11 Nov USDA to Hold McAllen Hiring Event for 228 Jobs at Edinburg Screwworm Facility

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is staging a three-day recruiting event in McAllen to help fill 228 positions at its New World Screwworm Sterile Fly Production Facility in Edinburg, according to a USDA news release.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said Tuesday that the openings are available now. Applications are open online at USAJobs.gov. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said applicants who attend the event can interview on site with hiring managers and may receive same-day job offers.

The event runs Nov. 17-19, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center, 800 Convention Center Blvd. Applicants are asked to bring a two-page resume.

Openings span administrative and support work, information technology, occupational safety and health, biological sciences and laboratory support, and trades and craft jobs.

The facility sits at Moore Air Base in Edinburg. Construction is scheduled to finish in April 2027, and it would be the country’s first sterile fly production site. USDA expects it to begin turning out 100 million flies weekly during 2027 and about 300 million weekly at full capacity.

The department currently funds two others across North America. The one in Panama makes 100 million flies weekly and anchors present efforts. The Mexico plant opened in June and is still ramping up toward that same output.

Under the sterile insect technique, flies are raised in a biosecure setting, sterilized with radiation and set loose in chosen zones. A female screwworm fly mates a single time, so pairing with a sterile male produces eggs that never hatch, according to USDA, which says the sterile flies are harmless to people and animals.

Rollins framed the pest as a matter of national security and said the Edinburg plant will “drastically boost” the supply of sterile flies, which she described as the department’s most successful offensive tool for driving the pest from the border. She said the plant will open almost five years earlier than planned and credited the Trump administration, the Department of War and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Dudley Hoskins, USDA’s under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, said the event offers a path into federal work for people who had not previously thought about it.