Thread: Border Patrol Chief: Illegal Migration Surge Could Happen Again

Posted By Will Racke On 12:50 PM 04/14/2017

Border apprehensions are down significantly in the early months of the Trump Administration, but the head of the U.S. Border Patrol says his agency must remain vigilant against a potential surge in illegal immigration from the south.

Chief Ronald Vitiello told The Wall Street Journal that a plan to bring on 5,000 new Border Patrol agents is still needed despite the short-term reduction in illicit border crossing. Citing the wave of unaccompanied children in 2014 and the continued trafficking of migrants from the so-called “Northern Triangle” countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, Vitiello warned that a similar flood “could happen to us again.”

“I’ve seen the ebbs and flows of traffic. And it’s always been crippling to us, because people talk about arrests like that’s the only thing that happens,” Vitiello told TheWSJ. “But those arrests are generated by criminal cartels, who send commodities and people to the border and bad things into the United States. That scenario isn’t going to change.”

Vitiello, appointed as chief in January, leads the Border Patrol at at time when it is under pressure to rapidly boost staffing while making good on President Donald Trump’s promise to stop the flow of people and contraband crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border. A “substantial amount” of new physical barriers would help the agency carry out that task, he said, referring to the administration’s proposed border wall.

The Border Patrol is currently about 8 percent short of its statutorily mandated force of 21,370 agents, but Trump has requested $61.1 million in supplemental funding to cover the staffing shortfall in fiscal year 2017. The Department of Homeland Security plans to ask for $100 million to hire 500 Border Patrol agents in FY2018, according to an internal department assessment.

DHS is also considering changes to pre-employment screening of Border Patrol candidates, including expanding the use of polygraph waivers and reducing the number of physical fitness tests administered to trainees. Critics are concerned that relaxing the hiring standards will lead to corruption and disciplinary problems down the road.

Vitiello disagrees with that notion that changes to the polygraph program will lead to a reduction in the quality of new hires. The waivers will be given to candidates who have previously passed federal polygraph exams or who have gone through certain kinds of background investigations, he claims.

“Prior law-enforcement officers, officers in the military who have a high security clearance who have to pass a rigid background exam to hold on to that clearance, those are the kind of things that the commissioner’s memo asks for discussion and relief on,” Vitiello told TheWSJ. “And I think they’re appropriate.”

http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/14/bo...-happen-again/

Oh for heaven sakes, get rid of the polygraph test. That is ridiculous. There are millions of Americans out there more than qualified to do this job at the borders or at a customs office, just get the word out, ask for resumes, verify them, do your background checks, talk to them, interview them, you'll figure out who is capable and who can be trusted, if you're any good at hiring to begin with. Maybe that's the problem, we don't have people in the government who know how to interview and hire people?

We have a lot of active military in Texas - use them. We have a lot of NG in Texas use them - until they can find those 'qualified' people they want.

We have the laws, we have the people, we have the equipment to fix this problem.

What we lack is integrity on the part of our government officials - from the lowliest to the top.

YES!! So does California, Arizona and New Mexico, which with Texas and all of its resources can stop this madness in a New York minute. Call up the National Guard and all their equipment and get them down there now. They are already well-trained in border security, they've been guarding borders of other countries for decades. Make it happen!