Sheriff Wiles prohibits staff from off-duty work at Tornillo tent city; City staff not prohibited

El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles has prohibited deputies and staff from working at the tent facility in Tornillo that has been housing undocumented migrant children.

Wiles, a democrat, has the authority to approve or deny off-duty work requests.

“It violates the values of this organization and that is something we do not want to engage in,” Wiles said. “They were going to bring in security from FEMA and the department of human services and to cover any gaps, they were going to use troopers from the department of public safety in an off-duty capacity. I understand that occurred. I don’t believe that us refusing placed anybody in any type of danger whatsoever.”

But, this is not unfamiliar territory for wiles and his deputies. In 2016, his deputies worked off-duty at the Dona Ana Range complex which housed unaccompanied minors.

“The one back in 2016 was unaccompanied minors that had come into the U.S. and were being held until they could be reunited with their families,” Wiles said.

Sgt. Robert Horstman, president of the Sheriff’s Officers Association said he’s ok with the decision.

“The sheriff has the right and authority to prohibit staff from moonlighting. The sheriff wants to reflect the values of the community. There’s enough work for guys to moonlight as security in other areas,” Horstman said.

ABC-7 asked El Paso Mayor Dee Margo is he is ok with city employees, such as police or fire fighters, working at the facility.

“I have not had any requests from our — regarding our public safety folks — from being here. I haven’t heard anything like that, so I don’t know,” Margo said.

City officials emailed this statement to ABC-7 regarding the city’s off-duty policy:

“Our Human Resources policy states that all employees must submit an application within ten working days prior to accepting outside employment; these applications must be approved by the Department Director. The employees’ outside work must not interfere with the employees’ regular schedule and it may not be more than 20 hours a week.”

The statement went on to state that no directive has been given and no applications had been received at Fire or PD Headquarters.

El Paso Police Spokesman Darrel Petry said police officers have certain restrictions on where they can work.

“Although EPPD officers are Texas Peace Officers, their jurisdiction authority is only within the El Paso city limits. Last year, during Hurricane Harvey, EPPD officers were dispatched to Houston under emergency circumstances as a request by the State of Texas as a state emergency,” Petry said.