Despite efforts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to fill more than a thousand positions, the agency has encountered obstacles in finding the right candidates.
About 1,200 positions are open for the Office of Field Operations, Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations, according to Fox News.
President Trump recently announced that over the next couple of years he wants to hire another 5,000 agents to protect the nation's border.
"We're already about 1,200 agents short of the congressional mandate. With the executive order to hire another 5,000 people, we can’t get people to come on patrol," Stu Harris, vice president for AFGE Local 1929, the local El Paso Border Patrol Union.
Harris said recruitment efforts are stymied by polygraph tests and tough work schedules. Border Patrol agents start with an annual salary of $52,000 -- which can rise to $97,000 in their fifth year -- but spend long days and nights on the job away from home.
The Border Patrol hit a staffing high of staffing in 2011, with 21,444 agents, but that number has dropped every year since then. Last year, the agency fell below 20,000 agents for the first time since 2008.
