Thread: GAO:Each extra border agent costs $187,000

I can think of two that should be on the job now, no training required.
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GAO:Each extra border agent costs $187,000
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- It costs nearly $200,000 to recruit, bring on and train each of the 6,000 new border patrol agents now being hired by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

A new report said the Homeland Security Department plans to add nearly 6,000 new agents between 2006 and 2009, as many new agents as were added in the previous 10 years, according to a new Government Accountability Office report on the training program.

The additional agents will cost about $12 million to bring on and train through their first year.

The added agents would make the force more than 18,000 strong. Most of the additional forces, 4,796, will be added to the southwest border, a 43 percent boost to the number of forces assigned there. Just over 1,000 will be added to the Canadian border, doubling the number of border patrol agents on the northern border.

GAO determined that it costs $187,744 for Customs and Border Patrol to recruit a new agent and get him out in the field for the first year. More than $30,000 of that is spent just recruiting and hiring a new agent.

CBP spends another $14,700 training each agent at a border patrol academy in Artesia, NM.

The new program is set up to be effective, the GAO found, but is too new to measure how well it is doing.

Nearly 2,000 U.S. Army National Guard soldiers are bolstering the border patrol for the next two years, on a rotating basis, until enough new border patrol agents are trained.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/ga ... 542-9076r/

Question:

How many illegal entrants to this country does each added agent prevent on average, and what is the cost to taxpayers of each of those illegal entrants?

My guess: Each added agent probably saves taxpayers at least several times over whatever the cost is to train and pay him.

Well worth every penny in my opinion. After seeing the ill effects on our country and the cost to deal with these invaders, it's well worth the cost to train more border patrolmen.

Money well spent for a change!!

Train them, put them to work, then support their efforts.
Send me my share of the bill.
Of all the horrible policy you force us to pay for, this is one thing I can get behind.

I'd much rather have my tax dollars spent on guarding our borders than supporting people in our country illegally...and all their offspring! Money well spent!!