By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
It was the trash that first drew Roger Barnett's attention.
Roger Barnett began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 after they started to vandalize his property — destroying water pumps, killing calves, vandalizing fences and gates, stealing trucks and breaking into his house.
Working for the government may sound like a sweet gig — regular hours, generous benefits, job security — but it turns out that it's not how things look from inside the bureaucratic bubble.
"Guarding the border is not a 9-to-5 job. Overtime work is routine, and when they are hired, agents are informed that they will almost never work a regular eight-hour shift," he said.
Sequester cuts raising fears of security setback near the border →
J. David Cox Sr., national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said Homeland Security singled out the Border Patrol for the largest financial penalty of any other group of federal workers.
Sequester cuts raising fears of security setback near the border →
