Thread: Coast Guard will recruit Hispanics to boost readiness at bor

http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=1943639

Coast Guard will recruit Hispanics to boost readiness at borders
By STEPHEN LOSEY
July 11, 2006
The Coast Guard wants to broaden the diversity of its new recruits, and especially seeks Spanish speakers who can help it deal with illegal immigrants, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said.

Allen said July 10 at the Excellence in Government conference in Washington that the Coast Guard is having no trouble recruiting these days, which he said is partly due to the agency’s successful response to Hurricane Katrina. The Coast Guard’s retention rate last year was the highest since World War II and attrition is now at a 20-year low, he said.
But Allen wants to pursue a work force that “looks more like America.”

“If you’re involved in chasing a fast boat in the straits of Florida, and you’re involved in these very tense interactions with the Hispanic community, having Hispanic members of the Coast Guard, having Spanish speakers, understanding the culture, not only is a diversity issue, it heightens operational readiness,” Allen said.

Allen said one of the biggest challenges facing the Homeland Security Department is integrating its missions and business processes such as human capital, procurement and budgetary functions. The department was formed three years ago by the merger of the Coast Guard and 21 other agencies. The Coast Guard and six other operational components of the department regularly meet to hammer out procedures to set how they will work together out in the field.

Those meetings are working, Allen said, and the Coast Guard regularly works with Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement on missions such as migrant interdictions and prosecutions.

“We’re seeing more and more of these collocations of these forces in the same operation center,” Allen said. “We have Border Patrol agents who man our joint harbor operation center in San Diego. We use Border Patrol radar feeds to help us get a better common operating picture.”

Allen said the Coast Guard’s relationship with the Navy has never been better. Both organizations are working on a national fleet concept that aims to combine their resources and skills into a force that works together.

More BS and jobs for the elite! Jorge you are not winning.

The Coast Guard wants to broaden the diversity of its new recruits, and especially seeks Spanish speakers who can help it deal with illegal immigrants, Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said.

I wonder if Commandant Allen will appear before the Kennedy-Spector Amnesty commission and break down and cry about his immigrant ancestors like General Pace did.

It could be a good career move, and he obviously has the right instincts.