Questions have been raised about the ability of the Trump administration to vet the hiring of new border agents properly as it attempts to fulfill the promise of hiring extra staff. A former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) senior official raised the questions as the White House pressed on with its aim of giving ‘extreme vetting’ procedures to new immigrants to the US.
James Tomsheck was in charge of the internal affairs department with CBP during the last hiring increase at the agency and found that individuals who later faced charges relating to conviction, primarily for people and drug smuggling, were not weeded out by the screening process. In an interview with British newspaper, The Guardian, Tomsheck expressed reservations that a rush to bring new people into the organization, which could result in existing security protocols being compromised, would likely create problems for the integrity of CBP in the future and have a strong negative impact on the border and national security.
John Kelly, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has authorized the hiring of as many as 5000 extra border agents, as well as 500 more marine and air agents, as revealed on Tuesday, in an immigration memo.
A timetable for the plan has not been released by the White House but if successful the number of border agents with CBP could increase by up to 25 percent, from the current figure of around 19,800 individuals.