The Border Patrol is the mobile, uniformed, enforcement arm of INS. Its mission is to detect and prevent the smuggling and illegal entry of undocumented aliens into the United States and to apprehend persons found in the United States in violation of immigration laws. With the increase in drug smuggling operations, the Border Patrol has become the primary drug interdiction agency along United States land borders between ports-of-entry. Border Patrol agents perform their duties near and along about 8,000 miles of United States boundaries by land, sea, and air. The Border Patrol is divided into 21 sectors, 9 of which are along the southwest border. Sectors are further subdivided into stations. To stem the growing flow of illegal entry into the country, the Attorney General announced in 1994 a five-part strategy that included strengthening border enforcement. To support this strategy, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, among other things, required that the Attorney General increase the onboard strength of Border Patrol agents by not less than 1,000 each year for fiscal years 1997 through 2001. Deployment of new agents to particular sectors along the southwest border has generally corresponded with INS’ implementation of its border strategy. However, because the strategy was designed to allow for flexibility in responding to unexpected changes in the flow of illegal immigration, some sectors have received additional agents before the strategy was implemented in their sectors. With increased hiring, the Border Patrol has experienced dramatic growth in recent years. From the end of fiscal year 1994 to the end of fiscal year 1999, the size of the Border Patrol nearly doubled—from 4,226 to 8,351. INS uses a variety of approaches to attract applicants to the Border Patrol, including advertising in magazines and newspapers, on the Internet, in movie theaters, and on billboards; targeting key colleges and universities with degree programs in law enforcement, criminal justice, and police science; attending recruitment events; and visiting military bases to recruit departing military personnel. Although INS has recruited in different parts of the country, it is now focusing its efforts on locations near the southwest border. Those applying to be Border Patrol agents must initially complete a self- screening questionnaire for basic eligibility (i.e., age, education, and citizenship), after which they must successfully complete a multistep hiring process. This process is comprised of a written examination, which includes a Spanish test or an artificial language test designed to measure an applicant’s ability to learn a foreign language (e.g., Spanish); a structured interview with a panel of Border Patrol agents; a medical examination; a drug screening; and a full background investigation. To determine if INS is on track in meeting its hiring goals, we analyzed hiring and attrition data from INS’ Budget Office. We met with Human Resources officials to discuss INS’ latest hiring shortfall projections. Texas—Del Rio, Laredo, and McAllen. Under phase III, INS plans to deploy agents to El Centro, CA, Yuma, AZ, and Marfa, TX. help put INS’ processes and experiences into perspective, we obtained recruiting and hiring information from seven other law enforcement agencies. To provide information on how levels of experience and supervision of Border Patrol agents changed during INS’ hiring build-up, we analyzed INS budget data and compared fiscal year 1994 data (before the hiring build-up began) to fiscal year 1998 data (2 years after the start of the hiring mandate). To analyze experience, we used data on Border Patrol agents’ years of service with INS because INS does not maintain data on agents’ length of service with the Border Patrol. However, agency officials told us that most Border Patrol agents begin their INS careers with the Border Patrol, and it is unusual for other INS personnel to transfer into the Border Patrol. To provide information on supervision, we analyzed changes in the ratio of nonsupervisory agents (GS-5 through GS-11) to first-line supervisory agents (GS-12). Such an analysis provides an indication of how supervision may have changed as more agents have been hired, although it may not provide a complete picture of supervision. INS does not centrally maintain data that would enable us to determine the grade or experience of agents who are actually assigned to work with new agents. To provide information on whether the Border Patrol Academy has kept pace with increased hiring and has the capacity to meet the basic training needs associated with future growth, we visited the Border Patrol Academy and FLETC in Glynco, Georgia, and the Border Patrol’s temporary training facility in Charleston, South Carolina. We met with the Chief of the Border Patrol Academy, instructors, database managers, and FLETC officials. We analyzed Academy databases containing demographic profiles of newly hired agents, final grades, and instructor data. In addition, we reviewed Border Patrol training projections and renovation plans for the Charleston facility and FLETC. We discussed the Charleston facility plans with INS and Border Patrol officials, and we discussed