Homeland Security job applicants surprised by continued hiring freeze

Homeland Security job applicants reacted with surprise and confusion Monday after DHS officials announced that the current hiring freeze would not be lifted until at least the beginning of the next fiscal year in October.

Earlier this year, DHS stopped hiring agents and officers at the bureaus of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Citizenship and Immigration Services because internal audits showed the departments might be on track to exceed their budgets. After a review, DHS officials determined the projected budget shortfall was actually a result of mismatched accounting systems.

Nevertheless, DHS announced Friday that recruiting needs for fiscal 2004 have been met and the hiring freeze will remain in place.

That announcement stunned many applicants, who said they had been promised jobs and were already well into the hiring process. The applicants asked to remain anonymous in order to protect their chances for employment once the DHS agencies begin hiring again. All of them complained of a lack of communication from Homeland Security officials over their standing and the status of the hiring freeze.

One applicant said he was so far into the hiring process that he had submitted his geographic preferences for stationing, but had heard little from DHS in recent weeks. He described himself as "very disheartened."

Another woman-who is attempting to become a CBP agent-was told early this year that she was about to receive a job offer, according to her father.

"They told her they would get back to her within weeks," he said. "She's still waiting. She wants the job real bad … she's getting very, very anxious."

Charles Showalter, president of American Federation of Government Employees Department of Homeland Security Council 117, disputed the assertion that DHS front-line units are fully staffed.

"Their claim that we don't need to hire people because we're all caught up, that may be, but it hasn't hit the field yet," he said. "We still have inspectors, the CBP officers, working a lot of hours on overtime. We need more officers out there."

An agency as important as Homeland Security, Showalter said, should not be making personnel decisions within tight budget constraints. He said he would visit Capitol Hill to petition for more DHS funding.

"The people in Washington may be comfortable with the personnel levels, but I'm not sure that anybody else is," he said. "We need to get more quality people in here, working."