Whether the issue is drug smuggling, illegal immigration, or the
terrorist threat, securing America's borders is a vital security
challenge. The first 100 days of Barack Obama's Administration have
provided a glimpse of how President Obama will tackle this
challenge in the next year. Beyond that, the picture is less
clear.
Where Credit Is Due. But for the enormous strides to
secure the southern border made over the past four years by the
Bush Administration, the Obama Administration would have a far
tougher job protecting America's borders. Specifically, the Bush
Administration
- increased the number of Border Patrol agents from 11,000 to
17,500;[1]
- added substantial fencing and other tactical infrastructure at
the border with Mexico;
- rolled out and fine-tuned the first deployment of SBInet, a
program initiated in 2006 as part of the Department of Homeland
Security's Secure Border Initiative (SBI) that aided in the
apprehension of almost 4,000 people attempting to cross the border
illegally;
- increased the number and use of unmanned aerial systems
(UAS);
- launched the ports of entry (POE) modernization project;
- added 108 new radiation portal monitors at POEs, bringing the
number to 1,127;[2] and
- began the long-term development of the Coast Guard's Integrated
Deepwater System Program intended to recapitalize Coast Guard
equipment.
These measures resulted in better control of roughly 757 miles
on the southern border, the apprehension of 1,040,000 people
attempting to cross the border illegally at or between the POEs,
and the processing of 396.7 million pedestrians and 122 million
vehicles through the POEs in fiscal year (FY) 2008.[3] These achievements
established a solid foundation on which President Obama and his
team can build continuing border-security enforcement.
The State of Border Security Today
The Obama Administration's proposed FY 2010 budget for Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) largely represents continuity with the
Bush Administration's actions. Although President Obama's proposal
does cut the budget for CBP's Washington, D.C., headquarters by
$248 million, it requests an increase in funding for operations
along the border.
Specifically, President Obama requests a $175 million increase
in border security inspections and trade facilitation at POEs, a
$55 million increase in border security and control between POEs, a
$37 million increase in air and marine operations, and a $4 million
increase in border fencing, infrastructure, and technology.[4] These
increases are in addition to the $100 million increase for border
fencing and the $420 million increase for construction upgrades to
POEs in the economic stimulus package passed in February 2009.[5]
With the decrease in border crossings and the economic
recession, these funding levels appear reasonable. These funding
requests also are entirely consistent with President Obama's
often-stated desire to use technology and personnel at the
southwest border to secure it and to reduce the flow of firearms
and currency from the United States to Mexico.
In looking at the current state of affairs on the border, a
clear conclusion on what CBP should do with the funding becomes
apparent: It must exercise flexibility and adapt as necessary to
the fluid environment of the border.
Despite the media reports and poor public relations conducted by
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, SBInet is not and never
was supposed to be the be all and end all of border security.
Rather, it was simply another tool that CBP could use to strengthen
border security. The first use of SBInet at the P28 location in
Arizona, contrary to popular lore, led to the apprehension of
almost 4,000 people attempting to cross the border. Of course, CBP
and the prime contractor for SBInet, Boeing, spent too much time
and money working out kinks in the SBInet system, especially with
the Common Operating Picture that allows users to gain an
integrated view of the sensors, cameras, and other components
deployed along the border. Nonetheless, CBP and Boeing have
eliminated the bugs and began the second and third installments of
SBInet in Arizona.
The key with SBInet is for CBP to determine where additional
SBInet installments make sense based on three factors.
- Does the operational environment of the area lend itself to the
SBInet tool?
- If yes, does the expected cost of installing and
maintaining SBInet present a compelling return on investment?
- If yes, does the utility of SBInet beat other, lower-cost
tools, such as unmanned aerial systems.
If the final response is yes, installing SBInet will make
sense.
Because the drug cartels, smugglers, "coyotes," and terrorists
will constantly adapt their border plans based on operational needs
and impediments, CBP must be able to similarly adapt its approach
at the border to keep up with or ahead of the bad actors.
Between May 1990 and April 2009, authorities detected 104
tunnels used to smuggle contraband items and people from Mexico to
the United States. Of those 104 tunnels detected over 19 years,
roughly 92 were detected after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attack. As CBP has secured more and more of the border, smugglers
have moved to water routes or dug pathways under the border.
Of the 92 tunnels detected after 9/11, 69 of them (66 percent) were
detected over the last four years.[6] Hence, CBP must exercise
operational flexibility to enhance tunnel detection and remediation
capabilities as more of the illegal activities go, literally,
underground.
At the POEs, much work remains to be done. Some estimates place
the POE modernization project at $5 billion to $6 billion. The
recent economic stimulus plan included roughly $720 million for POE
modernization. Many POEs are so old that they inhibit the flow of
commerce when layered security measures are added. Given the
economic recession, a rapid and steady flow of commerce is
critical. Idling trucks are also harmful to the environment, as
they do little other than spew carbon dioxide.
As with SBInet, CBP must exercise flexibility with POE
modernization. The insertion of non-intrusive inspection
capabilities, such as X-ray portals and secondary screening lanes,
must occur where the projected benefits to both flow of commerce
and security outweigh the cost and disruption of adding those
elements.
