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U.S. NEWS Thursday 4 May 2017

American Living:
At country fest and rodeo, border agency seeks more agents

ASTRID GALVAN to find enough customs of-
Associated Press ficers since announcing an
FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — The expansion effort in 2014. It
beer was flowing and music said it was allocating 170
was blaring in the middle of new jobs in Arizona, most of
the Arizona desert when which would be assigned
Ric Kindle approached in Nogales, the state’s busi-
a group of Border Patrol est area for border cross-
agents and customs offi- ings. As of April 1, the agen-
cers out to recruit new hires. cy has filled 72 percent of
This was no average job fair. those positions in the state.
This was Country Thunder, The Border Patrol, mean-
one of the nation’s larg- while, has slightly fewer
est country music festivals, than 20,000 agents na-
where U.S. Customs and tionwide, a vastly larger
Border Protection set up a number than it had in the
booth in front of a pop-up 1990s but still smaller than
casino and near the mer- a couple of years ago. The
chandise tent as part of an agency has lost agents to
effort to recruit thousands attrition and has a hiring
of new agents and officers. rate of less than 1 percent.
Customs and Border Pro- Trump’s plan calls for bring-
tection, the parent agency ing on 5,000 new Border
of the Border Patrol and In this April 9, 2017, photo, U.S. Border Patrol agents talk to visitors at a recruitment tent set up at Patrol positions. Congress
the office that oversees the Country Thunder Music Festival in Florence, Ariz. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the par- still hasn’t finalized funding
customs officers, has been ent agency of the Border Patrol and of Office of Field Operations, set up the booth at the festival for next year, and it’s un-
hiring for several years and in an effort to hire more agents and customs officers. President Donald Trump has ordered 5,000 clear whether the agency
now may need to fill an new Border Patrol positions. (David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic via AP) will get more money for hir-
additional 5,000 positions ing. Agent salaries start at
within the Border Patrol that dent who works as a fast- up. It could be something and past criminal activity. about $40,000 annually.
President Donald Trump or- food cook. He was volun- as small as a community Customs and Border Pro- In April, then-Border Patrol
dered under his plan to bol- teering for a nonprofit that event at a local park,” said tection also has had a hard Chief Ron Vitiello told The
ster border security. Both raises money for families Border Patrol spokesman time filling positions within Associated Press the agen-
the Border Patrol and cus- of first responders who are Vicente Paco, who hand- its Office of Field Opera- cy is working to improve
toms officers were at the hurt or killed on the job. ed out brochures to festi- tions, which manages ports the hiring process. It needs
festival. The presence of border valgoers. of entries and international congressional approval
Kindle, 24, said he’d be ap- agents and customs of- The recruiting comes as arrivals at airports. to waive the polygraph in
plying to the Border Patrol ficers at the country festi- the agency is having a dif- The Associated Press re- some instances.
as soon as he got home at val is part of an aggressive ficult time finding enough ported in January that The agency also will face
the end of the four-day fes- recruitment effort to seek agents. about two-thirds of Cus- competition from within
tival. He said he’s wanted out prospective employ- Prospective hires need to toms and Border Protection the Homeland Security De-
to get into law enforce- ees. Customs and Border relocate to remote loca- applicants fail the required partment as Immigration
ment ever since a local Protection has been show- tions like the small town of polygraph exam, more and Customs Enforcement
police officer took him on ing up at bull-riding com- Ajo, near the U.S.-Mexico than double the average looks to hire about 10,000
a ride-along when he was petitions, Big 10 and Big 12 border, and the southern rate of applicants at eight agents. ICE says it’s not un-
a teenager who skipped sports tournaments, job fairs Texas city of Harlingen. law enforcement agencies dertaking any large-scale
school and lacked motiva- and country music fests like They also must get through that provided data to the recruitment efforts at the
tion. the one last month in Flor- a comprehensive vetting AP. Customs and Border moment. “We just have to
“I don’t care what form of ence, southeast of Phoenix. process that involves pass- Protection officials have be a little bit faster than
force it is, I just kind of want “We do recruiting at pretty ing a lie-detector test in since pegged the failure them,” said Vitiello, who
to make a difference,” said much anywhere we have which applicants are asked rate at about 75 percent. was promoted to a new
Kindle, a Phoenix-area resi- an opportunity to show about things like drug use The agency has struggled job in the agency.q