Thread: It Takes an Average of 9 Months to Hire a Border Patrol Agent

IG says Trump will face challenges with DHS hiring 5,000 new agents

BY: Elizabeth Harrington
February 18, 2017 5:00 am

According to the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it takes more than nine months to hire one Border Patrol Agent.

John Roth told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs during his testimony on Wednesday that inefficiencies within the department will bring a "number of challenges" for the government to meet President Donald Trump's executive order to hire 5,000 additional Border Patrol Agents.

"We recently completed an audit that highlighted numerous bottlenecks in effective hiring," said Roth in his prepared remarks. "We found that historically DHS components had insufficient staffing in the human resource area and had inadequate systems to track and process applicants."

As of two years ago, Roth said, it took the department nearly a year to hire a new agent.

"In fiscal year (FY) 2015, it took an average of 282 days (over 9 months) to hire a Border Patrol Agent, measured from the time the job announcement closed to the date the applicant was hired," he explained. "Other positions likewise encountered significant delays."

The subject of the hearing was "High Risk: Government Operations Susceptible to Waste, Fraud, and Mismanagement."

In one of his first acts as president, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 25 directing the government to begin steps to beef up border security, build a wall on the southern border, and hire thousands of additional Border Patrol Agents.

"Subject to available appropriations, the Secretary, through the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, shall take all appropriate action to hire 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents, and all appropriate action to ensure that such agents enter on duty and are assigned to duty stations as soon as is practicable," the executive order stated.

The inspector general said he has initiated a series of audits to review and improve the department's management so it "can quickly and effectively hire a highly qualified and diverse workforce."

"Our first engagement will compile and review open source literature, other government reports, and prior work of our office to help the Department and its components avoid previously identified poor management practices and their negative impacts," Roth said. "Subsequent audits will address the collateral impact hiring 15,000 agents and officers will have not only on other Departmental components, but also on other Federal agencies."

The White House referred comment to DHS. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to request for comment at press time.

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...-patrol-agent/

That is ABSOLUTELY the craziest thing in the world! That is a phony deliberate attempt to NOT HIRE border agents. You cut this damn process down to 2 weeks. There are hundreds of thousands of people qualified, ready, willing and able to be Border Agents. You want a degree? Fine require one. You want a clean background check? Fine do one. You want an E-verify? Fine do one. The combined process takes 3 days maximum. You want to review applications. Take the first 100 that meet the 3 requirements, then review those. Takes 2 days. Narrow it down to 10 interviews. Set it up. 2 days. One will stand out. Hire them. Give them some on-the-job training and go on to the next one.

You people are out of your frigging minds to think that anyone in this country would EVER BELIEVE it takes you 9 months to hire a Border Patrol Agent. What possible great candidate could afford to wait on your dumb asses for 9 months to hire them? This is absolute dereliction of duty, there's something very very wrong going on here. And NO, you do not need to know Spanish or any other foreign language. You HIRE AMERICANS, 100% AMERICANS. You don't want some friendly same-language speaking person on the border. You want someone they can't speak with, someone they fear because of it. You can have some interpreters at the detention centers. You can teach the agents "you are in the US in violation of US law", "identification please", write it down, keep a record and turn them around with "vamoose" or "you're under arrest". That is all they need to know at the border. This coddling to their language is just pandering to them, there's no law enforcement requirement here.

Seems to me there was a flurry of hiring border patrol agents years ago, perhaps under President Bush. Can't recall exactly when but nothing like this came up.

It's just the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. No legitimate operation of any kind can operate like this. Trump will blow a fuse when he hears about this. I would love to see his face when they tell him it takes 9 months to hire a border agent.

Back in 2008 President Bush wanted to hire 6,000 border patrol agents.

https://www.alipac.us/f12/border-pat...-sc-ga-125079/

Yeah, then the economy collapsed and Obama won the election.

Bush should have hired them in 2001 and not waited until 2008.

Border Patrol Struggles to Find Enough New Agents

May 17, 2006 6:00 AM ET

CARRIE KAHN

Recruiting and hiring thousands of additional federal Border Patrol agents is a key part of President Bush's plan to reduce illegal immigration. But tough entry requirements and low pay are making it difficult for the Border Patrol to find and retain enough new agents to meet that goal.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
President Bush says National Guard troops will be deployed to the southern border until 6,000 new civilian patrol agents are hired, trained, and in position.

Recruiting and retaining border patrol agents has been a difficult task for the federal agency. Agents and members of Congress are skeptical that that situation will change soon.

NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN reporting:
The U.S. border patrol is looking for a few good men and women. Well, actually, they need a few thousand. And they're hoping this new recruitment video strikes the right patriotic chord.
(Soundbite of border patrol recruiting video)

Unidentified Announcer: As Americans, we have a duty to serve our country. We all serve in different ways. The question is: How will you serve? I've made my choice.