In terms of the southbound flow of firearms and currency, beyond
the public relations aspects that play to the needs of the Mexican
government, this is the key question for the Obama Administration:
How sustainable is the heightened activity, given the other demands
on CBP? As with much else proposed by President Obama, confiscating
southbound firearms and currency is not a new activity for CBP. It
has done such work for years. Because there is no urgency in
transporting currency across the border, smugglers have the luxury
of time to wait out the flurry of activity of Obama's first 100
days.
As with the U.S. investment in apprehending illegal immigrants
crossing the southern border, rather than increasing the cost for
the American taxpayer to include monitoring what leaves the
United States, the Mexican government must spend more resources--as
it does on its southern border--to secure its northern
border.
Finally, in conjunction with the Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy,
CBP has employed the Joint Interagency Task Force South located in
the Florida Keys to interdict the smuggling operations that have
used fastboats and semi-submersibles to evade the security assets
on the border. With P3 and C-130 airplanes overhead and Coast Guard
cutters in the water, interdictions of drugs have increased.
Each ton of illicit drugs confiscated on the water before it
hits land alleviates some of the pressure on the border areas,
thereby curtailing some of the border violence. After all, if there
are fewer drugs to smuggle across the border, there are fewer
fights over traffic lanes and other criminal issues related to the
drug trade.
The Challenges of the Future
Congress Must Fund Border Patrol Training. The most
immediate challenge for the Obama Administration is the lack of
experience of much of the Border Patrol. With the enormous increase
in agents, roughly 40 percent of Border Patrol agents have less
than two years of experience.
It is critical for the Obama Administration and Congress to
ensure that the Border Patrol receives the resources it needs to
properly train agents and continue to recruit strong candidates for
vacant positions.
No Work Permits for Illegal Immigrants. The next
challenge for the Obama Administration is to prepare for unintended
consequences. When the Obama Administration decided to provide
illegal immigrants captured during worksite enforcement raids with
work permits for the duration of the case against their employers,
it in effect revived the "catch and release" policy that the Bush
Administration wisely ended with "detention and removal."[7]
This policy change will have two likely consequences. First, as
the legal case against the employer winds its way through the
courts, the odds that illegal immigrants with temporary work
permits will disappear to another part of the country will
increase. After all, if those illegal immigrants were willing to
return to their home countries, they would have done so when they
were arrested. Once free, they will fight to remain free.
The second consequence, which is much harder to discern, is the
increase in border crossings that the policy will spur. Because
illegal immigration tends to follow a supply and demand curve, an
action that reduces the transactional cost of being caught will act
as an incentive for additional crossings. Specifically, as the risk
of being deported decreases due to the new policy of providing
temporary work permits to those caught in worksite raids, those
weighing the costs and benefits of crossing will naturally tip the
scale to the side of crossing.
The Obama Administration should reconsider its short-sighted
policy change and reinstate the penalty of detention and removal
for those illegal immigrants apprehended during worksite raids. If
the Administration fails to reverse itself, Congress should
prohibit the distribution of work permits to illegal immigrants
arrested during worksite raids. In Bellingham, Washington, where
the new policy was first implemented, the unemployment rate was 8.1
percent, and more than 150 U.S. citizens had applied for the 28
positions filled by the illegal immigrants that were arrested,
putting to rest the specious arguments that Americans will not do
the work.[8]
Congress: Request Border Plans from White House. The last
challenge for the Obama Administration is the largest. Given the
investments of the Bush Administration to secure the border and
deport illegal aliens, as well as the widespread economic turmoil
in the housing and construction industries, President Obama
inherited a border with lower activity levels than in previous
years. In this environment, it is easy to stay the course and
please most constituents.
The real challenge for President Obama is what he will do when
the economy becomes stronger and the demand for illegal labor
returns to the levels of previous years in industries such as
construction and hospitality, where large numbers of illegal
immigrants gain employment. As the public once again demands
action, the President will be required to make the tough choices on
fencing, personnel, infrastructure, and technology. Given the
expected budget deficits the country will face, these tough choices
will be made at a time when the discretionary spending pie grows
smaller and smaller.
Beyond his few comments about border security and the FY 2010
budget, there is little that can be discerned about what President
Obama will do to secure the border once the current investments
fail to keep pace with the increased activity of a robust economy.
Congress should require the Administration to provide a plan of how
it will adapt to the border challenges of tomorrow. Because of the
polarization of Americans on illegal immigration, such a report
will force the Administration to articulate its plans for the
future so that the Congress and taxpayers can judge those plans in
a thoughtful and deliberate manner.
Conclusion
Despite the change in presidential administration from
Republican to Democrat, much of the activity on the border will
remain the same. This status quo approach is good. President
Obama inherited a much stronger and secure border than the one
President Bush inherited in 2001. The key element for President
Obama is to allow CBP to be flexible as it continues its efforts to
strengthen the border. The real challenge for President Obama will
occur down the road when the economy recovers and the demand for
cheap illegal immigrant labor increases. When this happens,
President Obama will have to make difficult choices about funding
border security with a budget constrained by the increased spending
and entitlement growth of the last year.
Matt A.
Mayer is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Provisum Strategies LLC,
and an Adjunct Professor at The Ohio State University. He has
served as Counselor to the Deputy Secretary and Acting Executive
Director for the Office of Grants and Training in the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security. His book,Homeland Security and
Federalism: Protecting America from Outside the Beltway, has an
expected publication date of June 2009.