U.S Customs and Border Protection: A Question of Quantity Over Quality

By: Herman Lugaro

Policing America’s borders has taken on added significance and responsibility since the attacks of 9/11. The perceived threat of terrorism is largely responsible, augmenting both political pressure to prevent unauthorized border crossings from Mexico and the ongoing war on drugs. Before the war on terror, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) mostly dealt with illegal immigrants, and drug smugglers. Now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the daunting tasks of managing, controlling, and protecting the U.S. borders and official ports of entry, and stopping terrorist from entering the United States with only 41,000 employees. The added treat of terrorism has made the mission of protecting the U.S. borders even harder for an already over tasked agency.

The Bush administration’s view of the importance of secure US borders could be summed up by U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice’s April 2004 testimony to the 9/11 commission: "I will tell you that I get up every day concerned because I don't think we've made it impossible for Al-Qaeda. We're safer, but we're not safe. And as I said, they have to be right once; we have to be right 100 percent of the time."

To aid in eliminating the threat of terrorism, the Bush Administration created the Department of Homeland Security (DHC) in November 25, 2002. The DHC absorbed the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. As a result, it divided the enforcement and services functions into two separate and new agencies, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the agency that now has the direct responsible for apprehending individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally, stemming the flow of illegal drugs and other contraband protecting the United States agricultural and economic interests from harmful pests and diseases, and protecting American businesses from theft of their intellectual property. As important as these missions are, the primary and most important mission of the CBP is preventing terrorist and terrorist weapons from entering the United States.
"For the first time in out nation's history, one agency has the lone responsibility of protecting out borders. As the single, inified border agency, CPB's mission is vitally importnant to the protection of American and the American people. CBP's priority mission is preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States, while also facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel,” said CBP Commissioner, Robert C. Bonner in an official CBP statement on May 14, 2007.

While preventing terrorists from entering the country may be its priority mission, the CBP has diverted most of its manpower to trying to stop the widespread illegal crossings and drug smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border. According to the Associated Press, CBP’s border-wide staffing has increased dramatically in the past five years as political pressure to prevent illegal immigration has mounted. On the southern border, there are roughly 15,000 agents, up from 9,500 in 2004.
In the opinion of Professor Celestino Fernandez of the University of Arizona, the reason for the rise in the number of agents is that the border between the U.S. and Mexico is the most crossed border of the world. Arizona is the gateway most migrants aim at. From here, they can go to other places in the U.S. or Canada.

There are problems at the U.S.-Mexico border that take the focus of the CBP away from their primary mission of preventing terrorist and terrorist weapons from entering the United States. Across the border from El Paso, Texas, there are warring Mexican drug cartels in Juarez, Mexico that have been recently battling each other and the Mexican government for control over the profitable drug and human smuggling routes. The CBP is expected to stop the immense flow of illegal immigrants and drug smuggling, while at the same time stopping terrorist from entering the U.S.

At the northern border, the United States and Canada share the responsibility of patrolling an area that is over 5,000 miles long. Within the 5,000 miles, there are many areas which are hard to have total control over, because the border is covered by forest. The border also includes lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Erie. The huge size of the great lakes makes it possible to cross the border both ways by boat without being detected. In some portions of the border covered by land, there are no visible markers that indicate where the border is, and in some cases the only barrier that exists is a grassy median between a two-lane road on the U.S. side and another on the Canadian side.

Just like Mexico, Canada has become a global hub of organized crime. The BBC reported that organized crime gangs have set up an intricate network to smuggle marijuana, counterfeit goods and guns into the United States. This raises the possibility that for the right price, these gangs will help terrorists get safely across from Canada into United States.

In addition to the northern and southern borders of the U.S., there’s the immense task of securing large and small maritime ports of entry. An important aspect to consider in dealing with ports is the economic factor, where the U.S. plays a major role in the global economy. According to the official CBP website, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will facilitate about $2 trillion in legitimate trade this year. The containers entering the U. S. are only allowed a limited amount of time at a port, because there’s an exorbitant amount of containers entering U.S. ports, and any slow down can put businesses at risk and cost millions of dollars.

Ninety-five percent of all trade is handled in ports across the U.S. and only five percent of steel containers are visually inspected. The head of DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office Dale Oxford revealed that right now the percentage of containers being scanned by radiological detection systems varies. On the northern border Ninety-one percent of containers are being scanned, and on the southern border ninety-six percent is being scanned. Only ninety percent of maritime cargo is being scanned. This indicates that not all cargo coming in the U.S. is thoroughly inspected. As a result, there is the possibility that a hazardous shipment or a terrorist cell can be smuggled through the border without being detected.

The Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies are helping the CBP in the enormous task of securing the U.S. borders. Nevertheless, the problem is not with the quality of the work, but the quantity of the work the CBP is required to accomplish.