(NewsNation) — Rising migrant encounters have exacerbated staffing shortages along the nation’s Southwest border and numbers are only expected to climb with the expiration of Title 42.
As a result, employees are feeling the pressure of what they called “unsustainable” working conditions, often relying on overtime to complete tasks, according to a new report.
Officials with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement found themselves burned out trying to do more with less, according to a May 3 report from the Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General. Unique challenges created by COVID-19, border policy changes and growing migrant encounters created what employees called unsustainable working conditions.
“CBP and ICE workloads have grown significantly due to factors beyond the Department of Homeland Security’s control, namely increasing border encounters and travel volume,” the report stated.
Border agents had already reported feeling overworked and overwhelmed about this time last year. Morale, they said, was at an all-time low as they faced unprecedented numbers of migrants.
Those numbers only reached new heights in the fiscal year of 2022, however.
Migrant encounters at the nation’s Southwest border rose from 978,000 in 2019 to a record 2.4 million in 2022, according to the report. The fiscal year 2022 also saw record numbers of migrant death. More than 800 people died trying to cross the Southwest border.
Now, the end of a public health border policy that allowed officials to turn away migrants at the border is expected to further complicate matters.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed 10,000 National Guard members and 1,200 DPS troopers to assist with the anticipated surge.
“Unless CBP and ICE assess and strategically change their current staffing management at the border, heavier workloads and low morale may lead to higher turnover and earlier retirements,” the report stated. “This could worsen staffing challenges and degrade CBP and ICE’s capacity to perform their mission.”