Border Patrol agents wanted: must work alone during graveyard shifts in remote towns along the Mexican border, put in long hours and perform well in scorching temperatures.

“That message is never touted in U.S. Border Patrol recruitment brochures,” the Houston Chronicle reports that, “but the sober reality of working on the border has created an environment in which about 30 percent of agents leave their jobs in less than 18 months.”

The Border Patrol’s difficulties to keep new hires has become more evident as the agency comes close to meeting President Bush’s target of 18,000 agents by the end of the year, an increase from 12,000 two years ago and double the number from eight years ago. The hiring surge means that 42 percent of agents have less than three years of experience on the job.

Taxpayers pay $14,700 for each trainee at the Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, N.M., according to an estimate by the GAO. Yet, this figure doesn’t take into account the many additional hours that senior agents spend training new hires during a two-year probationary period.

“Money aside,” as reported by the Chronicle, “a revolving door means a large percentage of the force will always be inexperienced. About 20 percent of Border Patrol employees fail to graduate from the academy, which lasts up to 95 days for trainees who need to learn Spanish. More leave after returning to their stations.”

Senior agents tend to hold on to their jobs, but the growing number of newcomers has raised the Border Patrol’s overall attrition rate to 10.9 percent since October from 9.6 percent during the previous 12-month period and 6.7 percent from the year before.

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

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