"For Seventh Consecutive Year Visa Overstays Exceeded Illegal Border Crossings"
'You’re down in really harsh conditions and you got some migrants throwing rocks at you,' Rep. Michael McCaul said.
By TED HESSON
02/10/2019 05:00 PM EST
The struggle to recruit and retain Border Patrol agents predates the Trump administration. The number of agents peaked at 21,444 in fiscal year 2011, and since then has mostly trended downward. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency to Border Patrol, consistently ranks near the bottom of an annual federal survey of employee satisfaction.
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Some of the changes have been missteps. CBP awarded the consulting firm Accenture a $297 million contract in late 2017 to hire 7,500 agents over five years — a total that would exceed the demand in Trump’s executive order. Ten months into the contract, CBP had paid Accenture $13.6 million to process two accepted job offers, according to an internal audit by the Homeland Security Department inspector general’s office. CBP argued in a response to the report that Accenture had create a hiring structure and “recruited thousands of new applicants.”
Overall, Border Patrol remains well below its funded staffing level, which lawmakers and experts suggest could stem from many factors, including work environment, pay and benefits.
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