The union spoke with Chief Owens and Acting Deputy Chief Bernal today and they agreed to cut the mandatory OT requirements in half.
DRT arrest numbers for the past few days have been around 1,600 per day, but because everyone has been so efficient at moving bodies out of our facilities, the in-custody numbers have been relatively low. Chief Owens is going to further evaluate OT this week and consider reducing the mandate even more, so we’ll keep you posted.
We are currently in the middle of a 4-week time frame during which everyone had to do two OT shifts, so if you’ve already done one shift in the past three weeks, you are done for the current 4-week time frame.
The next 4-week time frame begins on April 10, so that means we all will have to do a total of one OT shift during the time frame of PPs 8 and 9.
We’re trying to get OFO — our supposed sister agency in CBP — to leave their booths and offices to come help us, but so far, CBP and DHS are more concerned with bringing in money at the POEs instead of showing that they care about border security.
Title 42 authority will end on May 23, and on Friday, Secretary Mayorkas said, “We have put in place a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to manage any potential increase in the number of migrants encountered at our border” — whatever that means. While we wait for this magical solution from DHS, we’ll continue to push for more manpower from DHS and any other agency that can help.
The announcement about the reduction in OT is supposed to hit the stations tonight, set to take effect tomorrow, so expect to hear something from your station’s management soon.