Hi, Jacob Rosenberg here.
Look at the back of the rodeo clowns of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) league, and you can find your tax dollars at work: an advertisement for joining US Customs and Border Protection. Or if you attend a PBR rodeo event, maybe just look up. Sometimes CBP’s men rappel down into the arena.
If you’re impressed, you can go to a recruitment booth at the rodeo to join Border Patrol. Sometimes, at this point, you’ll find a CBP dog—wearing a tiny hat.
All that is revealed in a fantastic photo essay from Carrie Schreck we published today, looking at how CBP recruits by sponsoring rodeos, Tough Mudder, and other burly competitions.
The initiative began in 2008, sunsetted in the mid-2010s, and was revamped during President Donald Trump’s first term. Now, the US is back in the business of sponsoring rodeos to get more border agents. In 2019, the government allotted $3 million annually for the next five fiscal years for the PBR sponsorship, for a total of $15 million.
These sponsorships have caused some controversy. Some who enjoy the events are happy to see CBP around. Others, like Sergio, who participated in a Tough Mudder in California, are less thrilled.
“They sponsor this? F*ck them. No, really. F*ck them—I mean it,” he said of CBP. “And you can quote me on that.”
What a quote.
—Jacob Rosenberg
