U.S. Border Patrol Cracking Under Pressure to Find New Recruits

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  • slim jim

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    U.S. Border Patrol Cracking Under Pressure to Find New Recruits

    Tuesday , March 25, 2008
    by William Lajeunesse

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    A mandate to hire 6,000 new border agents by the end of 2008 has lowered qualification tests, concentrated four months of training into 10 weeks and is raising concerns that recruits won't get the proper training they need to protect the borders.
    Richard Pierce, executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents 11,000 rank-and-file agents, said the guidelines don't allow time for proper training of new agents.
    “The field training program is largely computer-based ... it’s not the hands-on approach this job requires,” Pierce said. “When they get in field, they don’t have the basic information required.”
    In May 2006, President Bush outlined a plan to increase the border protection force by 50 percent, from 12,000 agents to 18,000. In an effort to speed up the training process, the Border Patrol academy has condensed 88 days of basic training into 55, which would get boots on the ground at a much greater pace.
    By October 1, half of all Border Patrol agents will have less than two years of experience, says Pierce. “So essentially, what we have is trainee agents teaching trainees out in the field.”
    Pierce said that along with the youth factor, the agency could be taking on an aging force as well. “The Border Patrol has raised its entry-level age from 37 to 40,” he says, which would make for a retirement age of close to 60 for agents in the field. “This is not a job for a 60-year old, I can assure you,” he says.
    According to the Border Patrol's website, the academy no longer requires a high school diploma or GED for entrance, and passing test grades have been lowered from 85 percent to 70.
    Background checks are another concern. Pierce said the Border Patrol is farming the work out to private contractors and no longer using the FBI, which is more thorough but also more time-consuming.
    “The Border Patrol is using contract employees right now to do background investigations, where it used to use FBI agents," Pierce said. "The contract program isn’t even finished before the employee is hired. We have employees in the academy who have not completed background checks.”
    Deputy Chief of Border Patrol Ronald Colburn disagrees. “We’re doing a great job of both quality training of the personnel that we deploy and of checking on their backgrounds,” he argues. “That said, does one or can one slip through the cracks, as they say? Yes.”
    Colburn concedes the plan presents some problems, such as an increased youth force. “When I surveyed the field ... and talked to the top leadership, what concerned them most, it really was the youthfulness and the inexperience that we were deploying into the field.”
    But he said that the increased number of agents will ultimately mean safer and better protected borders.
    Not so, said Pierce. As pressure on the border continues and as worries mount that some new recruits aren’t suited for the job, Pierce is clear in his appraisal: “The Border Patrol is going to pay a price for this in the long run.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341532,00.html
     

    phatcyclist

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    Border patrol guards are getting crapped on all the time. Does anyone remember the story of the guard who defended himself from a drug dealer and the Feds went down into Mexico and GOT THE DRUG DEALER so that he could testify against the border patrol? The drug dealer won.
     

    DrBart2

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    Border patrol guards are getting crapped on all the time. Does anyone remember the story of the guard who defended himself from a drug dealer and the Feds went down into Mexico and GOT THE DRUG DEALER so that he could testify against the border patrol? The drug dealer won.
    Yep, unfortunately all I know about the case is what I got from the press. And you know how accurate that is!:mad: The whole thing sounded to me like a couple of our well meaning LEO's getting the shaft because our government was trying to appease the Mexican government! You know, trying to be politically correct!
     

    Texas1911

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    Yep, unfortunately all I know about the case is what I got from the press. And you know how accurate that is!:mad: The whole thing sounded to me like a couple of our well meaning LEO's getting the shaft because our government was trying to appease the Mexican government! You know, trying to be politically correct!

    As if Mexico could do anything to us.
     

    SIG_Fiend

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    Border patrol guards are getting crapped on all the time. Does anyone remember the story of the guard who defended himself from a drug dealer and the Feds went down into Mexico and GOT THE DRUG DEALER so that he could testify against the border patrol? The drug dealer won.


    Oh god, I can't believe that actually happened. Some people in positions of influence or power need serious beatdown for causing or letting sh*t like that fly.
     

    JKTex

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    I remember when that happened, I just don't remember the outcome hitting the media like the story originally did.

    If I recall, the BP did do something wrong, but nothing compared to what would happen if the tables were turned to that side of the border. It's one of those things that should never have been made public. Sometimes shit happens. ;)
     

    DrBart2

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    I remember when that happened, I just don't remember the outcome hitting the media like the story originally did.

    If I recall, the BP did do something wrong, but nothing compared to what would happen if the tables were turned to that side of the border. It's one of those things that should never have been made public. Sometimes shit happens. ;)

    I believe it could have been handled differently. They shot a drug runner for goodness sake! They were treated with greater disdain by the courts than how the drug dealer would have been treated! At least compared to past cases I have been aware of. The way the case was handled smells very much like the Duke rape case. A prosecutor on a personal mission. I could be wrong, because as I said before, all I know is what I hear from the press!
     

    mac79912

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    The drug dealer who got the two BP officers sent to prison already got caught smuggling drugs again.I would never join the BP because they did not stand up for there officers.
     
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