Border Patrol

After years of steady declines, the number of people caught trying to cross the US-Mexico border illegally is ticking slowly upward.

The latest data from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) show an increase of 13 percent over last year for the six-month period ending April 1. This follows fiscal year 2012, which saw a 9 percent rise in apprehensions along the southern border – the first such annual increase since 2004.

Demographers suggest that the numbers do not necessarily represent the beginning of a reversal, but rather natural fluctuations within evolving trends. More border traffic appears to be shifting away from Arizona, where the border patrol has increased its presence, and a rising share of the border-crossers in Texas are coming from Central America, not Mexico, they note...

The Rio Grande Valley in south Texas saw a significant spike in apprehensions in the first half of FY 2013. In March, it recorded more apprehensions that any other sector. Its 16,700 apprehensions in March represented a 67 percent increase over the same period last year. Meanwhile, the Tucson sector had 15,009 apprehensions in March, a 9 percent drop from last year.

With immigration reform [amnesty for illegal aliens] before Congress, some lawmakers are say that the lure of US citizenship – along with budget cuts that hit the border patrol – are also driving up illegal immigration. “Part of it is that word has gotten south that sequestration has reduced our ability to surveil, and there may be comprehensive immigration reform,” said Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona – a supporter of immigration reform – speaking of the fiscal year 2012 data.

With many Republicans saying that the the southern border must be certified as "secure" before immigration reforms can begin to take effect, the new numbers are likely to play a role in ongoing negotiations over how to measure security.

CAIRCO Research:

How many illegal aliens reside in the United States?  Several analyses estimates up to 40 million illegal aliens live in the United States, based on the apprehension rate and the number of illegal alien "got aways" on the border. 

The promise of amnesty - One of the significant factors driving unending illegal immigration into the United States is simply talking about a possible amnesty. Holding out the carrot of amnesty has been sufficient to pull wave after wave of illegal aliens into the United States.

Poll: One Third of Mexicans Would Move to U.S.

We must observe that it is not just Republicans who purportedly want out borders secured. Actually Republicans don't want the border secured, because doing so would cut off the unending supply of cheap, foreign job seekers.  However, is it abundantly evident that Americans in poll after poll want America's borders secured. Read more about Border apprehensions up again. Big blow to immigration reform efforts?

• Public safety - Alien criminals may not enter the U.S. legally or remain here except in extraordinary circumstances. At one time, protecting public morals was seen as a public safety issue, so prostitutes, polygamists, sexual deviates and some others were not allowed to come here. The idea of public morality seems a quaint concept now, but once upon a time it was important to us.

• Public health - For decades carriers of contagious diseases or those afflicted with physical or mental diseases affecting their ability to support themselves were not allowed to enter the U.S. To a large degree, most of those have fallen by the wayside in the actual application of the law, but they are still on the books.

• Jobs - In one way or another, most people earn a living by selling their sweat to someone else who needs it. Sweat is like any other commodity; as it becomes more available it becomes cheaper, that is, wages go down when there's lots of it available. Immigration adds to the pool of sweat, so to keep immigration from depressing wages too much we have limited it to varying degrees over the years.

• National Security - Foreigners who would harm the country cannot come here, but the definition of who that is changes with time. Once upon a time it was Communists and Nazis; now it's terrorists, for instance.

[Transcript excerpts. See original article for video.]

...RAY SUAREZ: It's critical to the debate over immigration reform: security along the United States' nearly-2,000-mile border with Mexico.

Nogales, Ariz., is a case in point. A long stretch of fencing separates the 20,000 residents there from more than 200,000 people just across the border in Nogales, Mexico... U.S. Border Patrol agents process millions of legal crossings each year.

But more than 124,000 people were caught crossing illegally last year... And Republicans say they shouldn't be given a path to citizenship until the border is secured...

RAY SUAREZ: On the other hand, many Democrats argue the border has never been safer. They point to nearly 20,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the boundary and to a network of cameras, sensors, drones and some 700 miles of fencing...

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think it's important for everybody to remember that our shared border is more secure than it's been in years. Illegal immigration attempts into the United States are near their lowest level in decades.

