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State of the Border Update - Part 2

• Homeland Security & Defense Forum

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Acting Deputy Commissioner Pete Flores provided his “State of the Border” update to kick off the 7th Annual HSDF Border Security Symposium.  This episode emphasizes the importance of caring for the workforce within Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they navigate increasing operational demands. Discussion highlights recruitment, mental health support, and strategic budgeting as essential components of a resilient and effective workforce.

•Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP
•David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol (moderator)

This discussion took place at the HSDF’s Border Security Symposium on December 11th, 2024. 

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• David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol:

Excellent. So those numbers are amazing. They were amazing when I was there, but all they've done is just grown by extrapolation and they're going to continue to grow. So the challenges are going to be there and this is where I think industry can play a big, big part on this issue. Pete, talk a little bit about the. I know to you personally is one of the most important things the workforce Right, the challenges associated with it, the requirements that we have and how you look upon the workforce challenges.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

So, when we think about all the requirements that we have on us, whether put on us by Congress or put on us by the American people, on the expectations that we have, that all starts with our men and women right, and without having the right men and women there and providing the right support to them, this does not get done. We can have all the technology in the world, we can have all the AI and we can have all the assist, but without the human intervention, without that heartbeat behind that technology, without the heartbeat behind that enforcement action, that decision making process, this does not get done. So taking care of our people, for us, is our number one priority. So how do we do that? So? Right, we've got to make sure they're trained first of all. We've got to make sure they're equipped and then we've got to make sure that they have the right type of authorities out there as they do this job. So let's start with hiring, retention, recruitment and what we're doing there. So we've really taken a hard look over the last couple years on how do we streamline that process? Right, we have officers and agents out there working long days and working long hours and doing that multiple days in a row At some point. That takes a toll on our employees. So how do we ensure that we're helping that? And we're talking about hiring, how we streamline, how we've started to identify over the past couple of years, identify choke points and where that process is To streamline, how we shorten up that timeframe. And we've come from Erin Marine to OFO, to Border Patrol. We've identified those choke points and we started to streamline that process and shorten that time to hire for us.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

We're also looking at what we can do on our end in regards to what are the requirements that we have for us from a polygraph perspective, right, what adjustments can be made there, and looking at what refinements we have in order to help to ensure that we're getting the right candidate, the right quality candidate, but making sure we're not losing people that we should have in our employment, that qualify and we should be employing. So we're looking losing people that we should have in our employment, that qualify and we should be employing. So we're looking at those type of changes for us. We're looking at recruitment bonuses, which we're doing today. We're working retention bonuses, which we're doing today. We're working on hard to fill locations and what does that mean and what additional benefits we can provide to those locations. And Dina, I think, is on your panel today in regards to what we're doing, and you have Pete also on your panel today for workforce care. So we're working a whole pay reform packages. So just what is hindering us from hiring individuals, hiring agents and officers, just totally for CBP? And are there specific locations across the United States, or even foreign that are even harder to field, that we can do additional things in regards to pay reform benefits in order to attract people into those locations? So we're doing a lot of that, putting a lot of effort into that. So, when it comes to some of that, we have the ability to do on our own. Some of it is, and there's probably quite a bit of it that's going to require congressional help in order to get that across the finish line. In order to help do that.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

We talk about resiliency of our workforce. There's been quite a bit that we've done in regards to taking care of our workforce. We talk about bringing in clinicians and operational psychologists within our workforce, increasing our chaplaincy and our peer support within our workforce, increasing child care subsidies for our workforce to ensure right agents and officers are working shift work, they're working overtime, unexpected overtime, long hours. So how do we make sure, when they have a child at home, that they have somebody to take care of? There's an opportunity there. We've increased backup care for our officers and agents and their ability to get backup care when unexpected things happen. We've wellness centers. So the wellness centers we've had in El Paso. That's gone well. One thing we recognize there that employees started to use the wellness center in El Paso. Not only did employees start to use that, but we have equal usage between employees and families using that. So we've now gotten the ability we're going to expand to do two additional locations and open up two additional wellness centers. On what we're doing there, we've started to change policies within CBP on how we deal with substance abuse and mental health and those type of things that we recognize some of the hardships that our employees are going through.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

And I think one of the real stats that really spoke to me the last time I was briefing the department here is when we did change the way and you recognize right fitness for duties and what we do with employees during a process. We figure out, hey, we need to find out whether this employee is fit for duty and a lot of times employees were struggling with things but they didn't have the confidence to come to management to say, hey, I'm struggling with this, I need some help. And what we did, based on our process, we put them into a fitness for duty process which could take a year, two years. They're without a weapon, they're going through a process, they're not making overtime, which adds and compounds to the difficulties, and then whether or not at some point we decide whether or not that employee is fit or not fit for duty.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

With the new policies that we've started to implement, we've cut that down the number of fitness for duties for a two-year period. We've cut that down by 54% the number of people that we're putting through there. So we're getting them help up front rather than on the back end, and getting them back to work. Not only has that helped us in regards to confidence in using and getting the programs that we've put out there for our employees, but it's a cost savings for us right Over $600,000 in cost savings of what we're spending on medical evaluations and tests and loss of employee being able to do the work. So that has really kind of streamlined how we do this and how we're looking to take care of our employees from that aspect Right right.

