Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Air marshals depart TSA, join law enforcement bureau

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2003 23:29:18 -0400

September 2, 2003

Air marshals depart TSA, join law enforcement bureau

By Matthew Weinstock and Jason Peckenpaugh
[email-masked]

More than 5,000 law enforcement officials will soon be trained to
serve as federal air marshals under a major reorganization at the
Homeland Security Department.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced Tuesday
that the federal air marshals program will move from the
Transportation Security Administration to the Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“ICE offers the air marshal service multiple investigative
resources, such as additional access to intelligence, better
coordination with other law enforcement agencies, and broader
training opportunities,” said Michael Garcia, acting assistant
secretary for the bureau.

The move had been anticipated for several weeks. Ridge wanted
to consolidate law enforcement and investigative agencies into
one unit. Some agency insiders also see it as a way to save the air
marshals from an uncertain future at the budget-strapped TSA.
Earlier this summer, reports leaked that TSA was considering
scaling back the air marshals program because of budget
constraints. That news caused an outcry on Capitol Hill and
elsewhere within the department.

Sources within the department said that the air marshals
themselves were pushing to be transferred. One principal reason
is professional development. Many marshals want the opportunity
to cross-train with other law enforcement agencies. They want
the flexibility to be detailed to other missions, not just fly on
planes. TSA will not reveal how many marshals are currently in
the program.

On Tuesday, Ridge said ICE personnel would be trained as air
marshals, adding more than 5,000 new officers to the marshal’s
ranks. “With this single move, we will be able to deploy more
than 5,000 additional armed federal law enforcement agents to
the skies when needed,” he said in a speech to the American
Enterprise Institute, a Washington think-tank.

The reorganization gives TSA the ability to add air marshals
during peak travel times or as security intelligence dictates,
according to agency spokesman Brian Turmail.

The air marshals will become another branch in ICE, according to
Garrison Courtney, an agency spokesman. Officials have not
decided which ICE personnel will undergo air marshal training, he
said. Courtney minimized the training differences between
marshals and ICE agents, noting that many marshals came from
Customs and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and that
some ICE agents served as marshals after Sept. 11. The air
marshal program was part of the Customs Service in the 1970's.

“We do have a significant number of ICE agents who could act
as air marshals if they need to,” he said.

The reorganization means ICE now has three law enforcement
corps, each with their own training background and pay system.
Customs agents are typically paid at the GS-13 level, while INS
investigators are classified at the GS-12 level. Air marshals are
paid under three broad pay bands, and can earn up to $80,800 in
base pay, roughly equivalent to a GS-13, but about $11,000
more than an INS agent typically can make.

“We have to look at pay equality for all the parties,” said
Courtney. “That’s one of the things they’re already looking at it in
DHS.”

Some veteran INS agents were less than thrilled about the
reorganization. “Nobody here is too happy about it because it
means basically everybody will be a GS-13 except us,” said one
INS investigator. Agents also wondered how the agency would
juggle air marshal deployments with its current investigative work.

TSA Administrator James Loy had fought to keep the marshals
within the agency.

“I believe that they are [an] integral part of the system we have
built for aviation security,” Loy said in an interview with
Government Executive last week, before the final decision was
made. “I believe we optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of
that system by holding onto all of the parts.”

Nonetheless, Loy said he understands and appreciates the
secretary’s desire to consolidate like entities under one roof. He
said TSA will become a “demanding customer” of the bureau.

“I want the ability to shift air marshals from flight A to flight B, if
that is the right thing to do,” Loy said. “I want the ability to
influence their schedule.”

Most of those details are still being worked out, according to
TSA’s Turmail. Courtney, the ICE spokesman, said the marshals
would report directly to Garcia. The transfer will take place in
October, at the beginning of the fiscal year.

In his speech, Ridge also announced that the Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection will cross-train its inspection corps, so
lead inspectors at ports of entry can handle the basic tasks of
INS and Customs inspectors. The agency will still have
inspectors who specialize in agriculture inspection, according to
William Anthony, a spokesman for Customs and Border
Protection. “If there is an agriculture issue, it’ll be sent to them,”
he said.

Ridge said the department would work to present a “single face
at the border” in January. But Colleen Kelley, president of the
National Treasury Employees Union, questioned whether the
move improves border operations. “It’s unclear to me how
having one person perform the jobs of three increases their
abilities,” she said Tuesday.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0903/090203p1.htm

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