By Nubia Reyna, Staff writer
The United States Border Patrol hosted a recruitment fair at the park
ng lot of the Jacob Brown auditorium on Saturday hoping to hire more agents.
Authorities report there are more than 1,000 jobs available for the South West border.
With almost 60,000 employees, the U.S. Customs & Border Protection is the largest federal law enforcement agency charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S., while facilitating lawful international travel and trade.
“If you are from the area and would like to stay in the area because of family or other circumstances, this is the perfect opportunity,” Elias Rodriguez CBP public affairs liaison for the Brownsville Port of Entry said.
Border Patrol agent Hector Galdones said being an agent has several more different assets than what people think.
“People assume that border patrol agents are just on the border but there are other things involved in it,” he said. “We have assignments in prosecutions, intelligence, things of that nature.”
To become a Border Patrol agent, applicants must be a United States citizen, have no felonies, have either military experience, four years of college or three years with a full-time job and be between the ages of 18 to 40. Military veterans are waived the age requirement.
“I’ve been on this service over 19 years, almost 20, so, there is some stability. I know right now we live in a very challenging world and stability is very important.” Rodriguez said. “The place where they choose will be their station until they choose to move to another place.”
The salary for the positions starts at $33,981 and ranges up to $75,345. Those who work on a Sunday get paid time and a half and during holidays double their hourly wage.
“It is a great place to work and it is a great time to join,” Rodriguez said.
The mission of the Border Patrol is to keep borders secure and to avoid events such as 9/11 from happening again, according to Rodriguez.
“Our mission is to keeps our borders secured. We enforce the laws of the United States, so, whatever law is currently in effect we follow,” he said. “We invite any person that is looking for a good-paying job with excellent benefits to come on over or visit cbp.gov/careers.”
