Long road ahead for prospective Border Patrol agents
BY SARAH REYNOLDS, SUN STAFF WRITER
July 20, 2007 - 11:13PM
An average day for a U.S. Border Patrol agent could include encounters with drug and human smugglers or tracking footprints through the desert in temperatures approaching 120 degrees.

"They could be working a checkpoint, they could be working on ATVs, they could be conducting line-watching operations in the desert in a 4-by-4 truck, they could be a 'helo observer' in one of the helicopters or they could be working along the river," said supervisory Border Patrol agent Clifford Binder. "There's really not a typical day."

With these physical and mental demands, it can be tough to find new recruits who will stick with the job.

For every 30 people who apply to join the Border Patrol, only one actually becomes an agent, according Binder, who works as a recruiter.

Binder said they could decide to leave, or wash out, at several points in the process. There is an initial written test followed by a background check, drug test, a medical fitness exam and oral interview.

This alone normally takes four to six months. If someone is accepted into the Border Patrol Academy, they must complete 19 weeks of training in integrated law, firearms, driving, physical training and Spanish. If a potential agent fails even one of these areas, they won't be retained.

Binder said these standards must be maintained as the Border Patrol, federally, tries to recruit 6,000 new agents before President Bush's deadline at the end of 2008.

To find people capable of becoming agents, Binder said they look in a variety of locations. They have always drawn many former police officers and first-responders but he said that recently they are recruiting more from the military and students in the private sector.

They have recently gotten two major boosts in recruiting personnel. The age limit for a new agent was raised this year from 37 to 40.

"We're attracting veterans, specifically. Folks who joined the military at age 18, had done 20 years in the military, a lot of times they were getting out and were too old to hire," Binder said.

Operation Jumpstart, the National Guard-support mission to the U.S.-Mexico border, has also given them a new pool of candidates.

There are at least two former National Guard members who served on the border in Yuma and are now in the Border Patrol Academy, according to the Yuma Sector Public Affairs office. Binder said there may be more.

There is significant enough interest that the Yuma sector has scheduled a day at the Yuma Civic Center to administer the written test. It is open to the public but it is specifically aimed at Operation Jumpstart personnel.

"There are a number of them that are interested. It should be a really good turnout," Binder said.

In the area, agents also recruit heavily at college events, such as Arizona Western College job fairs, and at the larger state universities in Tempe, Tucson and Flagstaff.

The recruiting area for the Yuma sector ranges as far as Nevada and Kansas. But Binder said they prefer to get personnel as local as possible.

"There’s a benefit in recruiting folks from the Southwest. They're more familiar with the Border Patrol and the Border Patrol's job," Binder said. "When we go farther away from the border, there’s not that familiarity with what we do."

http://www.yumasun.com/news/border_3539 ... inder.html