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#1 -
BORDER PATROL AGENTS
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Our official title job
title is "Border Patrol Agent" or in some cases "Senior Patrol Agent".
Unfortunately, far too many politicians and members of the media incorrectly refer to us as "border guards",
"border agents", "border inspectors", "border control
agents", "customs agents",
and/or confuse us with Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs).
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The following picture,
which appears on the
CBP website, shows a
CBPO on the left and a Border Patrol Agent on the right:
#2 -
THE UNITED STATES BORDER PATROL
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Subsequent to the
passing of the Homeland Security Act, the
Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) was created and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was
eliminated. Components of INS were transferred to different Agencies within
DHS:
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The United States
Border Patrol (USBP) was placed under
Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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Inspectors
from the INS, the Customs Service, and
the Department of Agriculture were placed
under CBP and their positions were merged
into one position: Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs). CBPOs
are assigned to sea, air, and land
Ports of Entry around the United States
where they inspect people and goods entering the United States.
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Detention and
Enforcement Officers (DEOs), who handled the transportation and
detention of illegal aliens apprehended by the USBP were placed under
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)and
their position was converted to Immigration Enforcement Agents (IEAs).
As a result, the USBP no longer had DEOs to handle the transportation
and detention of USBP apprehensions. The functions served by DEOs
were ultimately awarded to a private contractor.
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Criminal
Investigators and Deportation Officers were transferred to
ICE and merged with
Criminal Investigators from the Customs Service.
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All other positions
within the Legacy INS that dealt with the processing and adjudication of
petitions for immigration documents were transferred to
Citizenship and
Immigration Services (CIS).
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Border Patrol Agents
primarily work on the border in between the Ports of
Entry or at traffic checkpoints on major highways leading
away from the border.
#3 -
THE NATIONAL BORDER PATROL STRATEGY
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In 1994, the Border
Patrol implemented the
National Border Patrol Strategy
(NBPS), which placed
all the emphasis of the Border Patrol on the border. The NBPS was
revised in September 2004.
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In conjunction with the
implementation of the NBPS, interior enforcement operations by the Border
Patrol were restricted by administrative policies and are almost non-existent today
in certain sectors of the Border Patrol. Although the Border Patrol
has the authority to conduct operations in the interior of the United
States, the lack of interior enforcement has led to confusion in recent
years regarding the Border Patrol's authority to conduct interior
enforcement operations. (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1302853/posts).
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The NBPS is
foolishly based on a philosophy of "prevention through deterrence". The
Agency claimed that an increase in manpower and resources at the border
would deter people from entering the United States. The revised NBPS
claims deterrence is accomplished by increasing the "certainty of
apprehension" of those intending to illegally cross the borders.
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Proof that the NBPS
does not deter people from entering the United States is the number of
people who are caught more than once and the number of people who attempt to
enter the United States.
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Although not cited
within the original NBPS or the newly revised NBPS, the NBPS is actually
based on a strategy of "displacement", which has been used
for years by police departments to address high-crime areas within a city.
In basic terms, a local police force uses the strategy of displacement by increasing the police presence in
a high-crime area in an attempt to chase-away the criminals. The
goal of the operation is to chase the criminals out of the city, but in
bigger cities, the criminals usually move to another part of the city.
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For the
Border Patrol, displacement was only successful in redirecting the traffic to a
different area of the border, but was not successful in reducing the flow of
people illegally entering the United States.
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Overall, the strategy is
a failure. However, Agency officials routinely misrepresent the
facts in an attempt to mislead the politicians and the public:
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Agency
officials routinely capitalized on statistics from the San Diego Sector to claim the
NBPS was successful, but ignored other areas of the border where traffic
increased.
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If apprehensions increase
in an area, the Agency claims the increase proves that the operation is
a success resulting from an increase in resources (See
example).
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If apprehensions
decrease in an area, the Agency claims the decrease proves that the
operation is a success and proves the NBPS is deterring people from
entering the country (See
example).
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The Agency never mentioned the
number of people who successfully entered the country because the Agency
intentionally never made any attempt to maintain the data.
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One other important
note regarding apprehensions, when the Agency claimed apprehensions
decreased, they never specifically explained the decrease. In many
cases, the decrease was directly linked to a decrease in other
operations (i.e. interior patrol, roving patrol, etc.) and policies
which restricted agents from making apprehensions outside of their
"assigned location".
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Operation Gatekeeper
was implemented in the San Diego Sector (SDC) in 1994. At that time, the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS) sent the majority of trainees to SDC, along
with new vehicles and equipment. According to the original NBPS, SDC
needed approximately 2500 to 2700 agents to secure the border in SDC's area
of operation. SDC created several static positions along the border
and staffed them with Border Patrol Agents. Officials in
SDC claimed the static positions were necessary to the philosophy
of deterrence.
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While SDC was receiving
all of the new resources, Border Patrol Sectors to the east of SDC remained
at the same staffing levels (i.e. El Centro Sector, Yuma Sector, Tucson
Sector, etc.)
