Thread: 51% of U.S. Border Patrol Agents Now 'Hispanic'

Unfortunately this blub does not distinguish between "Hispanics" (or "Latinos") in general and Mexican-Americans in particular, since Mexico now encourages U.S. citizens of Mexican parentage to apply for dual citizenship with Mexico. I'm sure we will never know whether future U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson, born in Mexico of a U.S. citizen father and a Mexican citizen mother, holds dual citizenship status.

More Latinos in the Border Patrol

La Opinión, Posted: Dec 11, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- More than half of the agents who currently guard the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada are Hispanic, according to figures released by the office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Of the total of 18,049 agents who are working for the Border Patrol, 51 percent is Latino, a shift that happened in less than nine months. At the beginning of this year, Latinos made up only 32 percent of the agency. Their high level of interest in the Border Patrol is due in part to the current economic situation, their desire to be fully integrated into the country and to "not appear to be southerners," according to Jorge Mario Cabrera, director of education and public relations for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/vi ... 4&from=rss

Americans more to sicken us.

Sorry.....I just find this to be alot like the fox guarding the hen house.

I know lots of BP agents who are of Hispanic decent but they are as American as anyone else. They're out there busting their behinds off and using their language skills to help in their job.
Please don't confuse the term Hispanic with anti-American, if you do you are slapping the face of many fine men and women who are serving American and you!

Hispanics can be fair to everyone or side with those of their background. I have seen both with the police department. There was an altercation in my condo building where I witnessed the whole thing. When police arrived the people involved claimed to not speak English but yet their altercation was all in English. The female officer was a Spanish speaker and Colombian just the person who casued the altercation and so immiediately sided with her fellow Colombians. It was also not the first time she had done this according to my daughter who was a police explorer and spent time on the road with her.

I'm sure Mountaindog makes an excellent point. However, I also think what a lot of people who read at this site wonder is why we now have this endless array of special classifications such as "Hispanic" at all, when the point of the country originally was to bring a population of many national origins together under one government?

I hope ALIPAC may help educate us on the dangers which the growing use of "dual citizenship" (and of such special status holders being allowed to vote both in our elections and those of a foreign country) may pose to the unity and sovereignty of our country.

See "Foreign Leaders Now Addess Their Citizens on U.S. Soil"
http://www.alipac.us/article3561.html

I have several family members with dual citizenship and they don't give a damn about Mexico. We have Hispanic clasification for the same reason we have White, Indian, Asian and Black. American is not a race but we come in many colors.

Dixie

The term 'Hispanic' has to do with language, not color. It is defined in my American Oxford Dictionary as: adj. - "of Spain or Latin America"; noun - "a Spanish-speaking person in the United States", which certainly is a special and very narrow category. A big push was begun under the Clinton administration to merge "language" with "race, creed, color, sex, or country of national origin" as described in the Civil Rights Act of 1965 in order to give grounds to the large numbers of lawsuits brought by organizations representing, not people speaking any other or all foreign languages, but Spanish in particular, i.e., people specifically of Spanish descent.

Now those of us who previously were simply "Americans" whose race is Caucasian are categorized as "non-Hispanic whites" in the U.S. Census. They have very effectively managed to transform a linguistic characteristic into a "racial" one (or one of "color") in two short decades.

Actually if you look at the requirements to get a job with Border Patrol you need to speak Spanish or take a test proving that you are capable of learning a foreign language. If you pass the hiring process you are given a certain amount to time to take classes and learn it. I get emails regarding becoming a Border Patrol Agent on a regualr basis and that is where I learned about their policy.

Speaking or learning to speak Spanish is a requirement for U.S. Border Patrol agents. The fact that they have hired so many new ones so rapidly no doubt accounts for the increasing numbers of agents of Spanish descent. I read that the Border Patrol now has established a "fast track" for recruits who already speak Spanish, which allows these trainees to complete the training in less than the usual 2 years.

However, my point to Dixie was that "Hispanic" actually has nothing to do with color or race. The term has evolved from a specific linquistic designation ("a Spanish-speaking person in the United States") into a faux "racial designation". There is no "Hispanic" race or color, and I frankly resent being transformed by own government from an American into a "non-Hispanic white" - an inaccurate and meaningless designation.