Napolitano Disproportionately Guts Border Patrol - Sequester Opportunity

Crossposted at Blogs For Borders.

With the sequester cuts scheduled to go into effect next week, the Department of Homeland Security has decided to gut the Border Patrol.


"The Border is Secure!"

You'll recall that DHS Secretary Napolitano toured the Mexican border recently and announced that the "Border is secure."  Apparently this means that funding can be cut, because it must not be needed.

The Border Patrol union website in the Tucson sector posted these comparisons between the hit the BP will take compared with port inspectors:

• Border Patrol agents number approximately 21,394.
• Port inspectors number approximately 21,790.
• Border Patrol agents have been targeted for $248 million in salary cuts.
• Port inspectors have been targeted for only $35 million in salary cuts.

These cuts include the long-expected cuts to AUO (administratively unavoidable overtime), which pays agents when their shift ends in the middle of an operation to get the bad guys.  Local 2544 estimated the impact of these cuts to the individual agents:

1. On about March 4th the union will receive a notice from the Agency. The notice will state that they are going to decertify AUO for all agents in 30 days. This means that we will lose our 25% premium pay and our FLSA around the first part of April.
2. The Agency will also call for placing all agents on one (1) unpaid furlough day per pay period starting in April. That equals a 10% cut in your basic pay.
3. With both of the above taking place, your pay will be cut about 40%.

The formal notice was sent to the union yesterday (Tues Feb. 19th), and lists out the full range of cuts, including gas, vehicle maintenance, number of vehicles in use, training, and more.  The full text memo is here.

We've documented the BS and insults the DHS Secretary Napolitano and the Obama administration have levelled at the Border Patrol here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here in addition to the ones above.  Now, with plans to remove our security in between ports of entry, and with amnesty just around the corner, the Mexican border regions of the U.S. will become even more dangerous than they already are.

But then, border security was never the plan, was it, Barry?

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