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-   -   TSA "deploying" employees to the border (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1969958-tsa-deploying-employees-border.html)

TWA884 May 22, 2019 9:56 am

NPR:
NBC News:
DHS backup border funding plan would take millions from TSA, other agencies

The funding from TSA includes $50 million planned for advanced screening equipment and $3 million collected from loose change left in trays at airports.

Bearcat06 May 22, 2019 1:20 pm


Originally Posted by chollie (Post 31107794)
Sounds to me like another all-expenses-paid (by the taxpayer) summer vacay for favored employees.

Have you ever been to the US/Mexican Border along Arizona, NM, or Texas.....?

Yeah....it would be a real cool place for a summer vacay for favored employees in such places as Douglas, Naco, and Nogales....... :rolleyes:

Boggie Dog May 22, 2019 2:04 pm

I would see TSA screeners as a liability in that role.

chollie May 22, 2019 2:07 pm

Yes, I have been along the Arizona and New Mexico borders.

I know folks who would jump at a chance to do this: per diem, nowhere to spend money anyway, so suck up all the OT you can, it's not forever.

It's like summer camp - yeah, it's hot (without the AC that these guys will get every chance they can), dusty and maybe buggy, but no kid wants to miss it - especially if your allowance piles up while you are away. The ordinary rules are relaxed, you're outside your normal management oversight, in fact, you're in a situation where oversight and accountability are going to be minimal at best - there will be people who want this.

I've taken worse short-term assignments for long-term gain.

petaluma1 May 23, 2019 9:16 am

While "deploying" employees to the border, TSA is also hiring 2000 more screeners to cover the summer rush. Allegedly, some have already been hired and trained. I would tend to believe that those already trained aren't increasing the staffing but are replacing screeners who have left the agency.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...s-rise-1468450


And TSA is planning to hire an additional 2,000 employees, including bag screeners, she said.

Bearcat06 May 26, 2019 11:21 pm


Originally Posted by chollie (Post 31128496)
I know folks who would jump at a chance to do this: per diem, nowhere to spend money anyway, so suck up all the OT you can, it's not forever.

Funny..... EVERY CBP Agent I know has been pissed to get sent down here.... counted the days to get the hell out of here.....and asked not to come back....


Originally Posted by chollie (Post 31128496)
The ordinary rules are relaxed, you're outside your normal management oversight, in fact, you're in a situation where oversight and accountability are going to be minimal at best - there will be people who want this.

Not sure who you heard that from but it's a complete cluster F' down here due to POTUS/his staff/Congress Critters, etc.....all being down here trying to "check things out."

GUWonder May 27, 2019 3:20 am


Originally Posted by Bearcat06 (Post 31141650)
Funny..... EVERY CBP Agent I know has been pissed to get sent down here.... counted the days to get the hell out of here.....and asked not to come back....



Not sure who you heard that from but it's a complete cluster F' down here due to POTUS/his staff/Congress Critters, etc.....all being down here trying to "check things out."

Some relatively young hot heads living up north have been happy enough to get down there. So it’s not all discontent to get assignments that involve an all-expenses-paid excursion from their routine home lives. How happy they are after a few weeks may be another story, but youth can be as impetuous as the proto-retirees can be grumpy by nature.m

It’s not as popular as some CBP PreClearance assignments, but some people are fine with it at first anyway.

petaluma1 May 27, 2019 1:38 pm

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...other-n1007961


The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $232 million from the Transportation Security Administration to fund border operations in the event that Congress does not agree to fund $1.1 billion of its funding request, according to documents of a contingency plan obtained by NBC News....TSA programs identified as funding sources include $50 million set aside to buy advanced airport screening equipment and $64 million from a worker’s compensation fund set aside for injured TSA employees in 2010. The funding also includes $3 million collected from lose change left in trays at airports.
That last "funding" source is simply pathetic.

trooper May 27, 2019 5:18 pm

Im curious as to why folks are typing "deployment". That would imply the writer is suggesting this is somehow not deployment? (I'd hazard a guess that some feel only the military "deploys"...but the word means more than just that... I deployed a parachute many, many times...for instance...;))

P.S. Took a drive through southern AZ one Summer.... You couldn't pay ME enough to go work there....(And Im an Aussie...not exactly unfamiliar with heat!)

