# Understanding the DHS Rural and Remote Hiring and Retention Strategy Act

The federal government has a hard time finding and keeping workers for immigration and border patrol jobs in rural and remote areas across the country. This bill tries to fix that problem by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to create a detailed plan for recruiting and retaining employees for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in these hard-to-reach locations.

Here's what the bill actually requires: Within one year, DHS leadership has to develop a strategy and action plan with specific goals and timelines. Before they write this plan, they need to talk to people who actually know the challenges—current workers in rural areas, new hires who've recently moved there, people who've quit these jobs, and job candidates who turned down positions. The bill specifically asks them to look at quality of life issues for workers and their families, since that's often why people don't want to move to remote locations or leave once they get there.

The action plan itself needs to include at least two things: a pilot program to test solutions for hiring and retention problems, and a strategy to recruit more effectively by partnering with colleges, military transition programs, and job placement services in regions that feed into rural areas. The idea is that if you recruit people who already live near these remote locations or who have connections to those regions, you're more likely to find candidates willing to work there.

Finally, the bill sets up accountability. Starting one year after the plan is released, DHS has to report to Congress every year for four years on whether the strategy is actually working—are they hiring more people? Are workers staying longer? An independent government auditor will review these reports and make recommendations for improvements. This ensures the department can't just create a plan and forget about it; they have to prove the strategy is making a real difference in staffing these rural border and immigration offices.

DHS Rural and Remote Hiring and Retention Strategy Act of 2022

DHS Rural and Remote Hiring and Retention Strategy Act of 2022 This bill requires the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to issue a strategy and implementation plan to improve the hiring and retention of individuals by ICE and CBP in rural or remote areas. DHS must periodically report to Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the extent that the strategy and implementation plan has improved hiring and retention. After receiving each DHS report, the GAO must submit to Congress an assessment of the effectiveness of the actions described in the DHS report.