Border Security Research Paper

Thousands upon thousands of lives have been taken due to the huge demand for drugs crossing from Mexico into the United States. The murder rate is extremely high, and has caused so much chaos between both countries because of this. Drug dealers in the United States contact drug dealers in Mexico, and vice versa, to cross the drugs between borders illegally. A high percentage of the time, either of the drug dealers from both sides will have a scape goat swim the border while carrying high amounts of drugs with them, or will attempt to cross it over smuggled in a vehicle. In Mexico, it is extremely corrupt and even the law enforcement is involved in the crossing of drugs illegally. This being done causes so much conflict

The concept of securing the border limiting immigration is reliant on the fact that by having a “fence” it captures more illegal immigrants, rather than not having one at all. To better secure the border the fence is a first step. I think that there are better ways to secure the border such as employing more unemployed Americans to help patrol this barrier. I feel that in today’s society many Americans would rather see their tax dollars going to use. I would also suggest we pull more troops out of Iraq and encourage their use on our home soil.

The United States have declared that it is doing its best to combat the war on drugs. The drug problem has not stopped and the people continue to buy drugs no matter what circumstances they are obtained. With drugs prices rising, people are willing do anything to get drugs even if it leads them to become involved in criminal activities such as robbery. The money and military activity have not been enough, and the “urban problem,” has not been resolved. The United States has the largest demand of drugs in the world. While other countries also face the drug problem, the United States has spent the most money and law enforcement; however, its effectiveness is questionable. Consequently, now there is a great amount of drugs coming from Mexico’s borderline into the United States. The drug cartels have become more violent, killing Mexican officers and innocent people in order to smuggle their drugs. The United States needs more security control and better coordination between agencies to fight the violent Mexican drug war spilling across the southern border. There is not enough organization between the D.E.A and other groups such as the Department of Homeland Security. The United States has little hope of winning the war unless enough protection on the border and Border States are developed. The agencies need better coordination between the federal, state and locals agencies in order to prevent more drugs to cross

The United States Border Patrol is a police force located all over America. Most people think the only job Border Patrol has is chasing down immigrants due to the media coverage on the Mexican border. Although it is a big part of the job it is not the only thing done. The main position for agents is in Mexico, another main location is Canada. Between the two locations 21,000 agents patrol 6,000 miles. (Department of Homeland Security, n.d.) The Border Patrol’s keeps illegal people, drugs, and weapons of mass destruction from entering our country. Another major responsibility is to prevent terrorist from trying to cross the border. In order to prevent this from happening Border Patrol have check points with man power alert at all times. Equipped with the best equipment from the government they stop virtually everything crossing. I along with most of the country feel that this is a very important job in the United States.

The drug use in the United States is one of the highest in world, with a never-ending supply both from our nation southern border and ports. However, it is hard to describe the enemy since many that migrate here to the United States do so to escape their home countries situations. For example, in Honduras and El Salvador jobs are hard to find and the murder rate is higher than that of a war zone. On the same note, drug smuggler and human trafficking poses a high risk to both our nation border patrol and citizens near the border. Additionally, since security has tighten on the border, many are now traveling through hazardous terrain such as desert and mountains to make it. Often this exposed them to the harsh climate and many dangerous creatures that roam our nations southern barren

The United States and Mexican border has been a topic long debated between citizens and politicians, on one hand the trade between the two countries has shown great economic prosperity since the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), notwithstanding this success there has also been a huge spike in human trafficking and other illegal activity since the inception of the border. While the growth of the GDP for all three countries involved (United States, Mexico, Canada) has become evident it is unclear whether it is truly fair to all parties involved.

The country’s borders make the most important part in the process of reducing drug trafficking in the U.S. Drug law enforcement agencies face enormous challenges when it comes to

The DEA faces different challenges everyday of protecting this country's border from people who try to smuggle illegal drugs. according to the United States Customs Service, 60 million people enter the United States on more than 675,000 commercial and private flights. Another 6 million come over by sea and 370 million by land. In addition, 116 million vehicles cross land borders with Canada and Mexico. More than 90,000 merchant and passenger ships dock at U.S. ports. These ships carry more than 9 million shipping containers and 400 million tons of cargo. Another 157,000 smaller vessels visit our many coastal towns. In the middle of this large trade, drug traffickers conceal cocaine, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine and numerous other types of illegal drugs for shipments for distribution in U.S.