RAY SUAREZ: Indeed, some 1.6 million people were apprehended on the southwest border back in 2000, while in 2012, the number fell to just over 350,000. So, how secure is the border?...

SHERIFF TONY ESTRADA, Santa Cruz County, Ariz.: You know, I can definitely say that, because I have been there 45 years along the border with Mexico, and we have had more resources, more technology, more boots on the ground...

CAPT. ROBERT WILSON, Hudspeth County, Texas, Sheriff's Deputy: Well, I agree with the sheriff that there has been more resources thrown at the border, and maybe in that area.

But, in Hudspeth County, Texas, we have 99 miles of river border with Mexico, and the border is not secure in that area. We still have continued cartel activity across the river. We still have folks from our communities being executed, taken from Texas and executed in Mexico. And the immigration problem, the people coming over is the same. It hasn't diminished...

RAY SUAREZ: Let me follow up with you, Capt. Wilson. Is it possible -- you mentioned 99 miles of river frontier with another country -- is it possible, is it affordable to seal Mexico off from the United States in those places to control cross-border movements?

ROBERT WILSON: I don't believe it's feasible to completely seal the border with Mexico. And I don't believe you would want to. I mean, there's a good relationship with that government. There's commerce and trade, and I think that needs to continue...

[See original article for video.]

CAIRCO commentary

We live in an era where the mainstream media is complicit in furthering the agenda of corporate-political special interests as well as the La Raza (The Race) special interest fringe groups. 

The oligarchs who run the mainstream media (MSM) know that an amnesty for illegal aliens will be a great way for them and for corporate America to line their pockets for years to come.

Several aspects of this PBS video illustrate obvious biased coverage:

1.  The Secure Fence Act of 2006 called for at least 700 miles of double layered fencing along the US - Mexico Border.

As of February, 2009, The Department of Homeland Security had constructed only 5% of the border fence called for by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, yet in locations where the fence was built it has significantly cut illegal immigration.

Just because Napolitano and Obama say the border is secure does not mean that it is secure.

American Border Patrol has flown and documented every single mile of the border (see Border security and porous border fencing). Why was American Border Patrol not interviewed as experts on the border?

2. The video states that Democrates believe the border is secured and that Republicans say that illegal aliens should not be given amnesty until the border is secured. 

That false contrast deliberately obfuscates the point. Poll after poll show that Americans want their border secured and existing laws against hiring foreign job seekers fully enforced. The Democratic party wants more illegal alien entries, which result in more undocumented Democrats. Corporate sponsored Republicans ("Conservatism, Inc.") want an unending stream of cheap, foreign job seekers. Both parties have abandoned their constituents. 

3. In the video, Wilson is spot on in questioning whether we want to secure our border. Corporate special interests and their beholden politicans want an open border. The mainstream media is implicitly biased in support of the amnesty / open borders agenda. Read more about Video: Inside Immigration Reform: Securing the U.S.- Mexico Border

Highlights from the video, published May 26, 2013.

In 2010-2011, Tucson sector on-duty agents reported apprehending 3% of the illegal aliens they know entered, and were patrolling effectively less than 70% of their assigned border area.  At the same time, Tucson Sector management estimated that agents were apprehending 25% of those crossing the border illegally.

The US government attempted to cover up causes of border fires, such as the 2011 Coronado Forest Monument fire which was deliberately started by a person who entered from Mexico and returned. 67 homes were disclosed, and the fire endangered Fort Huachuca, a top secret military installation - which is also an active drug and alien smuggling corridor.

Agent Brian Terry's death and Operation Fast and Furious are discussed. The video notes that public lands are marked as dangerous - and are even closed to the published - because of transnational criminal activity.

Rape trees were shown, where illegal alien women and young girls are routinely raped by coyotes.

The amount an illegal alien pays a coyote to be smuggled into the United States was $30 to 50 US in 1993, while today the cost is $2,500 to $3,000. The cost dispells the notion that these are just poor people coming here to make a better life.

