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Border Patrol Recruiting To Hire More Female Agents

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - The Border Patrol is recruiting women to be hired as agents to serve in U.S. states bordering Mexico.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that Customs and Border Protection sought and obtained an Office of Personnel Management waiver to restrict a 10-day recruitment announcement to women only. The announcement period ends Wednesday.

Only 5 percent of the nearly 21,000 current Border Patrol agents are women. The agency wants its ranks to be more diverse and also faces to screen more females entering the country.

The 10-day recruitment push doesn't specify a number of positions allotted to women but the agency wants to hire 1,600 agents through the current fiscal year.

The number of female border crossers reached nearly 121,000 in the last fiscal year, up 173 percent from 2011.

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