“We want people that can come in and don’t need to be told what to do – you see stuff that needs to be done and you go after it,”


related Jamie St. Dennis, an Air and Marine Operations (AMO) supervisory air interdiction


agent who has been helping with recruiting for about a year now. “I love that part of the job. You have so much freedom and autonomy here.”


U.S. Customs and Border Protection AMO received authorization in May 2019 for special salary rates to boost hiring that will accommodate an expanding mission, meet an executive order to hire an extra 500 air and marine agents, counteract increased airline competition for new pilots in recent years, and fill the openings left by an unusually high number of retirees who joined AMO around the time of 9/11 (as law enforcement agents, AMO agents can retire after 20 years).


With the special salary rate, most new-hire assignments offer air interdiction agent pilots starting salaries over $100,000, increasing to $120,000 the second year and $143,000 the third year. El Paso, Texas, pays 10 percent less because it’s easier to fill jobs there, St. Dennis explained.


An Air and Marine Operations AS350 crew out of McAllen, Texas, spots drug smugglers floating illegal contraband across the Rio Grande River.


Photo: Sheldon Cohen 42 May/June 2020


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