Photos were shown of high-value Chinese illegal aliens. Up to $100,000 US per alien is paid to coyotes to smuggle Chinese illegal aliens. Even illegal aliens from Russia have been apprehended, but this information is seldom released to the American public.

Decapitated bodies on the border and in Acapulco illustrate the struggle of Mexican cartels for dominance. 

Two New Mexico Senators have proposed a new border wilderness National Monument near the Potrillo Mountains. Yet clearly, the proposal would benefit the transnational criminals in the area - it fits all of the parameters for a drug and illegal alien drug smuggling corridor.

Foreign transnational criminals already live among us because of the 1986 amnesty, sanctuary city policies, an insecure border, and the lack of a political will to honestly persue a logical solution to the illegal alien problem in the United States.

CARICO Research

DesertInvasion.us documents the invasion and damage to our national parks and monuments by illegal aliens and drug smugglers. Read more about Video: US border intelligence report

Overview

The authors examine U.S. efforts to prevent illegal immigration to the United States. Although the United States has witnessed a sharp drop in illegal border crossings in the past decade alongside an enormous increase in government activities to prevent illegal immigration, there remains little understanding of the role enforcement has played. Better data and analyses to assist lawmakers in crafting more successful policies and to support administration officials in implementing these policies are long overdue.

View the full report (pdf). Read more about Managing Illegal Immigration to the United States

The yardstick used in the immigration bill to determine border control may produce too rosy a picture of how well the Border Patrol is doing in cracking down on illegal crossings, according to an independent study released Monday that threatens to upend the immigration debate.

In their 76-page report, three researchers at the Council on Foreign Relations also said the drop in illegal immigration is only partly a result of tougher border security and about two-thirds because of economic changes in Mexico and the U.S. that have made it less attractive for Mexicans to migrate north.

At a time when the success or failure of the immigration bill depends on the security level of the border, the authors said it’s surprising how little is known about border security and how little effort the administration and Congress have made to try to get it under control.

“The Border Patrol doesn’t know what it doesn’t know, which is some people are going to come across the border, get across the border unseen,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and one of the report’s authors.

...The Senate Judiciary Committee... did adopt one key Republican-authored change that would set a goal for the Homeland Security Department to apprehend or deter 90 percent of illegal crossers along the entire southwestern border. As originally written, the bill required the 90 percent standard only in high-traffic sectors.

The Council on Foreign Relations report, though, questioned the measure the Border Patrol uses to calculate the 90 percent “efficiency” rate.

Efficiency is calculated by taking the number of illegal crossers the Border Patrol captures and the number it estimates turned back, and then guessing how many got away cleanly. A 90 percent efficiency rating would mean nine out of 10 who crossed illegally were apprehended or forced to turn back.

The problem, according to critics on Capitol Hill and to the report’s authors, is that it’s tough to estimate “turn-backs” and those who got away.

Border Patrol figures suggest an 80 percent efficiency rating right now.

But the Council on Foreign Relations researchers looked at other methods of tracking illegal crossings, including surveys administered to those trying to cross and Border Patrol statistics on recidivism. By those numbers, the Border Patrol was catching no more than 60 percent of illegal crossers at the end of the last decade...

CAIRCO Research:

How many illegal aliens reside in the United States? - including an in-depth analysis of border apprehensions and "got aways"

Border security and porous border fencing

Managing Illegal Immigration to the United States, CFR, May, 2013

  Read more about Independent study raises the bar for border security, immigration reform

ICE Union President Chris Crane has been critical of the Gang of Eight's intentional decision to ignore law enforcement while drafting its "comprehensive immigration reform" bill that would grant amnesty to most of the nation's 11-18 million illegal aliens .. Yesterday, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Gang's refusal to talk with immigration enforcement agents.

"This legislation was crafted behind closed doors with big business, big unions, and groups representing illegal aliens," Crane testified. "Groups with their own interests. Groups that stand to make millions from this legislation. Anyone with a significantly different opinion on immigration reform was prohibited by the Gang of Eight from having input.

