EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) will introduce a bill on Friday that would allow for incentive hazard payments to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who are subject to threats of danger and physical harm at the hands of armed drug cartels.
“Our CBP law enforcement officers have bore the brunt of the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas border crisis. They’ve suffered hardships — including longer working hours, being pulled off the line, and seeing the border they swore to protect left open because of negligence and apathy,” said Crenshaw.
The Customs and Border Protection Crisis Hardship and Incentive Pay Act of 2022, exclusively obtained by the Washington Examiner, would introduce a special pay incentive for CBP officers, with a maximum of $250 per pay period. According to the bill, CBP officers would also qualify for hazard payments for days they are hospitalized for injuries sustained due to the threat of armed cartels for up to three months after the fact.
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“When we’re deployed in the military, we receive incentive pay because of the hardships we face while on deployment. But we always come back home after a certain period,” the former Navy SEAL explained. “CBP doesn’t leave and come back; they are there day in and day out.”
“We need to provide them with incentives to stay and compensate them for the work they are doing on the front lines of keeping the homeland safe. This effort is a start,” he said of the bill.
With an eye on the border crisis, Crenshaw is running for chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the newly Republican-controlled House, elections for which will take place next week. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) dropped out of the race Thursday, making Rep. Mark Green (R-FL) the Texas congressman’s only competition for the seat.
Currently, CBP agents who are already facing the pressure of mass migration are bracing themselves for a new wave of immigrants as Title 42 comes to an end. The pandemic-era policy allows immigrants to be expelled on the basis of health concerns so that highly transmissible diseases are not spread throughout immigration facilities.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan vacated the policy earlier this month, giving the Biden administration until midnight on Dec. 21, right before Christmas, to phase it out.
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The Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli spoke to several Border Patrol agents this week, one of which told her, “Title 42 was a cracked dam. We all know that when it breaks, a huge flood is coming. The flood of people coming in at once will cripple our already broken immigration system.”
“Customs and Border Protection will have no other choice but to release virtually everyone,” the agent continued.