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In 1996, almost two
years after Operation Gatekeeper was implemented, the El Centro Sector
finally started to receive the resources it needed to address the increased
flow of illegal immigration. In other words, for two years SDC pushed
traffic to an area of the border that was understaffed and unprepared to
deal with the increased traffic. Of course, the Agency never reported
the traffic that was entering through El Centro during that time.
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At the same time, the
Agency began detailing SDC agents away from their assigned duty locations to
temporary duty assignments in El Centro. Each detail lasted
approximately thirty-five days. On average, SDC detailed approximately
200 agents. These details were an enormous
waste of taxpayer money and were the direct result of the NBPS.
The Union argued that the
Agency should abandon the NBPS or at least offer paid moves to the various locations, which would have cost
less, but with taxpayer money to waste, the Agency continued the details.
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Thirteen years after
the implementation of the NBPS and Border Patrol Agents from the SDC are
still being detailed to the Tucson Sector to provide additional resources.
However, thanks to Chief Aguilar, the length of these details has now
increased to forty-five days because of the threat of "terrorism".
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SDC's staffing dropped
down to approximately 1300 Border Patrol Agents assigned to the field, but
the Border Patrol ignored the attrition problem in SDC. Instead,
Border Patrol management in SDC responded by eliminating the same static
positions that they claimed they needed when Operation
Gatekeeper was implemented.
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Consequently, the
Border Patrol in SDC is extremely understaffed and Agents assigned to SDC
are concerned with the insufficient number of agents assigned to the various
shifts. Although the Agency may claim this is sensitive information,
anyone sitting in Tijuana Mexico can see the lack of manpower in SDC.
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The NBPS is extremely
manpower intensive. The current NBPS calls for a mix of personnel,
technology, and infrastructure, but the reality is the personnel still has
to be increased under this strategy to protect the infrastructure and
technology and to respond to illegal aliens detected using the technology.
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Currently, Local 1613
believes the only
available method of determining the success of the NBPS is the number of illegal
aliens residing in the United States. Since that number has steadily
increased since Operation Gatekeeper and the NBPS were implemented, the
Union contends that the NBPS is a failure and has only successfully slowed
the flow of people entering the country illegally in populated areas like
San Diego, CA.
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Placing a majority of
the resources on the border to address illegal immigration is as ridiculous
as a baseball team placing all the players in the infield.
Essentially, we are a baseball team without an outfield and we are losing
every inning.
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The NBPS is not
concerned with the negative affects of displacement on the Ports of Entry.
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The NBPS does not take
into account the potential for an increase in fraudulent documents.
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The NBPS does not have
any impact on those persons who enter the country legally, but reside beyond
the date they are expected to leave the United States.
#4 - BORDER FENCES AND WALLS
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Local 1613 disagrees with
wasting taxpayer money on building fences and walls along the border as a
means of curtailing illegal entries into the United States.
However, as long as we continue to operate under the current NBPS and ignore the problem that is causing illegal
immigration, we realize fences and walls are essential.
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Walls and fences are
temporary solutions that focus on the symptom (illegal immigration) rather
than the problem (employers who knowingly hire illegal
aliens).
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Walls and fences are
only a speed bump. People who want to come to the United States to
obtain employment will continue to go over, under, and around the walls and
fences that are constructed.
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Walls and fences will
undoubtedly result in an increase in fraudulent documents and smuggling
through one of the many
Ports of Entry.
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Walls and fences do not
solve the issue of people entering the country legally and staying beyond
the date they are required to leave the country, a problem which will
undoubtedly increase as more walls and fences are constructed.
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The Local 1613 position
regarding walls and fences is not due to a concern of losing our jobs if
fences and walls are built. On the contrary, Local 1613 realizes that
walls and fences require just as much manpower to protect them. Border
Patrol Agents witness what happens to walls and fences when there are not
enough Border Patrol Agents to protect them.
#5 - TEMPORARY GUEST WORKER PROGRAMS
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Politicians, media
spokespersons, and illegal immigrant advocates like to mislead the public
into believing a temporary guest worker program will solve illegal
immigration in the United States.
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The
amnesty that passed in 1986 used the same
fundamentally flawed theory and resulted in an increase of people illegally entering
the United States for years to follow.
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As long as the number
of people who want to come to the United States to work is greater than the
number of temporary guest worker permits, people will continue to enter the
United States illegally in search of work.
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The United States will
never be able to match the number of guest worker permits with the number of
people in the World who want to come to the United States to work.
#6 - THE UNION'S PROPOSED
SOLUTION
When speaking about illegal
immigration, everyone appears to agree on one issue: an overwhelming majority of
people enter the United States illegally to obtain employment. Based on
the assumption this is true, one can only conclude that the current problem for
the United States is employers who hire illegal aliens. Illegal
immigration is merely a symptom of that problem. Consequently, if any of our politicians are truly
interested in stemming the flow of illegal immigration, then they should focus
on the problem and stop focusing on the symptom.
Therefore, to solve the
problem, the United States should focus enforcement efforts on U.S. employers,
not illegal aliens or the border. The Union's
plan consists of the following:
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The
Federal Bureau of Investigation shall be the Agency responsible for the
detection and apprehension of terrorists in the country, as they were before
9/11.
