Federal officials do not intend to cut the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed on the Southwestern border, despite comments to the contrary last week.

In an article published in the Herald/Review on Friday, Lloyd Easterling, acting media director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, stated that some agents will be moved from the U.S.-

Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border in fiscal year 2010, which starts Thursday.

Wick News Service contacted Easterling to confirm what he had told conservative media outlet CNSNet.com — that the number of agents along the Mexican border will be decreased by 384, for a total of 17,015.

However, on Monday, Matt Chandler, acting deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told the Herald/Review that Easterling’s information was not correct.

According to Chandler, there are 17,415 agents on the U.S.-Mexico border, up from 16,090 in January. Officials do not plan to lower that number, he said.

“The numbers reflected in the annual performance report did not reflect initiatives announced by DHS to enhance border security in March,” Chandler said.

Glenn Spencer, president of American Border Patrol, a nongovernmental organization, said he believes the first reports were correct and that a negative public reaction prompted the Department of Homeland Security to change its story.

“In other words, the DHS was making decisions as to manpower requirements based on public opinion, not sound management practices,” he said.

He added that he thinks the confusion over how many agents are needed stems from lack of a clear definition of their mission.

“It might be smart to move some agents to the northern border, but how do we know?” he said. “The Government Accountability Office has pointed to the inability of DHS to assess the impact of the new fence as a major deficiency.”

Spencer believes if the Department of Homeland Security had built on the U.S.-Mexico border the 700-mile double-fence originally mandated by Congress in October 2006, it could have reduced the number of agents on the Southwestern border by at least 3,000. He said he is unable to prove this, although he could do so with the proper budget.

He said the recent episode of conflicting information from the federal government points to the need for Congress to establish an independent watchdog agency to evaluate the effectiveness of the Border Patrol and report the results to Congress and the public.

“It is time to stop managing the border by putting a finger to the wind,” he said.

Chandler pointed out the department has tripled the number of intelligence analysts working on the Southwestern border, and it has doubled the number of agents working to identify and apprehend violent criminal aliens.

“We have ramped up southbound inspections to search for illegal weapons and cash, seizing more than $33 million thus far in 2009 — up from $6.2 million at this point in 2008,” he added. “We have added mobile X-ray machines, updated license plate readers at 52 outbound lanes and, for the first time, have begun inspecting all southbound rail shipments into Mexico.”