HOULTON, Maine — Maine’s border patrol is offering a $20,000 sign-on incentive and will allow new hires to work in their own communities as the federal agency pushes to meet the Trump administration’s beefed-up border enforcement orders.
This direct-hire candidate search comes as Trump has quickly pushed out a long list of immigration-related executive orders and policy changes aimed at tough enforcement of the nation’s border laws.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is offering similar bonuses across the entire country. The new incentives reflect the Trump administration’s intense focus on border security, as well as the struggles that all law enforcement agencies have faced when trying to fill staff openings in recent years.
In Maine, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has increased enforcement patrols and arrests, and ramped up other tools along Maine’s 98-mile international land and sea border to meet new directives, according to Houlton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Juan Bernal.
“We have always known that once we get a little more aggressive with consequence delivery, it will have an impact,” Bernal said during an interview about the new administration. “Once the word gets out, ‘If you break the law, there is a greater probability there will be a consequence,’ it has an effect.”
There are available duty assignments in Calais, Fort Fairfield, Jackman, Rangeley or Van Buren. Following basic training at the academy in Artesia, New Mexico, new recruits would be assigned to one of these Maine stations.
If hired for the position, salaries are competitive and agents have the potential for promotions that would come with pay of more than $90,000 a year after three years of service, according to CBP.
Candidates must be U.S. citizens, under the age of 40, physically fit and able to pass a background investigation. The agency urged all eligible individuals to apply, singling out military veterans and previous law enforcement officers as strong potential candidates. Candidates must complete the entire preemployment process, including a polygraph test.
The agency said the hiring period will last until the end of this month, with no known future openings for the northern border.
