The Border Patrol has launched a major initiative that asks former agents to return to federal law enforcement and help the organization amid mass departures and historically high illegal migration to the United States.
The Border Patrol’s parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, posted an advertisement on its homepage earlier this week urging agents who are under 40 years of age and quit in the past three years to return to their old jobs, even waiving six-month stints at its academy and offering sizable raises.
The move comes days before the Biden administration plans to strip away a public health protocol that is expected to lead to thousands more illegal immigration attempts daily in the coming weeks and months.
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“Out in the field, it’s already gotten bad. There’s so many sectors where they’re just pulling everybody in from the field to just help with the command and control at stations,” a senior Border Patrol official at the agency’s Washington headquarters told the Washington Examiner on condition of anonymity.
The Border Patrol is hiring for stations on remote parts of the Mexican and Canadian borders. Stations in the West Texas towns of Alpine, Fort Stockton, Marfa, Presidio, Sanderson, and Sierra Blanca are hiring, as well as Carrizo Springs, Comstock, Del Rio, and Eagle Pass in the south-central part of the state. The Rio Grande Valley and Laredo, in southeastern Texas, are also looking for more agents at certain locations, as are two stations in the San Diego and Yuma, Arizona, regions.
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Over the past year, agents from across the country have been pulled to help out on the southern border, leaving the northern border short staffed. Montana and North Dakota are among the northern states seeking more employees.
CBP has made requests in the past for agents to apply for reinstatement — but not to this extent, in what the official said comes across as “begging people to come back.”
“We’re getting pummeled with retirements. It’s not just Title 42 ending,” the official said. “I know agents that are good agents, and they totally believe in the mission — they just feel they’re unable to do their job, so if they’re eligible to retire, they’re retiring. ‘This isn’t what I signed up for.’”
Suicides among agents have been “ridiculously high” over the past year, the official added, confirming previous media reports that a higher number of Border Patrol agents have died recently than in past years. However, the increase in suicides likely did not have a significant effect on Border Patrol staffing levels.
The law enforcement agency is required by Congress to have at least 19,000 agents on payroll, and it has struggled with high attrition for years. That struggle has gotten worse over the past year as agents are pulled from working in the field to transport, process, and watch detained illegal immigrants because more people are illegally crossing the border and being apprehended. Morale has dropped because agents feel that they are not doing the national security mission they signed up to perform.
The Border Patrol’s hiring process can take between 12 and 18 months, making would-be agents more likely to accept job offers that come along while they are in the candidate queue. Applicants must also pass a polygraph test that has historically had low passing rates, though the official said it unfairly eliminates “good people.”
In recent years, more agents have college and secondary degrees, which makes retiring to take a well-paying private-sector job after 20 years in the Border Patrol more appealing than staying in.
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Agents who do wish to return should expect to “travel frequently,” regularly work overtime, be fluent in Spanish, pass a polygraph test, meet physical fitness requirements, and pass a background check. They are not required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
CBP did not provide comment on the initiative.
