'Tremendous shortage': Border Patrol shrunk drastically during Trump's first term

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump has promised to hire 10,000 more Border Patrol agents as part of a crackdown on immigration. That may be a tall order.

Days after taking office in 2017, Trump ordered the Border Patrol to add 5,000 agents. By the time he left four years later, the Border Patrol had actually shrunk by 1,084 agents, records from Customs and Border Protection show.

Current staffing is nearly 3,000 below the target set last year by Congress.

“Despite promises to recruit more Border Patrol agents, the reality is that over the last several administrations, the Border Patrol has struggled to recruit, train and maintain agents,” said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

Attrition has outpaced hiring since 2021, according to a September report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) documenting the CBP’s chronic staffing shortages.

Long hours, harsh working conditions and relatively low pay have kept turnover high for decades at the Border Patrol, which was created a century ago. A 2023 audit found that 88% of border stations were understaffed.

Advertising and other recruitment efforts under both Trump and President Joe Biden yielded disappointing results.

Under Trump, CBP inked a $297 million contract with a company that promised to recruit, vet and hire 5,000 Border Patrol agents plus 2,500 officers for related agencies. The administration scrapped the deal three years into Trump’s term. By then, the company had delivered just 36 new hires at a cost topping $60 million.

Standards are stringent. Just 1.8% of Border Patrol applicants complete training and go on active duty, the GAO says – about the same as for the Secret Service. The FBI rate is just over 3%, by comparison.

The screening process includes polygraph exams and drug screenings.

Border Patrol staffing peaked at 21,444 agents in 2011, agency records show.

As of June, staffing was just over 19,000, according to the GAO – well short of the 22,000 target set last year by Congress.

Newly hired agents with no previous law enforcement experience can earn $48,809 to $87,838, according to federal job postings. Former police officers and military police can earn more.

Since January, the Border Patrol has offered $20,000 bonuses for new hires who complete training and three years of service, plus $10,000 if they agree to serve in a remote location.

During the campaign, Trump promised a $10,000 signing bonus and 10% raise for Border Patrol agents. He and his advisers haven’t clarified whether the bonus would be on top of existing incentives.

“We have a tremendous shortage because they haven’t been treated right,” Trump said at an Oct. 13 campaign rally in Prescott Valley.

The shortages didn’t start when Biden took over nearly four years ago.

By then, there were 19,740 agents, 88 fewer than when Trump had been sworn in. In the second half of his first term, the Border Patrol hired more than 3,500 agents but lost more than 3,100 to attrition, according to the GAO.

That tracks with projections issued early in Trump’s tenure by his first CBP commissioner, Kevin McAleenan – that the Border Patrol would have to hire more than 26,000 new agents to expand by 5,000, due to turnover.

A 2017 DHS inspector general report cited rising rates of suicide among agents and struggles with employee morale, among other factors that prevented the department from filling all authorized slots.

CBP reported more than 2.1 million encounters along the Southwest border in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The monthly tally set a record last December but has fallen sharply since then.

In some sectors, Border Patrol officials say the influx required diverting up to 60% of agents away from border security missions to care for migrant families and children; provide transport to processing centers, shelters and hospitals; and handle paperwork.

Presidents Biden, Trump and Barack Obama each tried and failed to increase the number of Border Patrol agents. Under Obama, the number dropped from 20,119 agents to 19,437.

Trump has vowed to make it happen in his second term.

“President Trump has promised to make sure border agents and law enforcement have the resources they need to keep our border secure and our communities safe,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s pick for White House press secretary, told Cronkite News by email. “He will deliver.”

The president-elect’s policies require significantly more personnel.

The mass deportations he has promised would target over 11 million undocumented immigrants, a daunting task for 6,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents assigned to removals.

Most interior enforcement is performed by ICE, while Border Patrol primarily guards land borders.

Immigration experts said signing bonuses won’t be enough to fill the empty slots. Some also criticize Trump’s emphasis on enforcement.

“The focus on more Border Patrol agents is a very narrow, restrictive frame and understanding” of the solutions, said Allan Colbern, an assistant professor and immigration expert at Arizona State University’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

A better approach, he said, would be “comprehensive immigration reform” that includes hiring more immigration lawyers and judges to reduce the backlogs of cases that force authorities to release asylum-seekers into the U.S. pending a hearing.

He also blamed the emotional toll of a job focused on deterring access to the American dream by people desperate enough to try.

“If we had a welcoming system for Border Patrol to facilitate humanitarian assistance, to help people through the legal system to seek asylum,” he said, “the job would be much more meaningful.”

Democrats generally share that view, while Republicans tend to emphasize the enforcement side.

Earlier this year at Trump’s urging, Senate Republicans quashed a bipartisan bill that would have added 1,500 Border Patrol agents. The bill added $20 billion to expand staffing. It also tightened asylum rules.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow and the American Immigration Council, which opposes mass deportation, agreed that hiring personnel needed to speed processing would reduce the need for more enforcement.

“Simply having more agents will not solve the so-called border crisis,” he said.