Reduced overtime stymies Border Patrol

This report from the Washington Times lends credibility to Senator Jon Kyl's comments how Obama told him that he would not enforce Border Security until amnesty was passed. Now we learn that overtime pay for Border Patrol agents is reduced to the point they cannot do their jobs. Where are the increased National Guard troops promised by Obama to Arizona?




There is no doubt that Senator Kyl is telling the truth after learning that overtime pay for Border Patrol has been reduced by Border Patrol Headquarters. Obama and his inept Administration once again prove how out of touch they are with the vast majority of American people who want something done about all the illegals in this Country including full Border Security.

Border Patrol agents are now complaining that the cutback of overtime will hinder them getting their jobs done. Why would Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano authorize a memo to cut back on overtime if not to hinder Border Security? Any thinking person knows this comes from the top (Obama/Napolitano) not from the head of Border Security in DC. This Administration is now leaving the Arizona wide open for terrorists to come across the border with the lack of agents and now lack of overtime pay for Border Patrol.

This action on the part of Obama reminds you of a spoiled brat who didn't get his way so now he is taking his football home. Maybe should have said golf balls instead of football.

Reduced overtime stymies Border Patrol
Edict said to curtail patrols


Press A U.S. Border Patrol agent patrols the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico. The Border Patrol has quietly reduced its current force of available agents along the border because of cuts in the amount of overtime hours the agents can work.

By Jerry Seper

7:57 p.m., Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The U.S. Border Patrol has quietly reduced its current force of available agents along the U.S.-Mexico border by cutting the overtime hours they can work even as the Obama administration is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to hire 1,000 new agents, and Congress and the public are clamoring for beefed-up border security.

Several rank-and-file and senior agents told The Washington Times that a new overtime directive issued at the agency's Washington headquarters will limit their ability to get their jobs done, reduce coverage during peak smuggling periods and allow more criminals to avoid apprehension.

"By lowering the statutory overtime cap nearly 15 percent through the current administrative restrictions, top-level managers in the Border Patrol are depriving Americans of desperately needed coverage along the border at a time of national crisis," said T.J. Bonner, a veteran agent who heads the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 15,000 of the agency's nonsupervisory agents.

Because of the nature of the job, most Border Patrol agents average at least two hours overtime a day and the agency, as part of its ongoing recruitment effort, has promised what it called an "excellent opportunity for overtime pay." The overtime cutback comes at a time that violence against the agents, according to Department of Homeland Security records, is up 31 percent this fiscal year.

More than 200 Border Patrol agents have been assaulted since October, mostly with rocks. On June 8, one agent fatally shot a 15-year-old during a rock attack.

The administration's request for "urgent and essential" new funding came in a letter Tuesday from President Obama to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The White House wants $500 million in emergency spending for the border this year, including $297 million to hire 1,000 new agents.

While the Border Patrol is staffing up, an effort that could take several months, Mr. Obama has said he would post up to 1,200 National Guard troops in the Southwest to provide assistance, though he has not yet provided a plan for deployment to border-state governors.

The decision to limit overtime hours is outlined in an April 29 memo from acting Border Patrol Chief Ronald D. Vitiello to all chief patrol agents and division chiefs. It mandates that they "effectively monitor and manage their employees' overtime levels" by cutting an existing overtime-salary cap.

Congress set the fiscal 2010 overtime cap for federal employees at $35,000, but the Vitiello memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, directs that "no employee will be authorized to exceed an overtime level of $30,000" without a specific waiver from the chief.

Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican and a member of both the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, said he was "very concerned" about the directive's impact on the nation's borders.

Read More at Washington Times