US Border Patrol: Defense Against Illegal Migration

The U.S. Border Patrol
The United States Border Patrol (USBP) has a substantial history as our nation’s first line of defense against illegal migration. Its fundamental intent was to curb the illegal entry of aliens, contraband, and the flow of forbidden alcohol from Canada and Mexico into the United States. The USBP was founded in 1924, and was established in El Paso, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. Under the influence of the Immigration Act, it was approved by Congress on May 28, 1924. The United States Border Patrol was created as a uniformed law enforcement agency of the Immigration Bureau. Today, the USBP’s primary mission is to identify and avert the entry of weapons of mass destruction,
illegal aliens into the country, terrorists, and to interdict drug smugglers and other criminals along the border. The U.S. Border Patrol is the company that polices the entrance of illegal immigrants into our country. The certified mission of the United States Border

patrol is to protect the boundaries of the United States by preventing unauthorized entry, and by detecting, interdicting, smugglers, arrest illegal aliens, and contraband. Today, the United States Border Patrol consists of 21 sectors. Each sector is headed by a chief patrol agent. There are 145 stations located throughout the continental United States, and in Puerto Rico. The Border Patrol controls the border by land, sea, and air. The Border Patrol has jurisdiction transversely all United States borders and at least 25 miles off the border. The Border Patrol agents are responsible to check factories for illegal workers. As of September of 1995, the Border Patrol had 530 agents. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 dissolved the Immigration and Naturalization Service and placed the USBP within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Within DHS. The USBP forms a part of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection under the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security. During the last decade, the USBP has seen its resources and manpower more than triple. Post 9/11, the USBP refocused its policy on preventing the entry of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, as laid out in its recently released National Strategy. In addition to a workforce of over 20,000 agents, the USBP deploys vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, and many different technologies to protect the border. In the course of discharging its duties, the USBP patrols 8,000 miles of American international borders with Mexico and Canada and the coastal waters around Florida and Puerto Rico. In 1994 an extension was placed in the direct result of congressional concerns about illegal immigration and the company’s adoption of “Prevention Through Deterrence” as its principal operational strategy. The strategy called for placing USBP resources and manpower directly at the areas of greatest illegal immigration in order to identify, deter, and detain aliens attempting to cross the border between formal points of entry. The Border Patrol 's efforts may be sufficient but many people believe that there are many problems in the methods of the Border Patrol.
First, tax payers think that all of the equipment is costing the taxpayers too much. For example the charge of illegal immigrants in one hospital in Jacksonville, Florida costs taxpayers $44.5million. A Federal Government estimate says that $1.6 billion dollars is spent on the knowledge of illegal immigrants each year in California alone. Just think of how much money is spent on illegal immigrants across the country. Now this is just the cost of the immigrants that come through the border patrol. During the Clinton Administration "Operation Gatekeeper" a $500 million crackdown on illegal immigration was put into effect, most of that money put into the Border Patrol. It financed new lights, fencing, vehicles, equipment, and agents. It was the most comprehensive crackdown ever made against illegal immigrants. After only one year of "Operation Gatekeeper," the size of the Border Patrol has doubled. The number of immigrants caught has also nearly doubled. In an overview of the supporters argument, they believe that further improvements in the Border Patrol have actually decreased the number of illegal immigrants and should be allowed continuing funding to further reduce the amount of illegal immigrants entering the
country.

Homeland Security Department was awarded one of the most demanding technology contracts in the war on terror, a 10-year deal estimated at up to $10 billion to the international consulting firm Accenture.
In return, the company would provide services to create a “effective edge” that would electronically protect millions of foreign travelers. Termed as US-VISIT program, which stands for the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, started in July 2003. The US-VISIT system must eventually include nearly 7,000 miles of borders along Mexico and Canada, including more than 300 land, air and sea ports that evidence 450 million crossings a year. The citizens who are in favor of the Border patrol have the basic idea that, yes, the Border Patrol used to be ineffective, but now due to various improvements in federal money, manpower, and technology the Border Patrol is very helpful. They say that the reason for all the illegal immigrants in the U.S. is due to when the Border Patrol was not as strong as it could or should
be. In an overview, during the 2012 elections the concern of many people believe that we are spending too much money on the border patrol, considering that they certainly are not doing their job. We are giving them so much money to get the latest equipment, but still people are getting through. In conclusion there are many different views toward the processes of the Border Patrol. There is no doubt that the Border Patrol and the illegal immigrants getting into the country is costing the American Government a lot of money, but is the money being spent as well as it could be? Do you think so that there should be more or less funding of the border patrol?

Work Cited
"U.S. starts fingerprint program" (Jan 2004), retrieved from cnn.com on November 20, 2007.
Nuñez-Neto, Blas (2006-010-25) (PDF). Border security: The role of the U.S. Border Patrol. Congressional Research Service. p. 35. Retrieved 2009-06-01
Archibold, Randal C. (2008-04-02). "Government issues waiver for fencing along border". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
"U.S. Border Security (Defense, Security and Strategies): Alek ..." Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012