New outreach to blacks as border Patrol grows

MEMPHIS: Nearly 1,500 miles from his post at the Mexican border, Cyril Atherton, a Border Patrol agent, embarked on one of his trickiest missions.

He was here recruiting young blacks to an agency few had ever heard of, trying to entice them to the hot, arid Southwest, where few blacks live, for a job that requires learning Spanish proficient enough to know if their lives are in danger while arresting as many as 100 people at a time.

Any questions?

"I'm just thinking about the snakes," said Cassandra Holland, crinkling her nose after watching a promotional video filled with agents in adventurous exploits in the desert.

It was a measure of Atherton's persuasion — "I can't say you won't see one, but you don't have to hunt them out," he said — that Holland filled out an application, joining several hundred others who have applied since the recruitment drive by the agency's Minority Recruitment Strike Team began in January.

IHT