Posted on 05/24/2005 4:31:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hiring 2,000 new agents next year could push the U.S. Border Patrol to its limits in training and managing its ranks, Bush administration officials testified Tuesday.
Previously, Homeland Security Department officials have questioned whether the Border Patrol could handle the new agents, as Congress mandated in an intelligence reform law last year and re-approved last week by the House.
On Tuesday, training officials said it is possible - but warned that the new hires would not come without added costs.
The 2,000 new agents would come close to making out what the Border Patrol could hire "without significantly going on the other side of risk management," said Thomas J. Walters, assistant commissioner of training and development at Customs and Border Protection.
"But we can do it," Walters testified at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing.
The White House has asked for funding to hire 210 new agents in the 2006 fiscal year. Additionally, President Bush earlier this month signed an $82 billion Iraq spending bill that would pay for 500 more agents.
About 11,000 agents patrol the nation's 8,000 miles of land and coastal borders. The Border Patrol stopped 1.1 million illegal immigrants from entering the United States last year, but critics have estimated that as many as 2 million more slipped past agents whose numbers were stretched too thin to stop them.
A study released Tuesday by Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, indicates the Border Patrol is not only vastly understaffed, but lacks needed technology. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the department's funding, called on Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff in a May 19 letter to quickly develop a border security strategy.
T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council union, reminded lawmakers that the 2,000 would mark only the first step in hiring 10,000 new agents over the next five years, as Congress mandated.
"I really think that's a minimum figure if we want to secure our borders," Bonner testified.
Getting the new agents trained and on the ground could take between a year and 18 months, and would cost up to $179,000 per agent, Walters said. Moreover, the Border Patrol's training facility in Artesia, N.M. would need dramatic renovations - for dormitory and sewage capacity - to house the new agents, said Director Connie L. Patrick.
No, make that a Minutemen Project.
What???
How many Iraqi soldiers did we train last year? 150,000? And we can only train 2000 of our own Border Patrol in the same time?
BS detector going AAAAA-HOOOOOOOO-GYAH!
That's roughly 36 million bucks? What are they going to do - put each agent through Harvard first?
The original plan would call for raising the militia in time of war or invasion, which this is both.
But we have hundreds of thousands of the best troops the world has ever seen sitting all over the third world.
We keep the peace and prop up third world economies all over the globe with our Armed Forces, but we are being overrun here at home and we can't do a thing about it.
Or won't.
ping
You hit the nail on the head my FRiend!
If it smells like BS....if it looks like BS.......
I don't believe they are saying BS like this.
LVM
ping
President Bush signed this law last November -- mandating 2,000 new BP agents per year for 5 years -- and is now sandbagging this most important part of implementation. Caca de toro!! I'm sick of this BS. My blood is boiling too.
He is the sorriest excuse for a president we've ever had.
On Tuesday, training officials said it is possible - but warned that the new hires would not come without added costs.
________________________
Typical Anti American attitude. The Tsunami relief got 300 million dollars of our tax money without anyone even breaking wind. Then a Billion more on top of that. The illegal aliens medical bills came to one Billion, nobody even belched about that!!
Now that it is the US BORDER that will be protected we are warned about added costs!!
A wall does require medical or dental benefits, retirement plans or cost of living raises!! Maintenance?? Depends on what it's made of.
Govt. workers with all the union perks.
BS detector going AAAAA-HOOOOOOOO-GYAH!"
Exactly my reaction.
The President gets 2000 body guards and various security personnel, yet the entire country's border is supposed to suffice with 2000?
The politicians -- namely the President himself for one -- "concerned" with "Homeland Security" are frauds.
We can print enough money to be the World's Policeman, but can't print enough to secure our borders.
What's wrong with this picture?
BP management is taking orders from the Bush administration. Bush is determined to keep the border open. IMO, of course.
No worries...
the Undocumented Border Patrol will be on the job and by next year, looking in my crystal ball, I see Minutemen stretched across both borders!
How ya like that W & Vicente? LOL
Like my Daddy used to say, "if ya want something done right, do it yourself!" ;-]
Semper Fi,
Kelly
If they hire 2000 new agents only about 1000 of them would probably actually be patrolling the border.
There won't be anything worth saving in 5 years. Bush is a phony, and a complete sellout.
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