Border Patrol is a boost for struggling towns

Agents frequent the restaurants and gyms. A new indoor shooting range relies on Border Patrol employees. And dry cleaners do brisk business pressing green uniforms.

The Border Patrol's growth to more than 17,000 agents--from 12,000 two years ago and nearly double from eight years ago--has been a boon to towns and small cities along the 1,952-mile border with Mexico, many plagued by poverty and high unemployment.

"The Border Patrol had a very noticeable presence two or three years ago. Now it's overwhelming," said Ray Borane, former mayor of Douglas, Ariz., (population 17,000), where a half-dozen restaurants are packed with Border Patrol agents at lunch.

The new jobs are welcome even as residents grumble that heightened security has hampered business by creating longer waits to cross the border.

In many towns, the Border Patrol is one of the biggest employers, with some of the best-paying jobs. An agent starts at $36,658 a year, and after three years can be making about $70,000, counting overtime.

Evidence of the spillover effect is abundant. Jaime Rodriguez at homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. said he sees at least one Border Patrol family a week at his sales office in McAllen, Texas, where a new Border Patrol station is under construction.

In Eagle Pass, Texas, (population 26,000), Border Patrol hiring in the past two years has pumped $15 million into the economy and contributed to a 15 percent increase in sales tax revenue from last year, said Sandra Martinez, executive director of the city's Chamber of Commerce.

In Yuma County, Ariz., hundreds of new agents have rented or bought homes since 2006, said Ken Rosevear, executive director of the county Chamber of Commerce.

The Border Patrol's El Centro sector in southeastern California has 1,050 agents--up from 707 in 2006--and plans to reach 1,100 next year, solidifying its position as one of largest employers in a region with 160,000 people. This spring, the agency opened a $17 million headquarters building in Imperial.