"Lawmaking in our nation has indeed taken a strange twist as Senators invite illegal aliens to testify before Congress and groups representing illegal aliens are brought into the development of our nation's laws, but America's citizens working as law enforcement officers within our nation's broken immigration system are purposely excluded from the process and prohibited from providing input."...

"Last week, desperate to be heard, border sheriffs, interior sheriffs, deputies and immigration agents all came to Washington, D.C. with the hope that the Gang of Eight would hear their concerns," Crane said. "They held two meetings on two separate days, not one member of the Gang of Eight attended.

"Last week when I respectfully asked a question to the Gang of Eight at their press conference, I was escorted out by police and Senate staff. I was spoken to with anger and disrespect.

"Never before have I seen such contempt for law enforcement officers as what I've seen from the Gang of Eight."

Watch Chris Crane's entire testimony below.

Read more about ICE Union President Tells Senate Committee Law Enforcement Locked Out of Negotiations

Although Customs and Border Protection officials have halted a proposed series of unpaid furloughs for Border Patrol agents, the union representing agents in the Yuma Sector is concerned such cuts will still be made in the future.

“As a Border Patrol agent, a component of CBP, and under (the Department of Homeland Security), we are getting the word that Border Patrol agents specifically are still going to see some type of cuts,” said Derek Hernandez, vice president of the western region of the National Border Patrol Council and president of Local 2595...

On March 7, CBP began officially releasing unpaid furlough notices to thousands of employees as a result of sequestration, a series of automatic federal budget cuts enacted on March 1 as part of an austerity fiscal policy.

The notice stated the furloughs, up to 14 days of mandatory unpaid time off for full-time employees, were scheduled to begin April 21 and end Sept. 30. The furloughs would have affected all 60,000 Border Patrol employees and taken up to 5,000 agents off the border. The furloughs were postponed on April 1...

Border Patrol agents currently work about 10-hour shifts. If AUO is eliminated, each agent would be reduced to about an eight-hour workday, Hernandez explained, noting the reduction in hours would reduce the time agents were able to spend patrolling the border.

“Our job is so unique. We don't report to our duty location once we hit the station. We have to check out our gear, the vehicle, then drive out to the particular location. Bottom line is the border would be less secure. We would have a hurry-up-and-rush mentality of get out there quick.”

Reduced hours would also mean less time for incoming agents to receive briefings from outgoing agents about possible drug smugglers or illegal immigrants [illegal aliens] passing through the area, Hernandez added. Without that information, he said, the agents would essentially be going into duty blind.

“...It is almost a new way of patrolling” that has never been done before...."

Hernandez calls on Congress to follow the money trail and to ensure transparency within CBP.

“Hold the leaders that we have accountable for the funds, not just (write) a piece of paper that says we are going to allocate for these particular areas. Really scrutinize the salary, the safeguards and the protection,” he said, because the bottom line is “you need boots on the ground. Let us do our job.” Read more about Concerns continue about Border Patrol cutbacks

The union president for immigration officers blasted President Barack Obama as well as Congress’ Gang of Eight immigration proposal, saying the plan will “doom” the country on Friday.

“We’re just in shock right now that the law enforcement officers from the border control, from ICE, our prosecuting attorneys – people that are in the trenches right now and see exactly what’s wrong with our broken immigration system – don’t have a seat at the table and can’t have input,” Crane told former GOP Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Huckabee’s radio program.

Crane continued: “Quite honestly, I think it’s going to doom us to repeat all of the failures that we already currently have with the immigration system as it exists.”...

Crane criticized Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose agency oversees ICE, as well as the Obama administration.

“From day one since Janet Napolitano came in, she’s excluded us as law enforcement officers from the table,” Crane told Huckabee. “[…] Currently right now the administration is ignoring the laws as enacted by Congress. They are making up their own policies because they believe that the executive branch has the ability to dictate to the American people above and beyond what Congress has stated with regard to how immigration law is going to be enforced.”...

Fox News reported Friday that Crane’s National ICE Council wants Rubio to leave the Gang of Eight because... Read more about ICE union chief: Immigration plan to 'doom' U.S.