A Few Good Men
A critical staffing shortage has led to some creative recruitment efforts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol (CBP). The agency has been hiring more officers for several years now, and may need an additional 5,000 if President Trump’s plan to strengthen border security is successful. Border Patrol is having a difficult time finding agents due to a comprehensive background check that includes a lie-detector test. Approximately 65% of applicants fail to pass the stringent requirements, putting the agency almost 2,000 candidates behind in the hiring process. Additionally, new hires have to relocate to remote towns along the U.S. — Mexico border, making it even more difficult to attract quality recruits.
To bolster their recruitment efforts, Border Protection recently set up booths at two Country Thunder music festivals; one in Arizona and one in Wisconsin. The agency paid a $15,000 sponsorship fee to Country Thunder, which is one of the largest country music festivals in the country, believing that the event would bring “good quality applicants.” By asking current recruits how they spend their leisure time, attending country music festivals was a top answer and was viewed as an opportunity to gain a return on the investment. Fairs and rodeos, such as the Professional Bull Riders event, are viewed as great sources for potential recruits.
But Border Patrol does not stop there; their efforts include social media accounts, sponsoring a NASCAR race car, and other unlikely places. College campuses, and even Spring Break beaches, are all potential recruitment venues. Such aggressive recruitment efforts are not enough to meet their needs, however. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is hiring 10,000 new agents, and since ICE does not have a polygraph requirement, they can rapidly hire recruits who may have grown frustrated with the CBP process.
Between 2001 and 2009, CBP doubled their number of agents in response to 9/11. During that time, the agency’s hiring standards were relaxed to enable the rapid expansion. This lead to a rate of corruption that exceeds all other federal law enforcement agencies, with more than 140 agents arrested or convicted in recent years. The polygraph testing was mandated by Congress in 2010 to ensure that individuals with criminal backgrounds or drug problems were not hired. During the pilot project for the polygraph, 30 applicants were discovered that had been sent by drug cartels to infiltrate the agency. Although the polygraphs help prevent hiring new recruits with problems, it does nothing to weed out existing agents who may be corrupt. A conservative estimate is that as many as 1,000 agents representing 5% of the force could engage in criminal conduct.
Relaxing the stringent standards to expedite the aggressive hiring targets seems like the wrong move at the wrong time. An active recruitment campaign that includes parades and mariachi bands will do nothing to inspire public trust if individuals are hired that pose a threat to national security. Corruption by CBP agents will undermine whatever measures are taken to ensure the safety and security of our border, regardless of how much money is spent.
