RED FLAGS
Union leaders say border agents at risk with lack of adequate virus safeguards.
Union leaders representing Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents say the agencies are failing to adequately protect front-line workers from the novel coronavirus.
The two unions say some agents have been exposed to the virus and later learned they were infected.
In a recent Facebook post, Hector Garza, president of Local 2455 of the National Border Patrol Council, accused Sector Chief Felix Chavez of “failing to protect Border Patrol Agents from COVID-19.”
Garza said that, in five different situations in which an agent was directly or indirectly exposed to the virus, Chavez did not allow the agent to take leave before getting a test, “thus exposing the remainder of the workforce and their families to COVID-19.”
“We’re facing an invisible enemy and the protective equipment we have is simply gloves and a face mask,” he said. “When people come across illegally, we are returning them right away, so we’re really not going to know if they have the disease or not.”
Garza, whose local represents about 2,200 Border Patrol agents in the Laredo sector, said he went public after getting nowhere in a private meeting with Chavez.
“We’ve seen chiefs in other sectors exercise discretion and allow agents to go on safety leave when there is a suspected or confirmed exposure to COVID-19, but unfortunately, that is not what Chief Chavez is doing,” he said.
Garza could not say how many of the five agents he cited tested positive for the virus.
Requests for comment from the Laredo Border Patrol Sector went unanswered.
A separate issue affecting agents for Customs and Border Protection nationwide is also bringing complaints from Laredo.
It concerns the abrupt cancellation, after only one week, of a CBP policy that gave an extra day of paid leave each week to agents, including those who work Laredo ports.
“I had never seen morale that high. It just shot up. It showed the employees that the agency was concerned about their health,” said Rick Guerra, president of CBP union local in Laredo of the policy launched several weeks ago.
“When they took it back, it crushed morale. It was inexplicable and against all common sense,” he added.
Guerra said CBP agents often work in close quarters and also have a difficult time maintaining a safe distance from pedestrians and motorists arriving from Mexico.
“It’s not possible to stay 6 feet away. We need adequate PPE (personal protections equipment). We need sanitized work areas and plexiglass barriers in certain areas,” he said.
Guerra said that about 1,100 CBP employees work in Laredo, and that about seven federal agents there, including the Border Patrol, have thus far tested positive for the coronavirus.
On April 7, the day after the temporary leave policy was canceled, Anthony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Workers Union, which represents 25,000 CBP workers, wrote to Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Secuirty and Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, asking the agency to reconsider.
The extra day off, he said, reduced potential exposure to the virus, and also provided additional personal time to deal with family responsibilities resulting from the forced closures of schools and day care centers.
A CBP spokesman said Wednesday the special leave was rescinded because of “COVID-19 related requirements” on the border that necessitated the mobilization of those CBP officers.
In a subsequent letter, sent April 14, Reardon noted that 218 CBP employees have been infected with the coronavirus.