Boggie Dog May 27, 2019 8:42 pm


Originally Posted by trooper (Post 31144005)
Im curious as to why folks are typing "deployment". That would imply the writer is suggesting this is somehow not deployment? (I'd hazard a guess that some feel only the military "deploys"...but the word means more than just that... I deployed a parachute many, many times...for instance...;))

P.S. Took a drive through southern AZ one Summer.... You couldn't pay ME enough to go work there....(And Im an Aussie...not exactly unfamiliar with heat!)


But it's a dry heat.:D

petaluma1 May 28, 2019 7:24 am


Originally Posted by trooper (Post 31144005)
Im curious as to why folks are typing "deployment". That would imply the writer is suggesting this is somehow not deployment? (I'd hazard a guess that some feel only the military "deploys"...but the word means more than just that... I deployed a parachute many, many times...for instance...;))

P.S. Took a drive through southern AZ one Summer.... You couldn't pay ME enough to go work there....(And Im an Aussie...not exactly unfamiliar with heat!)

I found it amusing that the TSA, which considers itself to be a military-like organization, used the word "deploy" to describe sending employees to the border. It becomes even more amusing when one learns that TSA is asking for volunteers to go to the border. TSA is sending individuals to the border, not organized units, which could perhaps be considered a "deployment."

Boggie Dog May 28, 2019 7:47 am


Originally Posted by Bearcat06 (Post 31141650)
Funny..... EVERY CBP Agent I know has been pissed to get sent down here.... counted the days to get the hell out of here.....and asked not to come back....



Not sure who you heard that from but it's a complete cluster F' down here due to POTUS/his staff/Congress Critters, etc.....all being down here trying to "check things out."

My understanding was that almost all new hire CBP officers are stationed on the southern border. I'm sure there are exceptions.

I know that CBP officers are tasked to the breaking point and it is going to take more than repositioning workers from other agencies to resolve the problem.

84fiero May 28, 2019 1:00 pm


Originally Posted by petaluma1 (Post 31145529)
I found it amusing that the TSA, which considers itself to be a military-like organization, used the word "deploy" to describe sending employees to the border. It becomes even more amusing when one learns that TSA is asking for volunteers to go to the border. TSA is sending individuals to the border, not organized units, which could perhaps be considered a "deployment."

It doesn't strike me as odd. Military deployments aren't always based on a particular unit moving. Most military members in my career field deploy individually, without regard to their permanent organizational unit's status. In fact in this and related career fields, active-duty members are almost always assigned to organizations with a mixture of active-duty and civilian employees (often majority civilian), so their assigned unit would never deploy.

Also, in many civilian career fields, DoD civil service employees can volunteer for deployment on an individual basis (and I know a number who have done so).

Bearcat06 Jun 4, 2019 11:43 pm


Originally Posted by Boggie Dog (Post 31145584)
My understanding was that almost all new hire CBP officers are stationed on the southern border. I'm sure there are exceptions..

Use to be the case but now they are doing a lot more directed hiring (depending on the announcement). Bigger Cites are getting tossed in with Border towns to fill up their ranks.

They are tossing out huge bonus's if you take a focus city for a few years.

AZ and CA wouldn't be that bad in the scheme of things..... if it was only for a few years.

NM/Tex...? Screw that. There are some really, really, really outposts in those two states......

As for exceptions.... I know guys personally that have been on the Northern Border all their careers and got stuck down here on TDY for 90 days and were acting like crying kids.....

Rumor has it that they are asking for CBP and Border Patrol Agents not along the boarder to come visit up to 90 days.....along with FAMS....before they start forcing the issue.

What's next....VIPER Teams going to be sent down there...? LOL....LOL...

Boggie Dog Jun 5, 2019 7:13 am


Originally Posted by Bearcat06 (Post 31171910)
Use to be the case but now they are doing a lot more directed hiring (depending on the announcement). Bigger Cites are getting tossed in with Border towns to fill up their ranks.

They are tossing out huge bonus's if you take a focus city for a few years.

AZ and CA wouldn't be that bad in the scheme of things..... if it was only for a few years.

NM/Tex...? Screw that. There are some really, really, really outposts in those two states......

As for exceptions.... I know guys personally that have been on the Northern Border all their careers and got stuck down here on TDY for 90 days and were acting like crying kids.....

I might have outdated information. I do know that some of the remote stations on the far southwest Texas and NM borders are pretty much as far away from modern civilization as you can get. People who have never been there have no idea just how much fun it is down there.


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