Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is visiting the U.S. border with Mexico this week, including a stop Friday in San Diego.

Kelly, who was confirmed late last month, will meet with federal, state and local law enforcement officials at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Friday. He will tour security operations and meet with Department of Homeland Security employees.

Labor unions representing Border Patrol agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers endorsed Donald Trump for president last year. An executive order Trump signed Jan. 28 calls for adding 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 10,000 ICE officers.


Morale among ICE officers has been low. During the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the ICE officers complained about policies they say prohibited them from aggressively enforcing immigration laws. They also said upper management had poor relations with employees.

In San Diego, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office, which arrests and deports immigrants in the country illegally, took its complaints with the Obama administration public. In 2015, for example, union employees demonstrated outside the federal building in downtown San Diego as a protest against management.

Union head Felix Luciano said 23 Equal Employment Opportunity complaints alleging discrimination have been filed in the San Diego office since 2014. Some of the complaints said employees were subjected to harassment or verbal abuse. Others say they were targets of gender, race or age discrimination.

In October, leaders of labor union locals representing ICE workers from around the country submitted a three-page letter describing the low morale and met in Washington, D.C., with top agency officials to discuss the concerns.


Kelly could hear those employee complaints at his border meetings this week. He was in Arizona on Thursday at the Nogales Border Patrol Station to meet with Gov. Doug Ducey and law enforcement.

Kelly also spoke with Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Luis Videgaray Caso on Wednesday. According to the Homeland Security Department, they discussed “the strong partnership and shared values between the United States and Mexico” and the importance of preserving the joint social and economic interests of the two countries.

Since taking office, Trump has signed an executive order to build a wall along the entire U.S. border with Mexico. He also has said he wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal involving the U.S., Mexico and Canada.


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joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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