President Trump announced his commitment to hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and 5,000 Border Patrol agents. This is a positive move by President Trump in meeting one of his top objectives: securing the borders. Secretary Kelly followed suit and said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will add to the ranks “as fast as we can.” Secretary Kelly, however, also said that onboarding 10,000 ICE agents and 5,000 Border Patrol Agents probably would not happen within the next couple of years. Why? Because finding qualified applicants is really tough for DHS.

This is where we can support President Trump’s initiative: encourage qualified people to serve at DHS as the department could certainly use some help. For starters, the economy is getting stronger and DHS is going up against a competitive private sector. Most importantly, the screening process for DHS has a high attrition rate. There are batteries of mental and physical exams. Most critically, there is a grueling polygraph that has a failure rate of 60%. This all makes sense as we only want the most trustworthy people serving in such critical positions, but, again, this is why DHS needs some grassroots recruitment.

DHS Mission

In case you are unaware, DHS has a very broad mission. DHS is responsible for safeguarding the American people and the homeland. To accomplish this enormously important mission, it takes 240,000 employees from 22 different departments, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ICE, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Citizenship and Immigration Services to name a few. People interested in joining DHS should get to know the depth of the department and can start here.

For those people you may know that are morally, mentally, and physical qualified and may be less competitive in terms of job experiences, here are a few employment insights. There are going to be thousands of current DHS employees competing for those 15,000 new positions. What that means for DHS job hunters is there will be a ton of movement and openings throughout various agencies within DHS. For those that desire to join DHS, this presents an opportunity. Now is the time to capitalize and become an aggressive DHS job seeker.

Proper Mindset

For those committed to joining DHS, having an open mindset about different types of positions is important. For example, view a screening job with TSA as a platform to maneuver into a more desirable position. Not that being a TSA screener is a bad job. It’s certainly not. In fact, screeners are critical for DHS. But if someone has a desire to do other things, they should not shy away from applying for a seemingly less appealing job.

Where to Start?

Candidates should start with USAJobs.gov. This is the one-stop site for finding employment with DHS. You can scope you queries by location, job series, agency etc. Again, being open to anything is important. Once hired, federal employees become more competitive for other positions and can start moving upward or laterally.

Veterans Need to Apply!

DHS is an ideal organization for veterans. Service members who are unemployed or want to serve again should apply. DHS has special hiring authorities specifically for veterans, and we need to ensure all veterans are keenly aware.

One of the best examples is the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative (HERO) Corps program: “The HERO Corps is a program designed to allow wounded, ill or injured warriors the chance to continue serving their country on a new battlefield — in the fight against child predators.” DHS is fully committed to hiring veterans, and we can all do our part to ensure our heroes are informed. For more information on veteran employment authorities click here.

Again, DHS is in need of quality people willing to serve. The threats against our great Nation are real and present. We should get the word out and encourage qualified people to serve at DHS. This will make a huge difference in the prosperity of our Country.