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PHOENIX — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is urging Border Patrol officers to agree to go to Iraq, even as the agency is trying to hire more people to guard this country.

Russ Knocke, press aide to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, confirmed Wednesday that the agency has sent personnel to Iraq for several years. He said they have been both Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officers, who have been urged to volunteer for the assignment.

That recruitment continues. Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Ralph Basham sent a memo last month to all CBP officers and Border Patrol agents urging them to sign up for a new round of temporary assignments in Iraq starting in July.

The disclosure comes as the Border Patrol is trying to hire and train 6,000 new officers by the end of next year to beef up security, particularly along the frontier with Mexico.

It also comes as the National Guard is beginning to withdraw troops stationed in Southern Arizona here as a stopgap until those Border Patrol officers are in place.

"This is outrageous," Gov. Janet Napolitano said when informed of the program.

Napolitano, in a meeting last week with Chertoff, complained about a contract DynCorp International has with the State Department to hire people to train Iraqis how to guard their own border. The company has been actively recruiting people with Border Patrol experience, including in Tucson last week.

An aide to the governor said Chertoff never told Napolitano his agency essentially is doing the same thing.

"Unless and until the Border Patrol is fully staffed at the U.S.-Mexico border, the agency has to stop skimming off its own agents to work in Iraq," Napolitano said.

Knocke said the decision to send Border Patrol officers to Iraq has not been publicized by his agency. But he said it is consistent with Chertoff's belief the mission there is "vital" to national security interests.

"He is quite adamant that it is far better to be fighting the enemy overseas than it is to be fighting them on our soil," Knocke said. "To the extent we can continue to work with our international allies, and in this case with the Iraqi government … to help train Iraqi officials on border security, that is going to contribute to that broader effort overseas, which does have a correlation to the safety and security of our homeland."

Knocke would not say how many Border Patrol officers are currently overseas, only that the number is "relatively modest."

The Basham memo says the officers are needed to "provide advice, guidance and training to Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement officers, covering all aspects of border enforcement and operations."

The deployments last six months.

"CBP volunteers are making a difference in this newly formed democracy of Iraq," Basham wrote. "I believe it is important that we continue this work that is so critical to the success in Iraq."

The memo does caution would-be volunteers the assignments will take place "mostly outside of the relative safety of the 'green zone.'"

"The conditions are dangerous, as well as physically and psychologically demanding," Basham wrote.

Basham said volunteers would be paid a 35 percent "danger pay" bonus plus a 35 percent "post hardship differential" on top of their salaries, which generally range from $34,000 to about $55,000. They also are expected to work "considerable overtime hours for which you will be compensated according to your job series."

That appears to be less than the $134,114 salary DynCorp is offering, along with a $25,000 bonus, to hire 120 people with border or customs experience to go to Iraq for a year to train that country's border officers. DynCorp spokesman Greg Lagana said his company already has met half of its goal.

Lagana said his company is not trying to decimate the Border Patrol. In fact, he said, of the first 30 employees already sent overseas, only seven were active Border Patrol officers. He said the rest are either retired or were people with border security experience but were working for others when hired.