:

“On Day One of his Administration, President Biden signaled to the world through words and actions that our borders are open. And so, they were. Our country has since watched the crisis along our southwest border devolve into a catastrophe. A humanitarian and national security catastrophe.”

He quoted the report, pointing out that “88% of ICE and CBP law enforcement personnel who responded said their work location was not adequately prepared and staffed during migrant surges” and, “71% of CBP and 61% of ICE personnel stated that their current work location was not adequately prepared and staffed even during ‘normal’ operations.”

Overtime and temporary duty assignments have been the tools to try and sustain law enforcement, but that isn’t working, and, as Cuffari testified, the staffing shortage is affecting efforts to combat human trafficking and drug smuggling. The IG explained that the recommendation to the Department of Homeland Security was to hire an outside national academy to “take a look and develop strategic staffing models so that DHS would be best able to use the resources they have to most effective benefit of the organization.” This, however, was not approved by the agency.

“Since 2016, the DHS Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office have issued 25 reports examining staffing issues at our borders,” Grothman argued, “but 80 percent of their recommendations have been closed without yielding tangible results at DHS.” He added, “In fact, DHS did not concur with one of the three recommendations in this report, appearing not to even be willing to acknowledge the impact of temporary details and overtime on the workforce.”

(Photo by Jon Putman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Morale in the Ditch

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) noted that the DHS seems to consistently be “stonewalling” investigations by the department’s Office of Inspector General and Cuffari agreed, saying, for example, there is one project that has been waiting for 140 days without receiving a single response. The only reasons, according to the IG, that the secretary of the department would not respond would be due to a national security concern or fear of compromising an ongoing investigation. Cuffari added that Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has not communicated that either condition applied to that particular project. Biggs asked, “So he’s not complying with the requirements of the Inspector General Act, is that fair to say?” Cuffari’s answer was, “Not to my knowledge.”

Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS) remarked on how 15% of illegals who fled one southwest border station were able to do so within a five-day stretch because there were not any agents available. He then asked how often that happened. Cuffari responded, “It’s a weekly occurrence.”

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) asked if the agents being sent to the border are actually performing law enforcement duties to which Cuffari responded in the affirmative, but added that “they are also providing care and welfare services to the detained and to those individuals that they are processing.”

Agents are frustrated as a result of long hours, being understaffed, and wearing many hats. According to the IG’s report, “migrant encounters at the Southwest border have risen from approximately 978,000 in fiscal year 2019 to 2.4 million in fiscal year 2022.” There has been a 303% increase in known gotaways in 2022 compared to 2019, and through the end of April, “CBP has already made 1.4 million encounters along the Southwest border, with 1.2 million of those coming from Border Patrol agent apprehensions of illegal border crossers.”

Grothman demanded that DHS be held accountable to ensure border security while enforcing immigration laws. But if past is prologue, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.