'Mass Exodus' of Agents Leaves INS Scrambling

By JONATHAN PETERSON

Aug. 5, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

WASHINGTON —

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, whose mission of safeguarding U.S. borders became a household concern after Sept. 11, has been shaken by an unprecedented exodus of Border Patrol agents and immigration inspectors this year.

Lured by a combination of better pay and more satisfying jobs, about 2,000 Border Patrol officers and immigration inspectors--the men and women whose tasks include catching terrorists and other criminals--have left the INS since Oct. 1.

Ironically, many have moved over to the Transportation Security Administration, the new federal office responsible for ensuring the safety of the airways. There are 15,000 Border Patrol officers and immigration inspectors, about 1,500 fewer than the agency is authorized to employ.

Within the INS, the Border Patrol, which is responsible for blocking illegal crossings, is running hard just to stay in place, much less to meet its ambitious expansion goals. It has hired 1,499 agents this fiscal year, but it lost 1,459 veterans at the same time, for a net gain of 40. That’s just a fraction of the 744 additional agents that the Border Patrol is racing to hire before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

Observers fear that even if the INS can ultimately expand its work force as planned, the departure of seasoned veterans will take a toll in experience within the ranks of critical border security jobs.

“It’s detrimental to the border security effort,” said Bill King, a retired Border Patrol sector chief and onetime high-level INS official in California, “extremely detrimental.”

INS Commissioner James Ziglar and other officials, conscious of the talent drain, helped persuade Congress to approve pay hikes for Border Patrol agents and immigration inspectors.

INS employees have long complained that their pay, particularly in law enforcement positions, lags behind that of similar government jobs and even some urban police departments. A recruit at the INS might start at $30,000 to $35,000 a year, about $10,000 less than the same person might earn at the Transportation Security Administration. But the scale of this year’s stampede out the door is something new. The turnover rate for Border Patrol jobs could be as high as 23% for the fiscal year, according to INS projections, more than double the previous fiscal year’s 10%.

The turnover rate for immigration inspectors, who personally examine foreign travelers entering the United States, could be as high as 16%, also up from 10%.

“It doesn’t show any sign of slowing down,” said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, an employees union, and a veteran Border Patrol agent in San Diego. “I think it’s pretty alarming.”

Typically, people hold on to jobs with the federal government longer than in the private sector. Although there may be great variation by type of job, about 6% of federal employees left in 2000, according to a survey by the American Management Assn.

Asked about the effect of such turnover on government efforts to bolster border security after Sept. 11, Bonner replied: “It certainly hampers that goal. You simply cannot afford to run a law enforcement agency like this.”

At the rank-and-file level, particularly in the Border Patrol, salary is only one of the factors propelling agents out the door.

“I personally know agents dropping out of the Border Patrol without even another job lined up,” said Jeff Hampton, a Border Patrol agent in the remote ranching country south of El Paso. “That’s how dissatisfied they are.”

“You talk about a mass exodus from the Border Patrol and you’re talking about low job satisfaction, low pay and the inability to transfer to a more desirable location,” added Hampton, who is looking for another law enforcement job, possibly within the federal government.

INS employees face a particular set of uncertainties, not the least of them being whether their agency will continue to exist. Under a bill that passed the House last month, the INS’ law enforcement arm would be moved into the proposed Department of Homeland Security, while routine immigrant services would remain inside the Justice Department. Competing proposals would shift all the operations to the new department.

Then there is the INS’ public image as an agency most noted for blunders that range from losing people’s files to losing track of terrorists. Even before the debate over the Department of Homeland Security, the Bush administration had made it clear that the INS was in line for a major shake-up.

It was late last year that INS personnel officials began to see complaints translate into a jump in resignations.

“In January, we were hoping it was a one-time thing,” said Sid Waldstreicher, INS program manager for human resources. “By March, we knew it wasn’t.”

Personnel officials soon discovered a major culprit: Sky marshal jobs with the transportation security agency were luring many away, often for pay hikes of several thousand dollars or even more. Many federal law enforcement agencies have lost employees to the new agency, which is adding 60,000 jobs to the federal payroll, although none at the magnitude faced by the INS.

“The transportation security agency is getting some of the best and brightest employees in the federal government, and we’re trying our hardest to backfill these positions,” Waldstreicher said in an interview. “It may not happen this year. And if it doesn’t happen this year, we’ll try to recruit and fill these positions next year.”

To ease the money frustrations, Congress has agreed to upgrade Border Patrol and immigration inspector jobs. It could mean pay raises in the range of $5,000 for many employees.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a co-sponsor of the pay-hike legislation, said: “For our system of homeland defense to work, it is critical that we have a cadre of well-trained, well-paid individuals working at the border.”

Yet others contend that money, although important, is not the cure-all for INS turnover. They say that the INS should do more to make its careers rewarding, and that employees may feel more optimistic if the agency’s performance--and image--improved.

As an example, Border Patrol agents are often under orders to stay in one spot all day, in an official strategy meant to deter illegal border crossings. Agents complain of painfully monotonous work shifts and a self-defeating lack of mobility.

“These guys go to work and they sit there 10 hours a day in a truck, staring at a fence,” said Rich Pierce, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council and a Border Patrol agent in Tampa, Fla. “That’s all they’re doing. It’s not the exciting law enforcement job they hoped for.”

The publicity over INS gaffes has also affected enthusiasm for working there, he added. “Every time they open a paper and they see, ‘INS bumbles again,’ it’s terrible,” Pierce said. “Morale is down.”

While the 31,000-employee INS has been hiring at top speed, it has made only modest progress toward its goal of increasing the Border Patrol force by 744 this year.

In a similar pattern, the INS this year has hired 842 immigration inspectors, but it has lost 540 experienced inspectors. The administration wants to increase the current inspector corps of 5,000 by an additional 1,000 next year.

“We’re losing people in the three- to five-year range, just when we get them to a level where we’re confident we can get them to go out and do the job they’ve been trained to do,” Bonner said. “It’s a cause for great concern.”

At the same time, thousands of job applications are pending, and the agency plans to run radio, magazine and billboard ads to attract still more. It is even offering hiring bonuses of up to $5,000 for certain of its greatest needs, including immigration inspectors at San Francisco International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.

For all the turmoil surrounding the INS, officials maintain that the agency’s mission translates into rewarding careers and that today’s punishing rates of attrition will ultimately ease.

“A career at INS can offer tremendous opportunities due to the [agency’s] growth and change that will occur over the next several years,” said Kimberly Weissman, an INS spokeswoman. “The INS serves as an attractive career choice for those looking for a real challenge protecting the diversity and security of the country.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Patrolling the Border

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has experienced a large turnover during the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Border Patrol agents

Hired -- 1,499

Quit -- 1,459

Currently employed -- 9,834

Total authorized force -- 10,551

Immigration inspectors

Hired - 842

Quit - 540

Currently employed -- 5,000