Customs and Border Protection has been mandated hire 5,000 employees, with the emphasis on border patrol agents.

And although there has been a year-over-year increase of 21 percent in the number of officers, those figures aren’t taking into account attrition and net losses.

The agency also isn’t receiving as many attractive applications as it would like. And budgeting is a concern, too.

With me to talk about this is Eric Katz, senior correspondent for Government Executive.