• David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol:

Pete, we could go on for hours and just all things of a high interest.

• David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol:

Last question I've got for you is on budget process and process not numbers or anything of that nature, but one of the things that we implemented I guess it's probably been about 12 years ago planning, programming, processing and accountability, which mirrors kind of the way the military does that. One question question is it still in place, is it working well? And especially the planning portion of it is something that I think industry can help in looking towards the next three, four, five years. Can you give us a little snippet of the UVA?

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

Right. So we still do. We still have the same process in place in regards to how we do that. So I do think, from a from a planning perspective right, where we we have that regiment in in our process and we're making sure that our leadership you know you have EAC Miller here, you have EAC Sabatino here, you'll have EAC Cooper here, I think you may have EAC Highsmith here as well in this and making sure our leadership is involved in the process, them or their deputies involved in the process, to ensure that we're asking for the right things, that we're planning for the right things and that we're budgeting or attempting to budget on what it looks like for us following year, two years, three years out, on what we do in regards to our wrap cycles, what we do in the budget cycles, to ensure that we're doing that. So we're always planning and making sure that we're attempting to put the right numbers to what our needs are and what we see coming at us.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

We talk about threat and mitigation. We talk about what our need is for artificial intelligence and what are those needs. We talk about barriers and sensors, what our needs for that is, and we talk about infrastructure at our ports of entry or our checkpoints. What is that and what are our needs there and what do we need in order to modernize and get that up and running? We talk about academies and training and what we're doing.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

So we have a formalized process in order to do that, but, as you're well aware, our requests and our needs never match up on what we get from a budget cycle, and a lot of times I think just the way the budget cycle works by the time we get a budget in place really to formalize, we're halfway through the year, and so we've lost six months, we lost five months, we lost seven months on this. Some of this is one-year money on what we're doing, and so our ability really to plan ahead becomes important for us on what we're doing this, but a lot of times we don't have that opportunity to do it. We'll plan for it on what we're gonna do, but there are mechanisms in place that sometimes don't allow it to be as efficient as possible.

• David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol:

Well, and the reason I asked that question is because earlier this morning I talked about transformational things that everybody's anticipating as we go into the new year. The budget planning processes and programming processes are going to become more critical as we move forward and this is a question rhetorical, because I think we both agree on, here to industry, what the requirements are today that need to be met. Critically important, but just as important is what I used to call the resultant impacts of meeting those requirements. The bad guys are going to adjust.

• David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol:

So, being forward-leaning, looking towards the future, as to what else is coming, we're going to have a panel today, a couple of panels that are going to take into account the literally daily extrapolation of requirements that occur because of AI, machine learning, cognitive AI, all of these things associated with it. And then one that I want to sit on is going to be the UAS and CUAS. When I first heard, about a year and a half ago, the challenge with UAS and CUAS situations, it's ungodly and you're going to hear from the real experts today. But, again, being forward leaning and looking at what they're going to need three, four, five, ten years out is critically important because it's moving quickly.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

The counter UAS for us is a priority as well for us as we think about what that threat looks like today and what it's going to evolve to, not only from a threat perspective on what we see and I think you have the AC Miller on that panel and you have Clint, I think, on that panel as well Ability to recognize what the threat is and an ability to mitigate that threat are two things, and not only are we talking about the border, but then there are also large series events that we have to go to, whether that's a Super Bowl or those type of events that we're participating in and helping there.

• Pete Flores, Acting Deputy Commissioner, CBP:

I think you know, as we get really good to a program, a funded program there, with years out, the authorities that could be improved upon on what we're doing in forest mitigation and how we do that AMO, border Patrol, ofo I mean they've developed really an expertise here that I don't think anybody else has in regards to exploitation and what we're doing from a counter-UAS standpoint A lot of other agencies coming to us in Air and Marine and CAMDECs and what we're doing in regards to being able to do some exploitation and be able to get some information out there, retrieve it and start to understand the threat on what we're doing and be able to get some information out there, retrieve it and start to understand the threat on what we're doing and, of course, from a terrorism standpoint, on what UASs could be used for our ability to do that. The counter surveillance piece that we know happens all the time for us and the safety of our officers and agents on the field. It's an important aspect that we need to address there for us.

• David Aguilar, Former CBP Acting and Deputy Commissioner and former Chief of Border Patrol:

To say that CBP is going to be busy is an understatement. Inauguration, nsse, super Bowl, I mean all of these things heavily, heavily involved. Pete, thank you very much. Really appreciate you being here with us.