Border Patrol Jobs in West Palm Beach, Florida

West Palm Beach, Florida is perhaps known as the premier Spring Break destination in the entire United States of America. Those wild weeks alone make it necessary to have law enforcement presence in droves, but the coastline and location are the main reasons why the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency have established a border station in West Palm Beach. Way back in 1927, the West Palm Beach border station only employed one border patrol agent and the primary role of that agent was to apprehend deserters from crews that worked at the hotels and inns in the West Palm Beach area.

Smuggling from the Bahamas has always been a problem for border patrol agents in West Palm Beach, and the increase in those activities lead to a larger CBP presence in West Palm Beach over the ensuing decades. World War II brought the introduction of Marine Interdiction agents who were trained to inspect and search water vessels as well as how to identify submarines and other sea vessels that could have attacked the shores of America at the time.

Traffic checks also became part of the responsibility of border agents in West Palm Beach during this time in order to potentially identify communists and other saboteurs from places like Cuba, South America and even Russia. An Air Interdiction unit was also added to border jobs in West Palm Beach because of the presence of planes that would fly to and from Cuba, dropping Communist pamphlets on American citizens along the way.

Area Covered by the West Palm Beach Station

The West Palm Beach border station is responsible for monitoring 8,660 square miles of land and approximately 119 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. There are seven inlets in the area, five of which can only be accessed by small craft, which make them appealing to smugglers and other people seeking to cross the border illegally. The other two inlets can be accessed by major cargo ships and cruise ships, which bring their own challenges and responsibilities to border patrol jobs in West Palm Beach.

The main border patrol jobs and U.S. Customs careers in West Palm Beach are Marine Interdiction Agents, Border Patrol Agents, Air Interdiction Agents and Import Inspection Specialists, each stipulating unique training requirements. Demand for these border patrol jobs are projected to keep increasing over the next decade, according to projections released by the CBP.