Pubdate: Thu, 16 Nov 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: James Pinkerton

1,708 NEW AGENTS HELP BEEF UP FORCE FOR THE U.S. BORDER PATROL

HARLINGEN -- Employing $2,000 signing bonuses and a mix of 
traditional and high-tech recruiting tactics, the U.S. Border Patrol 
hired 1,708 new agents during the most recent fiscal year and 
received a record 91,000 applicants, agency officials said.

It is a dramatic improvement from the previous fiscal year when the 
agency hired fewer than 400 new agents, far short of the 1,000 agents 
Congress intended to fund. The agency said 80 percent of the 91,356 
people who applied did so over the Internet.

The new recruits -- who will all be assigned to the Southwest border 
- -- have boosted the once-undermanned police agency to one of the 
government's largest, with 9,212 agents on the payroll in fiscal year 
2000, which ended Sept. 30. In contrast, the FBI has 11,428 agents on 
duty, an agency spokeswoman said.

And while congressional critics of the agency are pleased with the 
quickened hiring pace, rancor remains over the agency's slow speed at 
expanding the border force.

"So the good news is they have made some progress, the bad news is 
they're 2,000 agents short of where they should be under current 
law," said U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.

Gramm said the Clinton administration, including Attorney General 
Janet Reno, has delayed efforts to build a police force capable of 
controlling U.S. borders.

"Bill Clinton has sought to marginalize the Border Patrol from the 
first day he became president until today. When we have mandated that 
new agents be hired, the INS commissioner has basically said the 
hiring goals could not be met," the senator said, referring to the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service, the parent agency of the 
Border Patrol.

U.S. Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said he was pleased the agency 
"put on a full-court press to hire agents, because that's something 
that should have been an ongoing effort for the past three years or 
so."

Reyes said he and others in Congress support building the Border 
Patrol to a force of 20,000 agents to control not only the 
Southwest's border, but the U.S.-Canada boundary and the nation's sea 
coasts.

"We can't afford not to do it," said Reyes, a former Border Patrol 
sector chief in El Paso. "When we're talking about what's going on 
worldwide, the terrorism threat, the issues with narcotics, and when 
every year members of Congress talk about using the military on the 
border, we can't afford not to invest in professionally trained, 
bilingual officers."

In 1996, Congress passed a wide-ranging immigration reform bill that 
authorized the Border Patrol to hire 1,000 new agents each year 
through 2001. But since the agency loses more than 800 agents a year 
to attrition, closer to 2,000 new agents had to be hired each year to 
reach that goal.

To increase hiring, the Border Patrol:

. Trained 300 agents as recruiters and gave them full-time recruiting duties.

. Advertised extensively on the Internet and through traditional media.

. Offered same-day results on entrance exams conducted in 10 U.S. cities.

. Paid recruits $2,000 bonuses.

Agency officials say that key to the successful hiring effort were 
the agent-recruiters, who made personal contact with applicants in 
their area and kept in touch with them as they proceeded through the 
hiring process.

"We put our agents through the training, they went out in the field 
and, using their firsthand knowledge of the job, were able to 
convince over 91,000 people it might be a good career for them," said 
Robert Gilbert, a senior Border Patrol agent in charge of recruiting 
in California.

Gilbert said recruiters, intent on attracting minority applicants, 
attended job fairs and cultural events in many ethnic communities. 
Also targeted were college graduates and retiring military personnel, 
he said.

Nicole Chulick, a spokeswoman at INS headquarters, said the Border 
Patrol has quit accepting applications in November and December while 
it sorts through 8,000 pending applications. Recruiting will resume 
in January, she said.

So far, the majority of the new agents have been assigned to border 
towns in the Southwest, where containment operations in El Paso, San 
Diego, and in deep South Texas and Arizona have slowed illegal 
migration through traditional corridors.

"As we gain acceptable levels of control in those areas, we will be 
moving to other areas of the southwest border," Chulick said.
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MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer