1,708 NEW AGENTS HELP BEEF UP FORCE FOR THE U.S. BORDER PATROL

HARLINGEN -- Employing $2,000 signing bonuses and a mix of
traditional and high-tech recruiting tactics, the U.S. Border Patrol
hired 1,708 new agents during the most recent fiscal year and
received a record 91,000 applicants, agency officials said.

It is a dramatic improvement from the previous fiscal year when the
agency hired fewer than 400 new agents, far short of the 1,000 agents
Congress intended to fund. The agency said 80 percent of the 91,356
people who applied did so over the Internet.

The new recruits -- who will all be assigned to the Southwest border
- -- have boosted the once-undermanned police agency to one of the
government's largest, with 9,212 agents on the payroll in fiscal year
2000, which ended Sept. 30. In contrast, the FBI has 11,428 agents on
duty, an agency spokeswoman said.

And while congressional critics of the agency are pleased with the
quickened hiring pace, rancor remains over the agency's slow speed at
expanding the border force.

"So the good news is they have made some progress, the bad news is
they're 2,000 agents short of where they should be under current
law," said U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.

Gramm said the Clinton administration, including Attorney General
Janet Reno, has delayed efforts to build a police force capable of
controlling U.S. borders.

"Bill Clinton has sought to marginalize the Border Patrol from the
first day he became president until today. When we have mandated that
new agents be hired, the INS commissioner has basically said the
hiring goals could not be met," the senator said, referring to the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, the parent agency of the
Border Patrol.

U.S. Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said he was pleased the agency
"put on a full-court press to hire agents, because that's something
that should have been an ongoing effort for the past three years or
so."

Reyes said he and others in Congress support building the Border
Patrol to a force of 20,000 agents to control not only the
Southwest's border, but the U.S.-Canada boundary and the nation's sea
coasts.

"We can't afford not to do it," said Reyes, a former Border Patrol
sector chief in El Paso. "When we're talking about what's going on
worldwide, the terrorism threat, the issues with narcotics, and when
every year members of Congress talk about using the military on the
border, we can't afford not to invest in professionally trained,
bilingual officers."

In 1996, Congress passed a wide-ranging immigration reform bill that
authorized the Border Patrol to hire 1,000 new agents each year
through 2001. But since the agency loses more than 800 agents a year
to attrition, closer to 2,000 new agents had to be hired each year to
reach that goal.

To increase hiring, the Border Patrol:

. Trained 300 agents as recruiters and gave them full-time recruiting duties.

. Advertised extensively on the Internet and through traditional media.

. Offered same-day results on entrance exams conducted in 10 U.S. cities.

. Paid recruits $2,000 bonuses.

Agency officials say that key to the successful hiring effort were
the agent-recruiters, who made personal contact with applicants in
their area and kept in touch with them as they proceeded through the
hiring process.

"We put our agents through the training, they went out in the field
and, using their firsthand knowledge of the job, were able to
convince over 91,000 people it might be a good career for them," said
Robert Gilbert, a senior Border Patrol agent in charge of recruiting
in California.

Gilbert said recruiters, intent on attracting minority applicants,
attended job fairs and cultural events in many ethnic communities.
Also targeted were college graduates and retiring military personnel,
he said.

Nicole Chulick, a spokeswoman at INS headquarters, said the Border
Patrol has quit accepting applications in November and December while
it sorts through 8,000 pending applications. Recruiting will resume
in January, she said.

So far, the majority of the new agents have been assigned to border
towns in the Southwest, where containment operations in El Paso, San
Diego, and in deep South Texas and Arizona have slowed illegal
migration through traditional corridors.

"As we gain acceptable levels of control in those areas, we will be
moving to other areas of the southwest border," Chulick said.