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Components of the Legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs
Service which were moved into the Department of Homeland Security and had
their primary missions shifted to terrorism should return to their primary missions.
For Border Patrol, this means returning the primary mission to detect and
prevent the entry of illegal aliens into the United States. Detecting terrorists,
just like detecting drugs, will occur subsequent to fulfilling the
primary mission.
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Abolish the National Border Patrol Strategy and reallocate a portion of the
resources to the interior of the country. Using Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) Agents and Border Patrol Agents, the new strategy will
place a priority on targeting employers who hire illegal aliens. These
operations shall include day labor sites, illegal alien encampments, and
locations where illegal aliens typically congregate on city streets
throughout the country. Employer enforcement will include an
inspection of records pertaining to employees and the business owners.
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Replace the existing
Social Security card with a new, counterfeit-proof Social Security card.
The new Social Security card should contain
biometric information (picture, fingerprint, etc.) to identify the
cardholder and assist employers with verifying the identity of the
applicant. Similar to a state drivers license or credit card, the card
should have a magnetic strip on the back with information about the card
holder. The magnetic strip will enable employers to swipe the card
through a card reader, which would be connected to a computer database run by
the Social Security Administration. The Social Security card would be
issued to U.S. citizens and immigrants who have been approved to work in the
United States.
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Provide a service for employers to verify if a person is eligible to work in
the United States. This service should include a device for reading the
magnetic strip on the new Social Security card and a toll-free number for
small businesses to call to verify eligibility. The toll-free number should
be staffed by employees from the Social Security Administration with support
from Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) and Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Employers who violate Immigration laws will receive one warning.
Thereafter, they will be subject to a table of increasing fines, with
imprisonment at the top of the table for repeat offenders. This shall
include contractors who willingly violate immigration and tax laws by hiring
and paying cash to illegal aliens who stand on city streets, day-labor
sites, and at Home Depot parking lots throughout the United States.
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Fines
collected from employers will be used to provide the service used by
employers to check the eligibility of workers. Additionally, a portion of
the fines collected will go to a fund to assist families of law enforcement
officers who are killed in the line of duty by illegal aliens and families
of law enforcement officers who are killed in the line of duty while
protecting the United States borders.
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This
plan must be implemented nationally or illegal aliens will only be displaced
to other parts of the country, much like the National Border Patrol
Strategy, which only displaces illegal aliens to the ports of entry and
unpopulated areas of the border.
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Any
new temporary worker permits should only be available to those who have not
violated U.S. immigration laws and who are not currently residing within the
United States illegally.
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Finally, the United States must cut-off all benefits to illegal aliens to
guarantee illegal aliens will return to their country of origin.
Benefits
of this plan:
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Employers will realize they are no longer free to hire illegal aliens
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People will no longer sneak into the United States to find
work that does not exist
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The myth that the United States will have to
deport millions of people will be proven false because an overwhelmingly
majority of illegal aliens will voluntarily return to their country of
origin in search of work.
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It will eliminate most of the taxpayer money which is currently wasted on
detention and transportation of illegal aliens because illegal aliens will voluntarily leave the country in search of work.
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It
will save the taxpayers millions of dollars in the proposed construction of
fences and/or walls along the border.
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The
unemployment rate will decrease because U.S. employers will be forced to
hire U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the United States and
eligible for work.
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Since
this plan focuses on eliminating the magnet that draws people to the United
States, it will undoubtedly take pressure off the border and leave Border
Patrol Agents free to chase down drug smugglers, criminals, and terrorists
who are attempting to enter the country illegally.
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The
FBI, DEA, ATF, and police officers will have an easier job of identifying
terrorists, criminals, and drug smugglers who are residing in the United
States since they will no longer be able to blend in with the enormous
illegal alien population that currently resides within the United States.
On
September 11, 2001, during an
address to a joint session of Congress and the
American people, President Bush said, "And we will pursue nations
that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism." Until Republicans and Democrats
stop focusing on the symptoms and start concentrating on the problem, the United
States will continue to be a nation that provides safe haven to terrorists, and
the Department of Homeland Security’s threat level will remain at “Elevated”
(yellow) to signify there is a “significant risk of terrorist attacks”. With
all this rhetoric about “terrorism”, does it make any sense for the United
States to continue to ignore the problem, knowing full-well the terrorists can
and will exploit it in the future to cause further harm to the United States?
#7 - CORRUPTION
#8 -
AFL-CIO AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
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NBPC Local 1613 opposes all
efforts by AFL-CIO to aid and support illegal aliens working illegally within
the United States. Instead of focusing on increasing their per capita and
membership through illegal aliens, the AFL-CIO should firmly oppose illegal
immigration and instead support American workers.
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The statistics show
when immigration was low, Unions were stronger (http://www.numbersusa.com/interests/unions.html).
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NBPC Local 1613
challenges AFL-CIO to reconsider their priorities and support American
workers and immigration enforcement in the interior and at the workplace.
Contact Information for NBPC Local 1613
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