Amid immigration agent hiring surge, watchdog flags shortages on the U.S.-Canada border

While the Trump administration has launched a campaign to recruit immigration enforcement officers, the Government Accountability Office reported on Feb. 12 that officials do not have a plan to address a shortage of employees in a non-uniformed position that is key to securing the northern border. 

Law enforcement information systems specialists monitor surveillance cameras along the 4,000-mile border between the U.S. and Canada, where apprehensions have more than tripled between fiscal 2019 and 2024. During that same period, however, the number of agents assigned to the northern border has decreased by about 6%. 

Given that reduction, investigators wrote that surveillance employees are even more important. But only 77% of specialist positions were filled at the end of fiscal 2024, compared with an 84% staffing rate at the end of fiscal 2018. 

“Without a plan identifying strategies to address the gap in Law Enforcement Information Systems Specialists in sectors along the northern border, Border Patrol is not well-positioned to fill vacancies and reduce attrition,” the report authors wrote. “In turn, Border Patrol does not have the resources needed to fully monitor land-based surveillance technology along the border, particularly in light of the expanded deployment of surveillance technology since fiscal year 2019.” 

Border Patrol officials told investigators that hurdles to hiring these specialists include a long background check, the high cost of living in areas where they’d work and few career advancement opportunities. 

GAO recommended that Customs and Border Protection create a strategy to address workforce gaps for the position, which the Homeland Security Department concurred with and said would be addressed by April 30. 

DHS officials wrote in response to the report that employees who process detained migrants are being trained to cover the specialist positions and that 18 vacancies have been filled this way. Officials also said that they would consider providing a retention bonus to minimize attrition. 

The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided CBP with more than $2 billion to recruit and retain agents.