WASHINGTON, D.C..  -  The Border Patrol could immediately boost its ranks by rehiring retired agents for up to five years under a bill introduced today by Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers.

 

If passed, Rogers says the bill could allow the Border Patrol to tap into the knowledge and experience of recently retired agents, and get more boots on the nation’s borders quickly.
 

“The vast majority of Alabamians, like most Americans, want Congress to secure our borders now,” said Rogers, chairman of the Homeland Security oversight subcommittee. “This is simply another common-sense solution for helping increase the number of boots on our borders in the short term.”
 

Rogers said he hoped the bill, if passed, would allow rehired agents to be used in senior supervisory roles or as instructors to free up more current agents for actual patrol duty. He said that since 2004, only about 1,500 new Border Patrol agents have been hired, even after Congress authorized an increase of 2,000 a year for five years. Rogers said this hiring pace is unacceptable to him, and to the American people.

 

“We need more boots on the ground now – not three or four years from now,” he said.
 

In July, Rogers introduced H.R. 6015, the Secure the Border Now Act, which would allow the Federal government to hire, on a temporary basis, up to 8,000 privately-trained security forces. Rogers reintroduced several renegotiated provisions of that bill today as H.R. 6116, the More Border Patrol Agents Now Act.

 

In addition to rehiring recently retired agents, the bill would improve Border Patrol recruitment and retention efforts by employing new personnel incentives, such as bonuses and location transfers.

 

Rogers said his legislation could go hand in hand with other border security efforts, including additional border fencing that passed the House recently by a vote of 283 to 138.  These bills should work together to create a package to help better secure the nation’s borders with Mexico and Canada until a comprehensive bill on immigration can be agreed to by the House and Senate.

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