The challenges are especially steep at the long-troubled Border Patrol, the nation’s largest law enforcement agency. Operating from boats, planes, cars and horses, the green-uniformed Border Patrol officers hold the front line to secure the 2,000-mile Southwest border. After the terrorist attacks of 2001, Congress doubled the size of the Border Patrol to more than 20,000 to enhance border security. Most applicants wash out in a gauntlet of screening reviews and tests — drug tests, fitness tests, a background criminal investigation and a polygraph test. “If we had our druthers we would have hired slower,” said David Aguilar, a retired Border Patrol chief.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 18, 2017 23:15 UTC