We're doing another hiring push right now for Border Patrol. Go to
http://www.usajobs.opm.gov and type
Border Patrol in as the keywords. Max age is 40 unless you have vet preference. The pay is decent (unless you are looking at SoCal): a
law enforcement officer with a year of street experience can probably meet the GL-9 requirements which is a starting pay of $49k for most of the SW border. Even with < 1 year LE experience a person can rate a GL-7 which is $43,900ish and an increase to a GL-9 in six months. The journeyman level is GS-12, so a GL-9 will promote to GS-11 after a year ($57,400 ish) then GS-12 after another year ($68,800ish). Once you get to GS-12 you get yearly step increases until GS-12 step 4 when it bumps to every two years.
That is base pay. On top of the base, we have night differential (10%) for any hours worked between 6p and 6a, and Sunday pay (25%): if any of the regularly scheduled hours are on a Sunday, you get that premium pay for the whole regularly scheduled shift. Then we have Administratively Uncontrolled Overtime (AUO) which is 25% of the base pay paid for an average of 2 hours unscheduled OT per day (taking our workdays from 8 to 10 hours). Realistically with shift diff and AUO, the paycheck is about 40% over the base pay rate.
There are a lot of different 'detail' assignments such as horses, ATVs, bikes, intel, K9, BORTAC (national tactical team), BORSTAR (national search and rescue unit), station/sector level
EMS programs, training, teaching at the Federal
Law Enforcement Training Center in the BP Basic and Advanced academies, etc.
It is NICHE
law enforcement, dealing with illegal immigration, drug smuggling and to a lesser extent gun/money smuggling. It can be a stepping stone to other federal agencies, but many who have made that jump will say they enjoyed the field aspect of BP work a lot better.
One good resource is HonorFirst.com and the related message board on delphi forums known as United States Border Patrol.[/quote:3tyjo6fp]
Does State Corrections count as LE experience? I know many departments count it, but federal's always a little different, lol. Also, what are the entrance requirements? How about the pay along the northern border?