Staffing, waits in inverse proportion

By Meg Olson

By July 1, Brewsters Restaurant owner Joan Roberts had seen her business dwindle by 30 percent in four weeks, as changes in policy enforcement at the border drove lines down the hill. On July 5, 11 of her customers called to cancel reservations after they were turned away for not having proof of citizenship. Others decided not to wait in a line that stretched to 4th Avenue. That Friday night, usually a busy one, she sold 31 dinners, half what was sold at lunch. The following Friday there was a one-hour wait to get through one inspection lane and Roberts went to the port. “I went to ask about the schedule because I had lost my shirt the week before,” she said. “They told me they were understaffed.”

Jan Pete, now in charge of inspections for the INS Seattle office, can match sudden long lines on the weekends with sick leave, training and vacation time. On July 5, out of a pool of 12 two inspectors were sick, one on vacation and one in training, . The most inspectors that could be scheduled at any time was three, which meant one lane open all day. Pete said the maximum wait time was 30 minutes, but Roberts’ customers tell of longer times in line that evening.

On July 12 there was still vacation and training holes to fill and two members of the day shift left due to illness. “Customs helped us so we could open one lane,” Pete said. The night shift came in early to get a second lane open and the day shift stayed late to keep it open that evening.

INS acting district director Ron Hays added that insufficient staff meant overtime was the only way to keep lanes open. On July 2, when holiday traffic jammed the border, one inspector worked 26 hours in a row. “The idea of a guy with a gun in that volatile situation scares the hell out of me,” he said. Hays said he would transfer officers from Blaine if he had any to transfer, but he could not fill the positions he has funding for. “There is no backup and there hasn’t been in years,” he said.

There are now 13 permanent, full-time inspectors assigned to Point Roberts, the same number as was assigned in 1994 and four less than 1995, according to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) inspections data, and two inspectors need to be on duty for each lane open. To keep two lanes open during the day and early evening and one lane at night, each of the 13 inspectors would need to work five and a half to six shifts each week. This is without allowances for training, sick leave or vacation.

Since congressional allocations for more inspectors after September 11, Point Roberts number of authorized full time positions was lifted from 10 to 12, with two “other-than-permanent” positions authorized. While those two positions were filled before September 11 they are not now, Hays said and there are no plans at this time to fill them.

Prior to June 7, Point Roberts lines had dwindled since the post-September 11 delays, and the 12 inspectors assigned at that time had cut average monthly wait times down to three minutes from February through May.

On June 7 port director James Hutchins was transferred to Blaine and staff was told to tighten up inspections, checking all travelers’ identification and entering their license plate numbers. The average wait time doubled in June, while the volume grew by only one percent, and weekend waits soared to over an hour. “For Point Roberts I consider 20 minutes excessive,” Hays said.

James Broz, president of the northwest local of the American Federation of Government Employees and an INS inspector, said the level of scrutiny at the border wasn’t something inspectors could vary within agency policy. “The service’s policy is that the inspector does not have the authority not to do these checks. If you don’t for one person, where’s the line? There is not an option, even if it’s your wife,” he said. “This is the cost of security and people need to get used to it.”

Broz said the extra security was probably more about appearance than effectiveness. “I happen to believe most of the added requirements have one function: an overall feeling that things are better, safer,” he said. To maintain that feeling of security, he said, there needed to be a consistent policy at all borders. “For the people who live in Iowa, they don’t want to know an officer in Point Roberts has the authority to decide not to check someone because he sees them all the time.”

Broz said more staff would mean less waits at Point Roberts, but it wasn’t likely. “Not a chance in hell,” he said. “Point Roberts is a low priority. There are other places with much greater need.” The NEXUS system, scheduled to open on July 27, is the best solution to moving traffic faster, Broz said. “You’re not going to get more staff, you won’t get a different policy, but there are ways to do things differently.”

Unlike other ports, INS provides all the staff for primary inspection lanes in Point Roberts and has done since U.S. Customs withdrew all but one staff member in 1983. Until then the port had been staffed by five customs inspectors, and they were replaced with six INS inspectors. “It was determined that most of the issues at Point Roberts were immigration issues,” said area port director for customs Ken Peck. Now, with additional inspectors due to post-September 11 increases in resources, he said they are thinking of sending some extra staff to the Point, possibly to help in primary inspections. “I’m making a big push to get extra full time staff there but the exact number of inspectors deployed where is still being decided,” he said. At a meeting for the NEXUS system in May. Peck encouraged local residents to apply and some had been tentatively selected to possibly fill those positions. “Our primary emphasis since September 11 is terrorism interdiction and it’s just as important at small ports,” he said. ‘People looking for holes in our perimeter will go for weak links.”

Peck agreed with Broz that loosening inspection standards at Point Roberts was not a solution. “Just because we see someone every day doesn’t make him low-risk,” he said. “At this heightened state of security the textbook answer is 100 percent.”

Roberts said she credits business coming back up in the latter part of July with two lanes open more consistently since July 12, and she credits that with making some noise. She put together a sheet with email addresses and phone numbers for INS, Customs and legislative contacts. Hays said the district has received dozens of phone calls, mostly anonymous and angry.

Congressman Rick Larsen’s office and Senator Maria Cantwell’s office both acknowledge volumes of mail from the Point and both have sent letters to the INS asking for steps to be taken to resolve the situation. “I commend the INS for responding to the call to duty,” Larsen said of recent emphasis on keeping two lanes open. “They acted quickly to meet the needs of Point Roberts.”
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