myborderpatroljob.com
EL PASO, Texas (WBAP/KLIF News) — The Department of Homeland Security is having trouble filling 1200 border patrol positions it has open now, to say nothing of the several thousand more President Trump wants to hire over the next few years.
“We’re already about 1,200 agents short of the congressional mandate. With the executive order to hire another 5,000 people, we can’t get people to come on patrol,” said Stu Harris, vice president for the local El Paso Border Patrol Union.
The pay is good but the job isn’t attractive to people with families. Border Patrol agents starting salary is $52,000 with swift increases to $97,000 in their fifth year but the work is grueling and requires being away from home for long days and nights.
Harris also told Fox News there have been problems with required polygraph testing of candidates. Some good candidates have been wrongly rejected, he said, because of glitches in either the equipment or the process. Harris tells of one candidate who was tested twice and failed both exams with different false readings, one of which found he was lying when he honestly denied being a murderer.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. said the polygraph problems are not only damaging Border Patrol operations, they’re also ruining lives.
Union officials are trying to get Congress to find solutions to the problems. It may take more than that, though, to solve the biggest problem the agency is facing: convincing people to apply for the jobs.
(Copyright 2017, WBAP/KLIF News. All rights reserved.)