By Federale
05/31/2012
The Big Business outsourcers who offshore their manufacturing to Mexico, would like the Border Patrol to expedite border crossngs. They outsource to China as well, which is trying to bypass expensive U.S. ports like Long Beach and Oakland by exporting to the U.S. through Mexico’s Pacific ports.
The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) has been directed to develop a new enforcement strategy and redeploy Border Patrol Agents (BPAs) from their duties on the U.S. border to Ports-of-Entry (POEs) to assist the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations (OFO) with low staffing levels at the POEs. POEs are the places where persons and goods enter the United States. POEs on the land borders are chronically understaffed with commercial importers and border crossers backed up for hours waiting to cross.
Tucson Sentinel May 30, 2012 by Mariana Dale, Richard Schaefer, Carolina Cruz and Holly Ocasio Rizzo
New Policy Could Change Role Of Border Patrol Agents
EL PASO — Border Patrol agents might soon switch from sitting in trucks along the U.S.-Mexico border to helping traffic move more efficiently on the international bridges in this Texas city.
This scenario comes from the idea of Border Patrol agents collaborating with other government agencies.
Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher in May announced a strategy to fight transnational crimes and drugs, support Homeland Security efforts and aid U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
One possible outcome might be reassigning Border Patrol agents to Customs border crossings to reduce the long wait.
"Currently Customs and Border Protection needs all of the staffing help that they can get — in particular at our ports of entry," said El Paso City Representative Steve Ortega in an email.
The article hints at the problem, fewer illegal aliens seeking to cross the border without inspection, but also suggests that the illegal alien problem has not gone away.
Currently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in the El Paso area of responsibility are apprehending and removing more undocumented people through the Secure Communities Program, employment raids and by catching crossers at major ports of entry than the Border Patrol, according to Border Patrol and ICE enforcement and removal figures.
That is why the Border Patrol 2012-2016 Strategic Plan calls for redirecting its agents' efforts toward relieving congestion and waits at the ports of entry, as well as combating terrorism and transnational crime.
ICE success in worksite enforcement and with Secure Communities only tells us though that there are too many illegal aliens living in the United States. Similarly it tells us while CBP OFO might be admitting aliens who overstay their visas, the real problem is the 11-20 million illegal aliens in the United States and a lack of an aggressive and effective interior enforcement policy. And there is no evidence that assigning BPAs to POEs will help much with that problem. What the article does not tell us is that the USBP’s new strategy should be a shift from border enforcement to interior enforcement.
While the problem at the POEs is real, that can and should be solved by adequate staffing funded by a user fee on land border crossings just as POEs at airports are funded by a user fee on airline tickets and air cargo. A fully staffed OFO would solve the border wait time problem and increase enforcement there, assisting in ending the overstay problem. But the USBP’s new strategy should be one of shifting to interior enforcement; a responsibility it had for years until interior USBP stations were closed by Jorge Bush.
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