Wanted: Babysitters on the Southern Border

Katie Pavlich | June 13, 2014 8:45 AM

The crisis of unaccompanied children flooding on our southern border is getting worse as parents in Central America continue to put their children into the hands of human smugglers bound for the U.S. For weeks, Border Patrol agents have been forced to leave wide swaths of our southern border with Mexico unattended thanks to an overwhelming need to process and care for thousands of children.

Now, in an effort to get Border Patrol agents back to patrolling the border, the federal government is advertising fr dozens of temporary babysitting jobs. More from New York Daily News:

The bureau [ICE] is seeking workers with training in emergency medicine and non-emergency health care, “child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling,” according to a June agency memo.

The memo, obtained by TheBlaze Web site, seeks Border Patrol agents willing to fill temporary 30-day duty on the Tucson, Ariz., border in order to staff a processing center 24 hours a day “for the foreseeable future.”

It notes that the “primary demographic” of those being housed at a processing center in Nogales, Ariz., are “females and UACs” — unaccompanied children. “Therefore, agents that are best equipped to interact with the above demographic are being requested,” the memo says.

Earlier this week, an internal email obtained by Townhall showed Tucson Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. thanking Border Patrol agents for taking on a new, unprecedented and "non-traditional" role as humanitarian workers.

"Throughout the years, I have had the opportunity to be involved in missions that are outside the scope of border security. It is reassuring to see that when our agency is confronted with a non-traditional mission, our personnel is quick to learn the role, adapt to the situation, and perform in admirable ways," Padilla wrote. "This humanitarian effort if reminiscent of the hurricane relief efforts, humanitarian search and rescue missions during floods and other disasters where the Border Patrol has lived up to his legacy."

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced yesterday he will travel to central America in July and will participate in foreign media interviews in an effort to stop the flow of unaccompanied children.