Inspector General Throws Water on Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol Hiring Plan

From CBS News:

President Trump’s plan to add 5,000 more border patrol agents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and 10,000 more immigration officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) isn’t looking so simple. 

The Office of Personnel Management has given a two-year window to move forward with the hiring surge, but immigration and border experts — including the Department of Homeland Security’s own watchdog — note the logistical challenges of hiring that many new employees, and question whether they’re necessary in the first place. A late July DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report was the latest blow to the president’s plan.

“Neither CBP nor ICE could provide complete data to support the operational need or deployment strategies for the additional 15,000 additional agents and officers they were directed to hire,” the report found.

Moreover, CBP and ICE don’t know how many additional personnel they need, and it will be three or four years before those agencies will complete calculating those figures. Read more…

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