US Border Patrol Qualitative Study

Since the very beginning agents have been patrolling our borders, “Mounted watchmen of the U.S. Immigration Service patrolled the border in an effort to prevent illegal crossings as early as 1904” (Border Patrol History, web). The agent’s efforts were undertaken only when resources permitted. The inspectors were all out of El Paso, Texas, “Though they never totaled more than seventy-five, they patrolled as far west as California trying to restrict the flow of illegal Chinese immigration” (Border Patrol History, web).

The United States Border Patrol has a mission and duty to protect our borders through regulating laws and preventing illegal terrorists, drugs, and weapons from entering the United States. This has been a clear goal ever since laws have been passed to help secure our borders back in 1924. The need for Border Patrol and the demand for tighter security plans have been increasing due to terrorist attacks on American soil, the presence of radical groups, and a high rate of crime in the United States. The big idea here is that as crime continues to develop so will our border securities. I would like to primarily focus on the current role of the Border Patrol versus what it might have been in years past. Many tragedies have occurred in recent times more than what was experienced years ago. The United States has suffered throughout the year 2000 and continues to suffer from severe threats to the nation. It only makes sense to make changes and tighten our borders in order to help prevent the ongoing crimes. If the Border Patrol does this than the individuals living in this nation will live in a better and much safer environment. Along with their current role, the research on the Border Patrol’s changes that either have hindered their work or made them more effective will be looked into as well.

The U.S Border Patrol’s main job is to prevent terrorists, weapons, and illegal aliens from entering the U.S. without identification. They want to make sure that the nation is safe from crimes and attacks that can happen from the South American or Canadian borderline. Border patrollers want to detect and prevent illegal human trafficking, drugs, or species that will cause harm to the country. They have to work day and night to protect their country from harmful people or items.

Long before Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, border patrol has been an issue talked about in abhorrence for years. In this cartoon the U.S. border patrol is patrolling the border and drawn to a yellow sign that reads, “CAUTION,” and has a silhouette of a family running. Underneath that is another yellow sign, but this one reads, “OUTSOURCING,” and features robbers fleeing. The border control is looking at the signs puzzled. Through this drawing, Bennett asked his audience, “Do we really want to vote for a man who worries more about families coming to the U.S. to better their lives? Or people in the U.S. taking our profits and business to other countries?” As I said earlier, questioning some of Trump’s motives is questioning

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.

Just as the various other bureaucratic agencies within the United States government serve specific purposes, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, does as well. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose headquarters is in Washington, D.C., was formed in 2003, the result of a merger between the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service. ICE has many sub-departments dedicated to immigration control, smuggling and trafficking investigation, and terrorism

Never exceeding more than seventy-five guards, this placed them severely understaffed for the need of manpower, but it was reinforced with the help of “Military troops along the southwest border performed intermittent border patrolling…Texas Rangers were also sporadically assigned to patrol duties by the state” (Border Patrol History, 2015). At that time the United States government was more concerned with intercepting enemy communications than they were about illegal entry into the country. However, struck by the realization of how ineffective their efforts were to secure and patrol the border without enforcement between stations; Frank W. Berkshire, the Supervising Inspector, addressed his concerns of uncoordinated efforts in enforcing

There is an assessed 11 million illegal aliens that are living United States, and this population is projected to upturn by 500,000 yearly. Once a year, about 1 million people that are considered to be aliens are detained when they make the attempt to come in the United States unlawfully. Even though most of these foreigners arrive the United States for financial chances and family reunification, or they are avoiding civil trouble and political unrest, some are offenders, and some could possibly be terrorists. Every one of them is disrupting the United States' immigration laws. With that said, this paper will involve the case study of immigration enforcement and the circumstances around the issue.

ICE stands for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they deal with matters concerning border control, customs, trade and immigration to insure public safety and homeland security. Their priorities focus on preventing terrorism and the illegal movement of items, as well as people. Within ICE, there are three subgroups that fall into specialized tasks for the agency, such as Homeland security investigations (HSI) and the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Although being a fairly new agency there has been more than a few controversies on how ICE handles the illegal immigrants, however, since 9/11 the U.S has been trying to find the most effective ways to stop terrorism. So, that also means that not everyone would agree with the tactics that ICE used to solve the problem for those specific cases.

The U.S. Border Patrol started its service for our nation in 1924. Even though some changes have affected every aspect of the operations from its early days, the values, professionalism, honor, integrity, and respect helped shape the Border Patrol from the early years and they still remain the same today. Since the very beginning agents have been patrolling our borders, “Mounted watchmen of the U.S. Immigration Service patrolled the border in an effort to prevent illegal crossings as early as 1904” (Border Patrol History, web). The agent’s efforts were undertaken only when resources permitted. The inspectors were all out of El Paso, Texas, “Though they never totaled more than seventy-five, they patrolled as far west as California trying to restrict the flow of illegal Chinese immigration” (Border Patrol History, web).

United States Border Patrol has been around since 1904 enforcing and regulating laws under the immigration and Nationality Act. U.S. border patrol is now under the Department of Homeland Security, which was created as a response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Over the years, their jurisdiction and missions have changed to better protect the safety of nation. Although border patrol is a need for any nation, their extensive acceptations to constitutional laws can often be taken advantage of. The mission of the U.S. border patrol should be to prevent illegal aliens, which are a threat to American society, from reaching their purpose. Frequently, their purpose can be confused or executed in a bias manner.

There have been numerous news articles in the past couple of weeks involving the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement all ranging from the Washington Post, CNN, and Los Angles’ times. These articles are stating that thousands of ICE detainers were forced into labor, which is a violation of the anti-slavery law. As well as dreamers speaking out on immigration and getting arrested by ICE. Therefore, you can tell that there is an on-going debate over the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one with many strong opinions on both sides of the issue creating a very substantial list of pros and cons that all started just fifteen years ago.

The conflict between the mother and border guards continues as the family “… drove to the Canadian border” (King 139). Readers may expect Canadian guards to ask the same questions. However, the Canadian guard first introduces herself with her name as Carol and greetings as follows: “you folks sure have a great day for a trip.” (140). This quickly establishes a warm and welcoming atmosphere; specifically, Carol’s words made her seem more approachable in comparison to U.S. guards. However, Canadian guard still reinforces citizenship laws where it prevented the family to cross borders as the mother continue responding to the question of her citizenship as “Blackfoot”. Hence, the question of citizenship became ineffective in determining the mother’s

U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas say they are seeing an increasing amount of illegal immigrants hide inside air flow vents of trucks to try to get past checkpoints undetected.

I feel that border security should be a priority and it is important to me because of the consequences we are currently suffering from and will continue to suffer from. We have decades of children that will depend on us to resolve these issues now rather than lay the burden on them. Even if Border Security is dealt with successfully, the radical terrorist threat will continue and will be able to be dealt with more easily because of the progress we will be able to make at home domestically as well. Securing our nearly 6000 miles of border between just the Canadian and Mexican borders not including our coastal shores and ports will be vital in many ways, such as national security and for a prosperous America.