U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents work long shifts in dangerous conditions. Those are a couple of the reasons recruitment is a major challenge for the federal agency.
Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan says retention is a problem, too.
“It may also be because of recent problems with morale in all of the immigration enforcement agencies,” Vaughan says, “as they were not committed to do their job fully under the Obama administration.”
The Border Patrol currently has 12-hundred openings and President Trump has said he wants to add five-thousand more agents.
Vaughan says the Trump administration may change the culture and make recruitment more successful.
“(A) Fresh approach to immigration security, border security, and taking the enforcement of our immigration laws more seriously,” she points out, “should help with retention.”