KAHN: Once the recruit takes the border patrol plunge, the video shows him in a series of daring feats in rugged terrain.

But TJ Bonner, president of the union representing border patrol agents says potential recruits are mislead into thinking they'll be repelling out of helicopters…

Mr. TJ BONNER (President, National Border Patrol Council):

And riding horses and riding ATVs, and all kinds of things that look exciting; and then they get assigned to a station and they're told, your job is to sit here in this vehicle for ten hours a day and watch the border.

KAHN: The thinking is, Bonner says, that would-be crossers will be deterred once they see an agent in a car. But he says, instead, illegal immigrants just go around the cars and agents are bored stiff.

Even worse, Bonner says, starting pay for an agent is far less than what local police departments are paying. He says morale in the force is low.

Mr. BONNER: It's extremely low. I have been in the border patrol for 28 years, and can honestly say that I have never seen morale any lower than I have now.

KAHN: Historically, the border patrol loses ten percent of its agents every year, and with lackluster recruitment drives, the force currently stands at only 11,500. That's just a 15 percent increase since 9/11.

Agency officials concede recruitment is a challenge. This year, they raised the maximum entrance age to 40. Still, out of 300 applicants, only one will become an agent. That's if they complete the border patrol academy training and take the oath of office.

Unidentified Man: Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name…
(Soundbite of new border patrol agents taking oath of office)

Unidentified Man: …will support and defend the constitution of the United States...

KAHN: Not only do agents have to pass rigorous physical training tests, they also have to be proficient in Spanish and immigration law. Most academy dropouts cite the tough language and law requirements as reasons for quitting.

Democratic Congressman Silvestre Reyes, who used to be a border patrol chief in South Texas, says the president and Congress can ask for thousands of new agents, but finding them is not that easy.

Representative SILVESTRE REYES (Democrat, Texas): Even if Congress were to say we're funding 10,000 new agents, we're giving the border patrol the green light and we want you to hire them next year. It can't be done.

KAHN: Reyes says, for one thing, the academy is not set up to train that many agents. A border patrol spokesman says new classrooms, training facilities, and dorms are being built at the academy, and this year the graduating class is expected to top 1,500 agents.

That's still far short of the president's goal of 2,000 per year. At that pace, it's unclear just how long the National Guard will be required to stay at the border, leaving them possibly faced with another open-ended deployment.

Carrie Kahn, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5410550

That's baloney. "tough entry requirements" ... like what? A degree? Citizenship? Clean background? Good character? Weapons training? Do weapons training on the job. We trained our military for WW2 in 6 weeks AFTER they were hired and they won a global war on 2 fronts in 3 years and 8 months fighting 2 of the most capable and brutal enemies in world history. I don't even know why you need a degree for this job.

I will also tell you that people are disappointed about the wall potentially becoming a "fence" so the agents can see through it. Yeah, well, if you see them, they can see you. So they just lay down, wait for you to drive by and then climb your fence.

Border Agencies Fall Short of Fulfilling Ambitious Hiring Plans

• By Charles S. Clark
• March 8, 2016
• 17 Comments

• 8 Comments

DHS chief Jeh Johnson testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the department's fiscal 2017 budget request. Andrew Harnik/AP



How much the government should invest in border protection may depend on one’s view of whether the current Border Patrol and related operations demonstrate progress in improving national security.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson at a Tuesday budget hearing faced challenges from senators warning that ISIS terrorists and Central American refugees might render his $13.9 billion Customs and Border Protection budget request inadequate, while the union representing the agency warned of overstretched staff and a shortfall of more than 2,000 employees.

“We faced hard choices to fit within the caps established by the bipartisan budget agreement of 2015, but, at the end of the day, it funds all of our vital homeland security missions in these challenging times,” Johnson told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The fiscal 2017 request for $66.8 billion in budget authority would achieve an increase of $506.3 million over last year’s account, but the discretionary budget request of $47.3 billion is $1.9 billion less than what was appropriated in 2016.

Hiring for Border Patrol under the $7 billion request for salaries and benefits would fund 300 fewer new agents than the level enacted last year, while ambitious hiring plans at CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not been fulfilled.

Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., while praising CBP for progress since the 2014 influx at the Southern border of refugees from Latin America, warned that the recently heightened pace of arriving unaccompanied children is alarming enough to impact Johnson’s spending plan.

"Four months and we're up to 23,000 already… 2014 was a crisis, right now I think we're running ahead of 2014 levels" of a record 68,541 by 49 percent, Sen. Johnson said. "If we maintain this pace, we'll have 77,000 in 2016. I think we're possibly beyond crisis proportions here."

Jeh Johnson offered a different set of numbers, differentiating between those children arriving from Mexico and those from Central America. 2015 was a "pretty good year," he said. “It was down significantly from fiscal 2014 in terms of total apprehensions along the Southwest border.”

