Management within Border Patrol may soon receive a long-overdue pay raise, following the border crisis that gripped the country for much of the Biden administration.
New legislation put forward by Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) would give Border Patrol’s thousands of supervisory agents the ability to receive time-and-a-half pay when they work overtime, something they were ineligible for.
The Border Patrol Supervisors Retention Act would require overtime pay for an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 agents in management roles.
“Border Patrol supervisors are among the hardest-working federal employees in the service, yet they aren’t afforded the same enhanced overtime pay that has been authorized for other agents,” Gonzales said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner on Monday. “At a time when we need to retain as much talent as we can, my bill makes it possible for Border Patrol supervisors at the GS-13 level and above to have more pay equity with their peers.”
Gonzales, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, included a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024 that gave overtime pay for nonsupervisory agents.
Getting overtime for the majority of the agency’s 20,000 employees was a step in the right direction, but unintentionally resulted in some rank-and-file agents earning more than their superiors, which led some agents to choose not to pursue promotion, according to Gonzales’s office.
Although Border Patrol employees are not permitted to speak with the media, two employees agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. The first supervisor told the Washington Examiner on Monday that he took a significant pay cut to be a supervisor on the southern border as an example of how much he earned as an agent working overtime.
“I took a $11,000.00 pay cut,” the Border Patrol supervisor wrote in a text message. “It is overdue and the bill that gave 12’s the increase should not have happened with the 13’s and above being left out.”
A second supervisor echoed that the proposed pay change was “long overdue.”
“Since the new overtime pay for line agents came into effect, there has been zero incentive to become a supervisor, except for having the ‘Supervisor’ title,” the second supervisor wrote in a text message. “The line agents are making more money than a first line supervisor, the line agents also have little to no responsibility when compared to a supervisor.”
“I know of a few supervisors that dropped their bars and went back to the line when this new overtime pay kicked in and I don’t blame them,” the second employee said.
The change in pay is intended to help Border Patrol retain senior employees, particularly after a challenging few years when retirements and resignations increased significantly.
Matthew Hudak, the retired second-in-command of Border Patrol, told the Washington Examiner last year that many agents lost motivation and purpose during the Biden administration, arresting illegal immigrants only to release them into the country rather than remove them, and working overtime over long stretches for three years.
Border Patrol lost nearly a quarter of its workforce, more than 4,000 employees, following the election of former President Joe Biden to office in November 2020, the Washington Examiner first reported in May 2024.
The Border Patrol Supervisors Association strongly endorsed the bill.
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“This bill finally brings parity to Border Patrol supervisors who carry the same mission and risks as the agents we lead,” BPSA President James Robertson wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner. “It strengthens retention and morale at a time when the border has never been more demanding.”
Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol, did not comment on pending legislation.
