BORDER/DHS/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The Trump administration has begun the detail work of stiffening the country’s immigration infrastructure, according to an internal memo from the Department of Homeland Security, moving to speed the hiring of border agents, to find space to detain thousands more immigrants and to hasten deportation cases.
Even as the federal courts trip up President Trump’s ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries and Congress signals it is in no rush to pay for a border wall, the administration is pushing the vast border enforcement network to begin choking off illegal immigration.
Homeland Security’s plan to greatly expand its Border Patrol has been known for some time and includes adding about 5,000 agents, in part by allowing some applicants to skip the polygraph test that is required for all prospective hires.
That proposal has been praised by Border Patrol agents, who say the polygraph is excessively difficult, and questioned by some experts, who say the test is needed to screen out drug cartel members and other problematic hires.
The memo, which was first reported by The Washington Post, outlined several other ways in which the administration is considering relaxing hiring standards and stepping up recruitment.”
-Vivian Yee and Ron Nixon, “To Detain More Immigrants, Trump Administration to Speed Border Hiring,” The New York Times online, April 12, 2017