Border Patrol

Executive Summary

The catastrophic September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States were a tragic moment in American history which, undoubtedly, changed every sector of American society, and United States strategies to meet future threats. American borders were once viewed by our leaders as a customs and immigration challenge. However, the extremely deadly threat posed by the evolved presence of twenty-first century terrorism has transformed this traditional border perspective into a renewed focus of protecting the borders from terrorist entry. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), assists in the homeland security mission by overseeing security of our nation's land borders and ports of entry.

To enhance mission effectiveness, CBP released U.S. Customs and Border Protection Fiscal Year 2009-2014 Strategic Plan, which consists of strategic goals and objectives. Consistent with CBP's dual mission, this plan outlines CBP strategic goals to "secure the Nation's borders to protect America from the entry of dangerous people and goods and prevent unlawful trade and travel," and "ensure the efficient flow of legitimate trade and travel across U.S. borders"(U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, 2009, p.11). While this strategic plan looks promising, problems and failures continue to plague this complex issue. The current drawbacks associated with the strategic planning of U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue to contribute to the ineffectiveness and expensiveness of border patrol approaches, which result in indistinct performance measures, and failure to inadequately meet current and potential future threats.

Reasons for a Modified Approach

Our nation has relied on an "enforcement-oriented approach" (Brendan, 2010, para. 7) to border security; however, this approach has not successfully stopped the influx of immigrants entering the United States. Decades of this unsuccessful approach should be a strong indicator that a change to the border policy is essential. "A more comprehensive, dynamic approach" (para. 7) would be greatly advantageous and would far outweigh the current approach in terms of improved security at a significantly reduced cost. Reassessment of the current border security strategy should be considered necessary to help policy makers create a more cost-effective and effectual strategic approach.

Largely Unsecure Southwest Border

A vast segment of the southwest U.S. border that stretches from California down to Texas is largely open to illegal immigrants seeking entry into America. CBP has only "873 out of nearly 2000 miles of the southwest border under operational control" (Barry, 2011, p.6). Out of these 873 miles, 15% of these miles classified as controlled (tactical infrastructure and border patrol agents in the immediate area) and 85% classified as managed (border patrol agents monitoring major routes away from the border (p. 6). Immigrants can make great use of the border not under operational control by observing infrequent border patrol activity to help prepare their plan to ease their way into the U.S.

Immigrant Terrorists

It is important to realize that the bulk of illegal immigrants are people who just want a piece of the American dream, and truly are not terrorists. However, reports have indicated that border patrol agents have apprehended immigrants from "special interest countries, almost all of which are Muslim" (Ting, 2006, p. 55). While it is unlikely, terrorists can use this as an opportunity to move themselves or dangerous weapons into the United States. The more legitimate solution to this unlikely, but dangerous terrorist threat lies in treating immigration, criminals, and terrorism as separate entities, and not mixing them together.

Costs of Criminalizing Immigrants

In the post-9/11 environment, a deterrence strategy has been implemented which makes illegal immigration a crime and imprisons people caught illegally crossing the border. This strategy is intended to make the consequences of illegal crossing more severe to discourage immigrants from taking the chance of crossing into the U.S. This strategy has resulted in the adverse effects of congestion of the federal court, even more overpopulation of the U.S. prison system, and a surge of costs associated with incarcerating these "criminal aliens" (Barry, 2011, page 9). The expensive nature of this deterrence strategy is evident in the project, Operation Streamline.

Operation Streamline

Operation Streamline is a project that labels immigrants as criminals and greatly increases the expense of processing illegal immigrants caught crossing the border. This project involves "turning over illegal border crossers for prosecution and incarceration" (Barry, 2011, p. 8-9). The expense of detaining, processing, and incarcerating illegal immigrants who are now being considered criminals is enormous. For example, "Texas border alone spent more than $1.2 billion of federal money detaining and incarcerating persons for unauthorized crossings" (Brendan, 2010, para. 11). Catching, recording, and sending immigrants back to their native countries is less costly and more sensible than housing them in detention centers and prisons before sending them back.

Technological Border Security Approach

Extremely ineffective, yet expensive technological security approaches have cost taxpayers millions without gaining the full benefit of enhanced border security. A developing technological strategy "proposes to spend $242 million to buy a mix of technology, including integrated fixed-tower surveillance systems similar to SBInet" (Lipowicz, 2011, para. 3). SBI is known as the Strategic Border Initiative (para. 3), which was a project that implemented a "virtual fence" (Brendan, 2010, para. 13) that used technological means to detect illegal crossing. After being considered a huge failure, SBI was