Drug smuggling has been an issue in the United States since the 1960s and the Border Patrol has made many efforts to stop drugs from crossing our borders. The Purpose of the Border Patrol is to secure and keep our borders safe. Recently their focus has been on illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Drug smuggling has become an increasing issue and the efforts of the Border Patrol are being pushed to stop these illegal activities. The influx of drugs into the U.S. has many effects on our country as a whole and as smugglers get creative in finding new methods to get around the Border Patrol, it becomes harder for them to stop it. This may be why it seems too easy to get drugs across the border. With new techniques of smuggling it allows for more drugs to enter the U.S. and it leave the Border Patrol on their toes and on a constant lookout for these new techniques.

The U.S. Customs and Law enforcement who is within the Department of Homeland Security is challenge with investigations for things such as, illegal drugs which crosses the border and to combat any illegal entries or alien smuggling at the border. Their focus is to protect the U.S. border, which has been in place by Department of Homeland Security ever since September 11, terrorist attack. In order for departments such as U.S. Customs and Law enforcement to help prevent such illegal entries of illegal aliens into the United States they to work together with the other departments within the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate the flow of legal immigration and goods through the U.S. border while deterring those who are undocumented from crossing the border.

The border patrol has been a major problem for many decades concerning illicit drugs entering into the United States (Levinthal, 2012). Controlling the importation of illicit drugs is not an easy task. Statistics confirm the combined United States border stretches approximately 7,000 miles (Levinthal, 2012). The amount of government officials needed to monitor the importation of illicit drugs is unimaginable. Moreover, the government has designated four agencies to reduce the interdiction of drugs entering into United States territory. The four agencies for reducing illicit drug control in the United States, includes (1) DEA, (2) the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Agency, (3) the U.S. Coast Guard, and (4) the U.S. military (Levinthal, 2012).

Every day the U.S. border patrol has to constantly keep an eye out for the smuggling of drugs by Mexican Cartels. There has been much violence due to this drug problem that has left many people near the border killed and is allowing more criminals to obtain these weapons. A lot of this attention goes to the U.S. because many of the weapons utilized in the “drug war” are U.S. made and is interfering with trading relations amongst both the U.S. and Mexico. With this current violent situation in Mexico this has transformed the flow of weapons to an even larger scale.

The problem of drugs coming over into the United States from Mexico is not new, but it is serious and in spite of many efforts by American law enforcement and border authorities, it continues day after day. This paper reviews the problem from several perspectives and brings to light attempts the U.S. has made to stop drug trafficking on our border with Mexico. The biggest issue regarding border security is the power of the drug cartels, and the majority of emphasis in this paper is directed towards the cartels.

In February 2011 the United States began sending unarmed drones to collect information on drug traffickers. Later in August, the United States started in cross border raids, sending CIA operatives and older military personnel to aid the Mexican military. In addition to assisting Mexico, the United States increased security on our side and spends approximately $3 billion on securing the border. Decriminalization is a highly disputed policy option, in November of 2012 two states in the United States passed laws for the legalization of recreational use of marijuana. However, it is still a United States federal law that marijuana is illegal. Although decriminalization would lead to less incarcerations, it would put more drugs in the hands of users and increase drug exporting from Mexico. A prime strategy that both the United States and Mexico have been using is to take out the “high value” individuals or “foot soldiers”. This takes out the mass exporters but still leaves the middle and lower class drug traffickers. Which then the middle class moves up and takes over for whatever “high value” cartel that was just taken out. Almost immediately after, Mexico’s new president, Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December of 2012. Of those who reported missing or those who just “disappeared” the Peña Nieto government claims they will seek to verify all the missing ones. After coming into office, the administration of Peña Nieto changes the security policies. In

Drug trafficking is an illegal drug trading system in which drugs are brought from other countries to the United States. According to the article, “Crime and Drug Control Policies in the United States” written by Thomas Mieczkowski, illegal drug trafficking from Mexico and Colombia have been hurting the American society for many years. Drugs have been coming into the U.S. in many different forms and routes especially through the border of the United States and Mexico (Mieczkowski 2008). The large amounts of drugs brought into America is for intent to sell and make immense amounts of profit. Most of the drugs coming in from Mexico and other South American countries are all easily grown or produced from where it comes from. After these drugs enter the U.S. they are given to distributors who supply portions to many different drug dealers and these drug dealers sell the drugs to the citizens of America. In most cases the buyer of the drugs are drug addicts, or someone that 's just trying sell what they got for more profit (Mieczkowski 2008). All these different drugs are causing thousands of American teens to become addicts, which leads them to lose control and do absurd things or die due to overdose on those drugs (The History of Drug Abuse). The DEA and the American government do many things to prevent drugs coming in from Mexico and confiscate anything they find, but the amount confiscated is nowhere near the amount actually entering the U.S. (Mieczkowski 2008). Drug