Oscar
Charleston, SC
Male, 31
Spent a bit over four years (2006-2010) serving as a Border Patrol Agent in Tucson Sector, AZ: the busiest sector in the country. Worked numerous positions, and spent the last year and a half operating/instructing ground radar installations. Duties included: field patrols, transport, processing, control room duties, transportation check, checkpoint operations, static watch duties, etc.
This only happened a handful of times - but yes. It was also very common to catch illegals with our baggage tags on their packs from the day before. It was pretty common while preparing a deportation file to find the previous file had been done by an agent from our station.
With so many illegals and about 500 agents per station, it was a bit rare to catch the same person yourself. I can recall 3-4 times this happened to me personally. A couple were from days earlier and yes we recognized each other. The others I had caught the year before and one mentioned it to me, the other I realized when I was processing them in the system.
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I'm not sure. I know it is a hit against you, and it is a question which comes up in the interview process. It is enough to disqualify you for a large number of federal jobs though.
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Joining any specialty unit in the Border Patrol requires that you must have at least a year or two of field time. I worked with the Horse Patrol guys a lot, but I'm not sure if they were all previous horse riders. I'd think so, as it's not an easily learned skill. Also, be advised that the Horse Patrol is constantly on the verge of being cut out of the Border Patrol - as it is costly and time consuming to keep and maintain horses.
The Horse Patrol spends a lot of extra hours trailering and keeping up their horses. Sorry I can't be of more help on this question. I am comfortable suggesting that you should know how to ride a horse prior. Many stations do not have Horse Patrols - as they have been replaced by dirt bikes in many locations. However, stations like mine kept Horse Patrol for use near the mountains and certain areas where they were more useful than dirt bikes.
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Nope, a felony drug charge will effectively nix the VISA application.
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Did you get a job offer? I took the test, scored well and it took me a while to get an offer letter. It's up to you. There are a lot of excellent agents who scraped through the academy etc. If it's something you want to do, give it a shot. You won't know unless you try.
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If you apply for the BP they will give you a couple of options of your initial station. If you accept one of these options they will then send you to the academy. If you refuse those options you are put back in the hiring pool and may have to wait a while. So, in theory you could wait until a station close to San Diego becomes available, but this may take years, etc. If you're actively pursuing the job, take whatever station you can get - and then you can attempt to move stations in about 2-3 years.
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Not sure. When I entered service they were still doing a full background investigation, so there was no polygraph test administered. Can't help you there.
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