The border crossing station located in Mobile, Alabama is an interesting location because it is located on a waterway, but is also located towards the Southern interior of the country. In many ways, the city and port of Mobile is a gateway to Midwest portion of the country, which is a large provider of manual labor jobs in the farms in the region. These farm and ranch hand jobs are attractive to illegal immigrants because of the temporary/ seasonal nature of the work, and the ease of which they can acquire the jobs without the proper documentation.
Expanding Enforcement Roles
Crewmen control has always been a big part of border patrol and customs agent jobs in Mobile, Alabama, but that is no longer the focus of border patrol and customs agent careers. Border agents in stations like Mobile’s have been increasingly asked to take on more responsibilities, resulting in increased training requirements for new recruits. More and more Mexican immigrants have traveled to the region in search of work, as much of the work has dried up in California, Texas and the other states southern border states.
The new border patrol jobs in Mobile involve performing traffic checks, observing traffic patterns along the major corridors in the city and reporting to local law enforcement, overseeing anti-smuggling operations, performing employer sanctions for the hiring of illegal immigrants and enforcing the criminal alien program. Investigations as part of larger federal programs have also been commonplace at the Mobile border station.
The History of the Mobile Border Station
The border patrol station in Mobile was established in 1927 by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency. At that time, the main concern for border agents in the region was to deter illegal immigration via ships that would dock in Mobile and other nearby areas. The boats full of illegal immigrants would typically be coming from Cuba and the West Indies. Illegal immigration from Mexico did not arrive until the mid 1950’s when there was a construction and agricultural boom in the region, including a dramatic increase in demand for workers to pick cotton.
Coastal security became the priority of the Mobile border crossing station during World War II, and has since become one of the main priorities of the station. Today, border patrol jobs in Mobile are responsible for monitoring the entire state of Alabama as well as the Florida panhandle area.