By Sarah Martinson

Law360 (September 9, 2020, 7:47 PM EDT) -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are concerned that their work doesn't allow for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are taking measures to safeguard individuals in their facilities, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General said that even though CBP's work requires its employees to be in close proximity with individuals when processing detainees and travelers, making it difficult for the agency to implement social distancing, CBP has taken a number of measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus including reducing traffic in its facilities and conducting risk assessments.

"Facilities also generally reported they had adequate supplies to lessen the spread of COVID-19, and have taken other steps, such as increasing the cleaning and disinfecting of common areas," the watchdog said.

To mitigate the virus threat, CBP facilities have reduced detained populations and the number of travelers processed by expelling thousands of immigrants back to their home countries and cutting nonessential travel, according to a report dated Sept. 4. More than 75% of the CBP's expulsions occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border, the report said.

Based on a survey of 136 Border Patrol stations and 307 Office of Field Operations ports of entry, the watchdog found that more than 90% of CBP facilities have also increased their sanitation and cleaning efforts, but only 74% of Border Patrol stations have increased cleaning and sanitation of their holding cells.

In addition, 90% of CBP facilities are conducting risk assessments to determine whether detainees had been exposed to the coronavirus based on travel history and monitoring of symptoms, according to the report.

The inspector general's report was not entirely rosy, however. It found that approximately 25% of CBP facilities feel they can't manage the coronavirus and roughly 9% of facilities are concerned about staff shortages, according to the report. Additionally, the watchdog said only 5% of facilities have on-site testing.

Fifteen percent of CBP facilities had employees who tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 70% of facilities had those who were self-quarantining or couldn't work as a result of stay-at-home orders and similar measures, the report said.

"When asked about contingency staffing plans during the pandemic, facilities described various solutions, including requesting staff from other facilities, modifying staffing models, reassigning staff from neighboring facilities, or requesting resources from other federal partners such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the Department of Defense," the watchdog said.

The watchdog compiled the report to review CBP's early response to the COVID-19 pandemic and said it doesn't have recommendations for the agency.

In response to a draft of the report, CBP Senior Component Accountable Official Henry Moak Jr. said in a July 31 letter the agency is pleased the report recognizes the precautionary actions CBP has taken, but "is concerned that portions of the OIG's draft report imply that CBP's [U.S. Border Patrol] is not taking a comprehensive approach to protecting staff or applying fundamental protection methods included within the hierarchy of controls related to mitigating exposures to occupational hazards."

"The reality is CBP uses administrative and work practice controls as well as engineering controls (neither of which is mentioned in the draft report) that are potentially more effective protection methods than solely protecting the staff through the use of [personal protective equipment] and increased cleaning and disinfecting protocols, the only protective measures mentioned in the report," Moak said.

A CBP spokesperson declined to provide further comment about the final report Wednesday.

--Editing by Stephen Berg.

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