FLETC plans with Treasury officials. To verify the consistency of Border Patrol Academy data, we performed reliability checks on the Academy’s demographic profile, final grade, and instructor databases. We verified that the data entry was complete and that data had not been duplicated. Academy database managers told us that they verify the data entry of all grade data, and that demographic profile data are electronically scanned from trainee-completed answer sheets. We did not verify the accuracy of the grade or instructor data with Academy class records. We conducted our work at INS Headquarters; its training facilities in Glynco, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina; and two hiring sessions in San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas, from September 1998 to September 1999 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. The Department of Justice provided technical comments on a draft of this report, which we incorporated where appropriate. INS was able to increase the onboard strength of the Border Patrol by more than 1,000 agents in the first 2 years of its 5-year hiring goal, but in the third year (fiscal year 1999) it was only able to increase its onboard strength by 369 agents. This resulted in a net shortfall of 594 agents for the 3-year period ending September 30, 1999. Because of attrition, INS would have had to hire 1,757 agents in fiscal year 1999 to meet that year’s hiring goal. As shown in table 1, to account for attrition, INS has had to hire far more than 1,000 agents in each year to meet its hiring goal. During fiscal year 1997, the first year of its goal to increase the Border Patrol’s onboard strength by 1,000 agents, INS actually hired 1,726 agents, which resulted in a net increase of 1,002 agents. In fiscal year 1998, it hired 1,919 agents for a net increase of 1,035. In fiscal year 1999, INS hired 1,126 agents, but because 757 agents left the Border Patrol during the year, the size of the Border Patrol only increased by 369 agents. The Border Patrol’s 9-percent attrition rate for fiscal year 1999 was actually lower than the 13 percent INS originally anticipated. According to an INS official, during fiscal year 1999, some Border Patrol agents applied for, and were accepted to, other INS positions. However, in August 1999, an INS official told us that due to funding difficulties, INS would not be transferring these agents until fiscal year 2000. Had the agents transferred as planned, INS would have faced an even larger shortfall of about 900 Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 1999. The attrition rate among Border Patrol agents rose fairly steadily from fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 1998, which increased the total number of agents INS needed to hire each year to meet its mandate. As shown in table 1, the annual attrition rate for Border Patrol agents was 5 percent in fiscal year 1994, but by 1998, the rate had risen to 13 percent. Although INS maintains data on categories of attrition, such as retirement and termination, it has limited information on why agents leave the Border Patrol. However, its data do show that in fiscal years 1994 through 1998, almost half of the agents who left the Border Patrol left within their first 10 months of service. Since fiscal year 1996, about one-third of the Border Patrol’s attrition occurred during the initial 19-week training period at the Border Patrol Academy. Appendix I contains additional hiring and attrition data, as well as demographic information on newly hired agents. A major goal of INS’ National Recruitment Program, which was established in 1996, has been to generate enough qualified applicants to meet INS’ hiring goal. The program’s efforts have included tracking advertising sources that generated the greatest applicant response and identifying key schools at which it had past success hiring Border Patrol agents. In the first 2 fiscal years of the program, INS met its hiring goal. However, by November 1998, INS foresaw difficulties in meeting its fiscal year 1999 goal and was projecting a hiring shortfall. Much of the problem was INS’ inability to attract sufficient numbers of eligible applicants and retain qualified recruits through the hiring process. INS has been initiating actions to improve both its recruiting efforts and hiring process. Difficulties finding eligible applicants and the high occurrence of applicants failing or dropping out of the hiring process resulted in INS not being able to meet its fiscal year 1999 hiring goal. Officials believe that the country’s strong economy and job market have contributed significantly to the agency’s hiring troubles. INS officials estimate that, historically, INS has hired about 4 percent of eligible applicants, but it hired only an estimated 2 percent in fiscal year 1999. Thus, officials estimated that INS would have needed to attract about 75,000 eligible applicants—far more than in the past—to meet the agency’s fiscal year 1999 goal. Being able to hire only a small percentage of applicants has clearly contributed to INS’ hiring difficulties, but based on our discussions with other law enforcement agencies, this situation is not unique to the Border Patrol.