INS BEGINS MAJOR RECRUITMENT FOR BORDER PATROL OFFICERS

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has kicked off a massive recruiting effort to increase the number of Border Patrol Agents in this country. The INS is sending out 200 Border Patrol Agents around the country to recruit through community outreach and local recruitment activities. The agency is seeking to hire 3,000 more agents during the next three years in order to comply with a mandate in the 1996 Immigration Act.

According to INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, the same force driving illegal immigration – namely, the severe national labor shortage – also is at the root of the INS’ own problems in filling Border Patrol slots.

The INS has just completed a four-day training program in recruiting techniques for 100 Agents in Dallas and another 100 in San Diego. The INS reports that the number of new recruits hired in the last year is down to 1,200 to 1,400 from a total of 5,802 hired in 1996.

The INS is increasing the number of recruitment trips to military bases and colleges, creating a toll free recruiting hotline (800-238-1245), placing ads in hundreds of newspapers and other publications, and set up a new testing procedure that will make it possible for applicants to learn immediately if they have passed.

"The new recruitment strategy is designed to greatly increase the number of Border Patrol applicants," according to Border Patrol Chief Gus De La Vina. "These agent recruiters know their communities and are not only good at their jobs, but they also enjoy the work that they do. They have a personal commitment to finding our nation’s best and brightest for a job that is extremely demanding but very rewarding."

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