Border Patrol is a boost for struggling towns

By Elliot Spagat
ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:58 a.m. September 26, 2008

EL CENTRO – The U.S. Border Patrol's gleaming new regional headquarters building is just one sign of how the fast-growing agency is boosting the local economy.
Agents frequent the restaurants and gyms. A new indoor shooting range relies on Border Patrol employees. And dry cleaners do brisk business pressing green uniforms.

The Border Patrol's growth to more than 17,000 agents – from 12,000 two years ago and nearly double from eight years ago – has been a boon to towns and small cities along the 1,952-mile border with Mexico, many plagued by poverty and high unemployment.
“The Border Patrol had a very noticeable presence two or three years ago. Now it's overwhelming,â€