Fewer agents entering Yuma sector despite promises
BY JACKIE LEATHERMAN, SUN ASSOCIATE EDITOR-ASSIGNMENTS
July 5, 2007 - 10:58PM
The number of new U.S. Border Patrol agents entering the Yuma sector annually has steadily declined in recent years despite the federal government's promise to flood sectors with new recruits.

But the combined volume of new agents entering the sector during the past three years far outweighs the stagnancy of new hires during the first portion of the decade.

Since 2000, the number of new agents entering the Yuma sector peaked two years ago with 216 additions, according to figures from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. The figures from CBP are for fiscal years, which begin and end in October.

For fiscal year 2006, it dropped to 164.

And for the first seven months of the government's current fiscal year, 108 new agents have been added to Yuma.

However, overall, the number of agents has increased dramatically sectorwide since 2004 when staffing increased from 338 to its current 826.

President George W. Bush announced Operation Jumpstart while visiting Yuma in May 2006. The plan called for the placement of 6,000 National Guardsmen along the U.S.-Mexico border to help with surveillance, fence-building and other tasks in order to free up Border Patrol agents.

The plan was to also recruit 6,000 new agents nationwide.

Local border officials attribute a roughly 67 percent decrease in apprehensions of illegal immigrants within the last year to the operation. Illegal immigrants committing violent acts against agents has risen during the past year.

But Yuma has yet to see the government's impact in its recruitment figures.

"Are we satisfied? No. By no means; we are not satisfied at all," said Lloyd Easterling, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector. "We realize there is more work to do, but we are pleased with what we've gotten."

Easterling said the sector might not see the flood of new trainees who have applied since the start of Operation Jumpstart for several more years because it takes "a lot" to get an applicant on the ground.

Something Andrew Patterson knows too well.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Patterson traded in his white collar in the software industry for federal law enforcement - he didn't care which agency hired him.

Patterson said that compared with other federal agencies, the Border Patrol was shuffling him through the hiring process the fastest. His footprints appeared in Yuma's desert for the first time in December 2005, more than four years after he applied.

Patterson said months would pass between steps in the hiring process, which included a written exam, a panel interview, physical fitness and medical exams, background investigations and finally the academy.

"There was lag time definitely," he said. "Actually, the Border Patrol (is) the fastest one to go through. It is not uncommon for people to say they would be waiting five or six years" to start with another federal law enforcement agency.

Also like Patterson, the lack of law enforcement experience in new agents is becoming more common, according to Easterling.

"Since the pool of applicants has grown, the percentage has gotten smaller," he said. Easterling added that the "rigorous" months of training can prepare new agents, but there are some skills that cannot be learned in the classroom.
Easterling said Yuma's optimum staffing is between 1,100 and 1,200 agents and academy classes are fuller today than when he went through.

He added that Yuma may start seeing the result of those graduates within years.

"You will see steady increases over the next couple of years," he said.

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BY THE NUMBERS

Total agents during fiscal years assigned to the Yuma sector:

2000: 313

2001: 323

2002: 323

2003: 358

2004: 338

2005: 554

2006: 718

2007: 826*
*As of April 28, 2007

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