Posted on 01/11/2008 6:04:27 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
It's not unusual for the U.S. Border Patrol to conduct job fairs these days as it strives to meet a lofty recruitment goal set by President Bush.
What seems out of the ordinary is for the agency to target particular minority groups in its effort to boost its ranks. Yet the latest recruitment campaign, unveiled Thursday, is a team of African American agents who will blanket the South in search of black applicants.
The eight-member "minority recruitment strike team," described as unprecedented in the announcement, will hit the road this month, starting in the Carolinas. It will visit a slew of Southern states through May.
Similar efforts may then be launched elsewhere to recruit other minority groups such as American Indians and Asians, said Mike Douglas, an assistant chief in the Marfa Sector who also worked in Laredo and now heads up the new team.
"We need to open up this job to everyone," said Douglas, who is one of the agency's roughly 150 black agents out of a current total force of 15,500. "Other than Hispanics, we've had a hard time recruiting minorities, so we decided to make a concerted effort to get them to join."
Hispanics actually make up the majority of all agents, with 51 percent, followed by Anglo agents with 45 percent. Only 1 percent are black and 1 percent Asian, with the remainder American Indians and others.
Yet while seeking to boost its minority ranks to better reflect national figures, Douglas pointed out the effort also is driven by the national recruitment goal of 18,319 agents by the end of 2008, as ordered by President Bush.
Douglas hopes his team will dispel certain myths about the agency among African Americans, such as that blacks have a harder time learning Spanish — a mandatory admission requirement — than other groups.
The new tactic received a lukewarm response from the agents' union. T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the idea is simply to get the numbers up.
"They're clearly under the gun to meet a magic number," Bonner said. "I'm not sure they've yet hit the level of desperation, but I'm sure they'll get there as the year wears on."
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hrozemberg@express-news.net
As long as they’re recruiting.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Anybody remember the story from 10 months ago about our UNARMED national guard RUNNING per SOP from their posts after being approached on the US side by machine-gun toting Mexies?
The problem with that (in my opinion) is that the mexican drug gangs are already in control of the southern side of the border. I can’t imagine the crips and bloods would turn down a good drug running deal if it came their way.
Not necc. In L.A., the Hispanic gangs have been “ethnically cleansing” the black gangs so this could be a way to get payback. I sometimes ride the subway, and I could tell you from 1st hand experience why they both dont get along.
Yeah I’ve heard the same about the mexican gangs. I’m just not sure I trust gang members on the border.
You'll be comforted, then, to learn they've recruited my next-door neighbor, who starts at the academy next week. She's a prize catch, too: 5'3" and 110 pounds. I'm feeling safer already.
This is just silly. Trying to get the numbers up. How about just recruiting the best for the job? If I had my way the border patrol would be gone anyway and replaced by a military entity of some kind. This is not to say I do not appreciate the job border agents do. I just believe a military entity would be more effective, less expensive and less likely to be engaged.
If one can have a go at robbing a bank and there is no fear or expectation of any downside then what is the incentive to stop making attempts. There is tremendous upside and no downside. Just keep trying eventually you will break the bank.
Besides...why join an organization that will send you to jail for doing your job?
(cough) Compean and Ramos (cough)
It’s not enough to speak Spanish, you’ve got to think Hispanic.
ping
My two Nephews on the B.P. say that Blacks have a very difficult time learning Spanish and therefore few of them ever make it out of the Academy.
It's OK, she'll be my supervisor in a year and will never see the field or an illegal alien for the rest of her career.
Does that mean the border patrol is going to lower their standards?
-------Martin Luther King, Jr.
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