Wanted: Job seekers for positions at the United States-Mexico border.

Required skill: the ability to work with a wide variety of people, including those seeking low-wage jobs in the United States, violent drug smugglers and possibly the occasional terrorist.

Deadline: Feb. 21.

Minutemen need not apply.

Admittedly, a bit tongue in cheek.

But the Department of Homeland Security is seeking new border patrol agents.

A proposed budget requests more than $458 million to add 1,500 border agents in fiscal 2007.

The goal is 15,000 applications by the above deadline.

But with increasing violence at the border and tensions mounting between the two countries, applicants need to start with a higher set of skills than required in the past. A few that might be recommended:

The ability to discern fact from the rhetoric of politicians. Spanish and English skills might apply.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said recently that increased violence at the border “highlights the inability of the Mexican government to police its own communities.”

Apparently no one told Garza the old adage about pointing fingers. The one that says when your finger is pointing, three fingers are aimed right back at you.

The truth is, the drug problem at the border is fed by the United States’ insatiable appetite for methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

Mexican President Vicente Fox didn’t take the bait this time, declining to point out the equally problematic role of his northern neighbor’s failed war on drugs.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff laid out a broader truth in a news conference this month.

Chertoff said violence has increased as Mexico and the United States have cracked down on drug cartels.

Mexico recently sent about 300 of its military to various hot spots for smuggling at the border. And it was under Fox that an FBI-like unit was formed to go after drug smuggling and other federal crimes.

And Mexico’s Supreme Court recently made it easier to extradite its nationals back to the United States for trial.

Newly hired agents can expect drug smugglers armed with everything from grenades to AK-47s and flaming rocks.

Yes, flaming rocks. A rag is soaked in oil, wrapped around a rock and lit. These are not pebbles.

A grenade was used, in addition to machine guns, recently during an attack on a Mexican newspaper. One journalist was critically wounded. Mexican journalists become targets when they write about drug traffickers, with at least four journalists dead in the last six years.

Agents will do well to understand this is not a United States vs. Mexico war. Rather, this is a joint venture, the United States and Mexico vs. the drug cartels.

Which doesn’t mean it is easy to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. The most recent example was a January incident where men dressed as Mexican officials provided cover for drug runners near the Rio Grande.

The Mexican government says the men weren’t their guys, stressing that drug smugglers have in the past worn their country’s military uniform to escape detection.

Others are wisely not buying that without more investigation. They point to the more than 200 times in the last decade when Mexican military have strayed across the border uninvited. But U.S. officials can be accused of the same, although likely with fewer incidents.

Finally, new agents should be prepared to be outsourced. The government is seeking private help with the border. A recent informational session drew more than 400 industry representatives.

The government’s Web site announcing the positions teases, “Are you interested in a job with wide-open spaces and opportunities to match?”

Appropriate, given the agents are needed for the desert regions of Arizona, California, New Mexico, south Texas and west Texas.

Starting salary is $34,966 to $39,797, depending on the applicant’s qualifications.