Enforcement News

The U.S. Border and Immigration Reform

Published

13 years ago

October 21, 2011

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It’s true, one part of United States immigration policy has a major focus on our border with Mexico.

Other countries, like Thailand, surrounded on all sides by countries just like Mexico, have a much tougher time with borders.

This article in Reuters by Bernd Debusmann today focuses on the border element, it’s an interesting read.

His most significant point is about President Obama promising so much reform, yet delivering so little.

By way of allowing those embedded in the enforcement side continue to view the border strictly in terms of crime.

To prove it, Mr. Debusmann also includes a link to a report by some Retired Generals including former drug czar Barry McCaffrey. It’s title: “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment”.

Mr. Debussman’s best point is that:

The Secure Fence Act defined operational control as “the prevention of all unlawful U.S. entries, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism and other contraband.”

To do that, the U.S. Border Patrol has been doubled in size (to around 20,000 agents) under a build-up begun in the administration of George W. Bush and continued under Obama, who won the presidency partly thanks to Latino voters who believed his campaign pledge that he would push through “comprehensive immigration reform” within one year of taking office.

That reform is meant to tackle all aspects of the system, from complicated entry visa regulations to the presence of an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants, the majority Mexicans, already in the country. Once in office, he made little effort to fulfill his promise but his administration steadily stepped up the pace of deportations. They reached a record 400,000 in the fiscal year that ended in September.

The irony of so much emphasis on deporting illegal immigrants under a president who promised so much more has not escaped the Latino community and groups supporting a balanced approach to the complex problem. Joanne Lin of the American Civil Liberties Union noted that the record deportations came at a time when “illegal immigration rates have plummeted, the undocumented population has decreased substantially and violent crime rates are at their lowest in 40 years.”

Violent crime across the United States has been dropping every year since 2006, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Does that hold true for the border region the generals’ report describes as a war zone under assault from Mexican gangs?

Checkout the article in more detail, and these articles: