Morale among employees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reached a new low as a result of President Barack Obama’s immigration policies,
the Washington Examiner reported Friday.
ICE employees are concerned that illegal immigrants with criminal records are being freed pursuant to Obama's policies and say some illegals – believing that Obama will protect them no matter what – taunt and ridicule American immigration officers.
"Some have told me that illegal alien criminals they have arrested have even taunted them, saying they know the ICE officers can’t do anything to them because of Obama administration policies," Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) told the Examiner.
She recounted that in one recent conversation, an ICE officer bluntly informed her that "working for this agency is hell right now."
ICE agents have tried to raise their concerns at "town hall" meetings with more senior officials, but their concerns are largely disregarded. Top officials with the Homeland Security Department, ICE’s parent agency, think the crux of the morale problem is poor pay rather than current administration policies and that it can be solved by increasing salaries. That’s why President Obama may include a pay increase as part of his plan to give amnesty to about 5 million illegals.
In a new CIS paper, Vaughan writes that Obama "is hoping to stifle" the immigration agents’ protests "by offering them a pay increase as part of this outrageous [amnesty] plan. His assumption that they are motivated by money shows just how little respect he has for the men and women who have devoted their careers to public service in immigration."
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