Thread: Border Patrol out to hire 6,000 agents

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/169826

Published: 02.19.2007

Border Patrol out to hire 6,000 agents
Many worry goal too high, cite past efforts, low morale, big turnover
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

When President Bush issued a call last May to hire 6,000 new Border Patrol agents by the end of fiscal year 2008, it caught the attention of the nation, and especially Tucson Sector Chief Michael Nicley.
The president's goal would require the agency to expand by 50 percent from the 12,000 current agents to 18,000.
"I thought: That's a lot of people. That's going to take a lot of work to do that," Nicley said Friday. "But we'll get there."
With a hiring fair scheduled for Saturday in Tucson, 50 agents assigned nationwide to full-time recruiting, and advertisements running across the country, the agency has kicked the hiring push into high gear.
While aware of the challenge, Nicley is optimistic the agency will reach the ambitious goal.
But a cloud of doubt hangs over the assurances, based on the agency's past struggles in increasing its ranks.
From 1992 to 2006, the agency increased its total number of agents by an average of 530 a year, from 4,139 to 12,084. Only once, from 1997 to 1998, did it increase its ranks by more than 1,000 in a year.
At that rate, it would take more than 10 years to meet the president's goal.
Agency officials say they're devoting more resources and money to the hiring push this time, but the agency's union is skeptical that 18,000 agents will be in uniform by Sept. 30, 2008, the president's target date.
"They are clearly not meeting their goals now," said T.J. Bonner, president of that union, the National Border Patrol Council. "You have 6,000 to go, which is extremely ambitious."
With low morale and attrition rates that exceed the 4 percent the agency cites, the agency will have to overcome the revolving-door syndrome, said Bonner and Mike Albon, spokesman for Local 2544, a chapter of the National Border Patrol Council.
Department of Homeland Security employees ranked the agency among the worst of 35 federal agencies in job satisfaction, leadership and management in the 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey. The survey doesn't give detailed results for the Border Patrol, part of the Department of Homeland Security.
"They would have to hire a lot more than 6,000 to actually get 6,000 more on the border," Albon said.
The planned expansion would be daunting even for a private- sector employer, where decisions usually are made faster than government agencies, said Sue Murphy, association manager of the National Human Resources Association.
"For any organization to add 6,000 employees in a one-year or two-year period is certainly a challenge," she said. "That's a lot of employees."
She couldn't recall a company, let alone federal agency, that had achieved such swift growth. It's possible, she said, but will require a streamlining of the entire process to integrate that many people into the agency.
Getting applicants has never been a problem for the agency, Nicley said. Finding men and women who can get through the grueling hiring and training process is another story. For every agent hired, the Border Patrol goes through 23 to 25 applicants, officials said Friday.
The process includes a four-hour written exam, an in-depth background investigation, a physical fitness test and a grueling five-month academy in Artesia, N.M.
Agency leaders will take certain measures to speed up the process but won't relax their standards, Nicley said Friday.
"We want to make sure we weed out people who are not qualified to be Border Patrol agents," Nicley said.
But Bonner and Albon worry about improperly trained agents and, worse yet, corruption.
"Every major police department that has added people quickly has ended up with corruption and scandals because there is tendency for the process to allow people to slip in," Bonner said.
The agency offers starting salaries of $35,000 to $40,000, which can increase to as much as $50,000 with overtime. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and be younger than 40.
About 2,600 of the 12,100 agents nationwide work in the Tucson Sector. The target number for the sector, which covers 262 miles of border, would be 3,100 agents, Nicley said.
The agency accepts candidates from all backgrounds but is focusing especially on those with military and law-enforcement backgrounds, such as National Guard members working along the border as part of Operation Jumpstart, Nicley said. Those people fit in nicely with the agency's operations, he said.
While hopeful, Nicley knows what his agency is up against.
"Six-thousand is just unprecedented," he said. "I don't think any agency in the country has had to hire that many officers in that short a period of time."
On StarNet: Find more border news at azstarnet.com/border
NOW hiring
For more information on becoming a Border Patrol agent, go to www.cbp.gov
Hiring event
When: Saturday
Where: Hilton Tucson East, 7600 E. Broadway
Time: 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Yeah who is going to sign up after what they did to our agents? All of this is BS. Bush says he wants to hire the agents and then makes sure he scares the crap out of anyone that wants to apply with the possibility of persecution for doing their jobs. This way he can act like he is doing something. What a total crock!

6,000 more people who will not be allowed to do their jobs? Why bother?

who wants to work for the BP knowing that if you shot someone you will end up in prison, if your caught smuggling people you end up in prison. sounds like the only thing you can do wthout getting in trouble is watch a movie, read magazines or puzzle books while on duty.

its a sad day when the BP agents cant or wont take calls from border groups who sit on the border and watch illegals cross, report them and told they were just too busy to help.

its sad when illegals turn themsevles in because they are cold, hungry and thirsty and you call BP and for FOUR hours they cant come help..

think im making it up?? sorry but im not, Simcox of Minuteman talked about this on his hourly radio show last nite and reported all this happening on the border