Border Patrol, needing more agents, recruits here
By Adam Jadhav
ST, LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Jun. 05 2008

ST. CHARLES — Deon Morris spent a few years as a police officer in tiny Beverly
Hills before quitting to focus on a football career that hasn't quite taken off.

Scott Cheever built minivans for 12 years but found himself without work in
December when the Chrysler Fenton plant slowed production.

John Hopkins, an 18-year-old from Warrenton, said he's looking for a real job
and some direction in his life.

So all of them were drawn to advertisements about a U.S. Border Patrol job fair
Tuesday and Wednesday. Good pay. Good benefits. Quick advancement.

But for all the bluster locally and nationally about illegal immigration,
Morris, Cheever and Hopkins and many who showed up admitted to knowing little
about border life or the wider illegal immigration debate.

"I really had no idea what the Border Patrol was about," said Justin Keeney, a
20-year-old car wash supervisor from St. Charles. With immigration sure to be a
key issue in the upcoming election season, the Border Patrol stands on the
frontline of the debate. Most conservatives are demanding tighter border
controls while many liberals are urging less strict laws for immigrants
entering the United States.

The two-day recruiting event, held simultaneously with a conference for Border
Patrol officials, was part of a large national push by the federal agency to
meet the goal set in 2006 by President George W. Bush of adding 6,000 agents to
the Mexican border by the end of this year. Border Patrol officials still have
about 2,500 hires to go.

"We started hitting the heartland of America — people from Oklahoma or St.
Louis," said Joe Battaglia, a national recruitment director for the Border
Patrol. "They don't know about the Border Patrol unless they've seen us on the
news."

Agents were on hand to talk about the agency to anyone who would listen. The
Border Patrol is the largest federal law enforcement agency, they told would-be
agents. More than 16,000 "men and women in green" work on foot, bikes, ATVs,
boats, trucks and horses. Within a year of completing training, agents could be
making $50,000 a year.

"Your career is what you make of it," said Damian White, an agent from Arizona.

Though no college degree is required, applicants must pass stringent physical
and mental tests and go through months of training at an academy.

Only about one in three test-takers pass the written exam. In the end,
Battaglia said, an estimated one in 30 actually is deployed in the field.

Battaglia said the agency's standards won't be lowered, but immigration policy
experts believe meeting the president's mandate could put pressure on the
agency to be less picky.

"The big challenge for the Border Patrol is to meet these very ambitious
recruiting goals and still maintain the quality ... of people in the field that
are actually working along the border," said Doris Meissner, former
commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a senior fellow
at the Migration Policy Institute.

During the recruiting event, more than 100 people signed up for further
information or scheduled a test.

Like many others, Morris, Cheever and Hopkins said they were motivated first
and foremost by economic reasons. "Times are tough. Jobs come and go," Hopkins
said.

Some also said they felt a sense of civic duty. A dramatic video that talked of
war and a country at risk, finished with a sales pitch.

"Now more than ever, this border must be guarded," the announcer boomed.
"Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, we protect our freedom and our way
of life."

Battaglia added: "I like to say it's a chance to protect America in America."

Those themes struck a particular chord for Josh Bowman, an Army Reservist, who
attended the event with his fiancée. He admitted to knowing little about the
Border Patrol before he came, but said he supports the president's mission.

"We need to keep people out if they're illegal," Bowman said. "It definitely
needs to be cracked down on."

Battaglia said recruiters leave such politics out of the equation. But Joseph
Burr, a 34-year-old Iraq war veteran who was already pursuing a job with the
Border Patrol, said it's difficult to separate patriotism from the wider
immigration debate.

But he then demurred, saying that such matters are "for smarter people than I."

"When you're a soldier and they say, 'Go to Iraq,' you do it," Burr said. "With
the policy being that borders are closed, you need people to do that job."

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