TALLADEGA COUNTY – You may be used to seeing branches of the military setting up recruitment booths at sporting events, but this year the United States government also was recruiting people for another kind of federal job at the Talladega Superspeedway.The U.S. Border Patrol set up shop at the midway to recruit new agents to secure the U.S./Mexican border.
U.S. Border Patrol Assistant Chief Michael Olsen said, “In May of 2006, President Bush instructed the Border Patrol to hire 6,000 agents by the end of this year. That’s a 50 percent increase in the size of the Border Patrol. In order to achieve that goal, we knew we would have to recruit in areas that have been historically under recruited.”
Olsen said most of their agents usually come from the southwestern U.S.
“NASCAR is one of those vehicles that brings us to those (under recruited) cities,” Olsen said. “NASCAR goes to a lot of cities where the Border Patrol doesn’t have stations. It helps get our message to parts of the country where people didn’t realize they had an opportunity to become an agent.”
Part of getting the word out among NASCAR fans is the Border Patrol’s sponsorship of Kenny Wallace’s No. 28 car driven on the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The relationship between the Border Patrol and Wallace has been a positive one, so far, according to Olsen.
“He’s done great interviews for us. He’s a great spokesman,” Olsen said. “We’re excited and honored to have him with us.”
The recruiting goal of 6,000 was very ambitious but the agency met its goal last year and is well on its way to meeting its goal this year, Olsen said. The Border Patrol hopes to have 18,300 agents at the end of the year and around 20,000 at the end of 2009.
“People who are patriotic, people who want to serve their country, people who love the outdoors are people who would enjoy this job. You don’t have to have a bachelor’s degree. You don’t have to have law enforcement experience. You don’t have to have military experience,” Olsen said.
The pay’s not bad, either. Olsen said Border Patrol agents make at least $70,000 by their third year on the job and have federal benefits and law enforcement retirement.
The primary task of an agent is to stop terrorists or terrorist materials from entering the county, but the majority of an agent’s time is spent dealing with illegal immigration while patrolling his or her section of the border, Olsen said.
The Border Patrol is going to all the races in the Nationwide Series that are held in the U.S., and Olsen will go to most of them. Olsen said he liked having the opportunity to travel and recruit.
“It’s great to be able to talk to people in different cities that don’t know a lot about the Border Patrol and getting to educate them and just letting somebody they can have this type of opportunity and this type of career when they didn’t know it existed,” Olsen said. “It’s a good feeling.”
Olsen said to check out www.borderpatrol.gov to get more information about the race team and the Border Patrol and to begin the application process.
