TUCSON – The Border Patrol agents union is criticizing hiring and training shortcuts they say the agency is making as it seeks to double in size before President Bush leaves office.
The union says the Border Patrol has dropped minimum educational requirements and is deferring background investigations for new hires, among other changes the union says are hurting the agency.
The National Border Patrol Council said in a report Tuesday that the patrol recently dropped educational requirements that called for applicants to have at least a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate. “This relaxation of standards is a matter of concern,” the report said.
Bush announced a crash hiring program to add 6,000 more Border Patrol agents in 2006, with the goal of bringing the number of sworn agents to 18,000 by the end of this year.
The council's report noted that there was anecdotal and other evidence suggesting a small percentage of new hires had only middle school reading comprehension and writing abilities.
The report deplored that as “completely unacceptable,” particularly where documents that are poorly written could end up “in miscommunication of critical information and botched prosecutions.”
Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling in Washington said the agency takes agents' concerns seriously, but also said neither criticism is a major issue and suggested that neither was correct.
He said the Border Patrol never has had a high school diploma or equivalency requirement. The requirement was purposely removed after World War I to allow returning soldiers to apply, Easterling said.
Only 32 of more than 16,000 agents currently do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent, while nearly 12,000 have taken some college courses or graduated, Easterling said.
“They can't put a coherent sentence together, and we say we're going to rely on this individual to write an arrest report and rely on that for a prosecution? Good luck,” said T.J. Bonner, president of the union.