Some 28,000 were sent back to Central America, and more to Mexico, he said. “That’s sending a pretty public message that if you come here illegally, we will send you back,” the secretary said. “But nobody at Customs and Border Protection, ICE, or DHS thinks this crisis has been averted.”

The influx of unaccompanied minors “is overwhelming recourses,” Jeh Johnson said, adding that “pushback from poverty and the like” in the Latin American countries means “there’s only so much border security can do.”

America’s northern border, said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., now has 300 fewer border agents and “is looking like we’re putting something at risk,” he said. All terrorists need to do is locate “the weakest link,” he said.

Jeh Johnson replied that “all of the actions you see reflect our judgment about where the risks are, and we have a pretty active southern border. We’re not doing as good a job in hiring as I’d like to see,” but recruiting is under way. DHS does have a task force and strategic plan for sealing the Southern border, he added.

The broader hearing focused on cybersecurity, keeping out foreign fighters and “building bridges” with community grants and outreach to domestic Muslim communities, where some aspiring terrorists become radicalized. Jeh Johnson justified his budget’s request for a $1 hike in each aviation travel passenger fee to fill a $900 million budget “hole” in security protections. “Generally, users and American taxpayers should pay for security,” he said. Without that $900 million in new fees, “we will have a hard time paying for that airport security that is central for this Congress to support.”

That drew praise from ranking member Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. But he warned that having spent a “half trillion dollars” on border security over the past decade, “we still have not addressed the root causes” of the migration—violence and lack of economic opportunity in Central America, he said—for which the U.S. bears some responsibility through the drug and weapons trade, he added.

In submitted testimony, the National Treasury Employees Union, while praising the administration’s proposed 5.2 percent budget hike and plan to add 2,000 CBP employees, warned that current “employees are forced to work overtime and asked to take assignments far from home because their agency is chronically understaffed and is struggling to accomplish its mission.” NTEU National President Tony Reardon said CBP Officers in particular are “demoralized by having to work 12-15 hour shifts for months and work far from home.”

Some of the reasons for the hiring backlog were outlined Tuesday afternoon at a separate Senate Appropriations Committee hearing by Kevin McAleenan, CBP’s deputy commissioner. He said efforts to reach the planned hiring rate were hampered by high attrition rates for current employees who receive better-paying and better-located offers from other agencies at a time when general unemployment is dropping.

Last year’s data breach at the Office of Personnel Management “set us back two months” in reducing the backlog, he said. There is a shortage of qualified polygraphers to help with background checks and a high failure rate of applicants, he added. “Our standards are higher,” he said, but too many candidates fail drug tests, or hesitate to relocate to remote assignments.

McAleenan told Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman John Hoeven, R-N.D. -- who said CPB’s budget would hinge on its performance in protecting Americans -- that filling the jobs is a “high priority,” for which he conducts weekly meetings. Through recruiting fairs and by consolidating stages of the interview process, CBP trimmed the average hiring time from 18 months to 160 days.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a longtime booster of strengthening border protection, told Jeh Johnson he is considering legislation to ease hiring by offering hardship pay to Border Patrol employees. Johnson replied that he supports hiring veterans and would be “happy to take a look” at such a bill.

Carper urged Johnson to recruit cyber experts and other employees who could earn more in the private sector by “appealing to their sense of patriotism.”

He also asked Johnson why he was awaiting for the next generation to reorganize DHS management and procurement as part of his 2014 Unity of Effort initiative.

Johnson said the effort to “remove the stovepipes should be institutionalized,” to endure longer than just his own tenure.

DHS seeks a more centralized, strategic approach modeled on the Defense department,” he added, saying that current law imposes limitations.

In a nod to his 240,000-employee department’s consistently low scores in employee engagement surveys, Johnson in his written testimony vowed to “improve the levels of employee satisfaction across the department. We’ve been on an aggressive campaign to improve morale over the last two years,” he said. “Though the overall results last year were still disappointing, we see signs of improvement…. This year we will see an overall improvement in employee satisfaction across DHS.”

http://www.govexec.com/defense/2016/...-plans/126522/

There is a shortage of qualified polygraphers to help with background checks and a high failure rate of applicants, he added. “Our standards are higher,” he said, but too many candidates fail drug tests, or hesitate to relocate to remote assignments.

These are stupid excuses. Either your standards are unrealistic and/or inappropriate for the job or you aren't advertising the right way in the right places to hire the Americans you need to secure this border. You aren't hiring choir boys, you hiring tough, smart people who can do this job. If they smoked some pot last weekend, that's not a problem. You've just made it one for no valid reason. If they have something on their background check, unless it's murder, robbery, fraud or a rape, then get past it. And you need a profile to seek out the folks who don't mind a "remote assignment", and you need to figure out a plan to make that work for them. Paid expenses home for example.

Your job was to solve the problems, not waste time or threaten our country with your lame excuses for not securing the border.