Shannon Stapleton/REUTERS
A consulting company that landed a $297-million contract in November 2017 to recruit and hire 7,500 border officers has only secured 33 new hires, according to the Los Angeles Times. Accenture Federal Services, which has already been allocated $60.7 million of its contract, is expected to help fill the ranks of border officers over a five-year period. The firm’s failure to make marked progress on its promise reflects an ongoing issue in immigration and border staffing. While President Trump signed orders two years ago to hire more immigration officers and border agents, and spent “tens of millions of dollars in the effort,” there are actually thousands more openings than when his initiative began, The Times reports. Border Patrol saw 120 new agents last year. While this is first overall increase in the past five years, it falls far short of the agency’s annual goal to meet Trump’s demand for 26,370 border agents before 2021 ends. Meanwhile, historical lows in illegal immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border has prompted the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to question whether more hires are even necessary, the newspaper points out. Trump’s calls for tightened border security recently prompted a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government, after Congress refused to allocate funding for a border wall.