Posted on 10/19/2010 11:08:05 AM PDT by jazusamo
Complete title: U.S. Government Does Not Have Effective Control of 1,081 Miles of the U.S.-Mexico Border, DHS Says
(CNSNews.com) The U.S. government does not have effective control of 1,081miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the division of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for securing the border.
Border miles under effective control is a metric DHS uses in its annual performance reports to measure the performance of the Border Patrol.
As defined by DHS, a mile of the border is under the effective control of the U.S. government when the appropriate mix of personnel, equipment, technology and tactical infrastructure has been deployed to reasonably ensure that when an attempted illegal entry is detected, the Border Patrol has the ability to identify, classify and respond to bring the attempted illegal entry to a satisfactory law enforcement resolution.
Simply put, a border mile under effective control is a place on the border where the U.S. government can be reasonably expected to intercept an illegal crosser.
The Border Patrol, a division of CBP, is responsible for securing a total of 8,607 miles of the U.S. border. This includes all 1,954 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, approximately 4,000 miles of the U.S.-Canada border, plus sectors of coastline in the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As of Sept. 30 (the end of fiscal year 2010), the Border Patrol had established effective control over 1,107 miles of the 8,607 miles it is responsible for securing, a CPB spokesperson told CNSNews.com on Monday.
Of these 1,107 miles that are now under effective control, 69 miles are on the U.S.-Canada border, 165 miles are in the coastal sectors covered by the Border Patrol, and 873 are on the U.S.-Mexico border.
That means the U.S. government does not have effective control over 1,081 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.
Still, there has been some improvement over the past year. DHSs fiscal year 2009 annual performance report said that the Border Patrol had established effective control over only 939 miles of the 8,607 miles of U.S. border it is responsible for securing.
Of those 939 miles under effective control, a CBP spokesperson told CNSNews.com on Monday, 32 were on the U.S.-Canada border, 165 were in the coastal sectors, and 742 were on the U.S.-Mexico border.
That means that in the past year, the Border Patrol put an additional 37 miles of U.S.-Canada border under effective control and an additional 131 miles of U.S.-Mexico border under effective control.
In its most recent annual performance report, published on Feb. 1, 2010, DHS had set a goal of having only 939 border miles (out of 8,607) under effective control by the end of fiscal 2010 and then maintaining (not increasing) that number during fiscal 2011. As it turned out, DHS exceeded its 2010 goal by 168 total miles.
When asked what CBPs new goal would be for border miles under effective control in fiscal 2011, a CBP spokesperson would not give a specific mile number, stating instead only that CBP will maintain or increase the number from 2010.
Meanwhile, with more than a thousand miles of the Mexican border not under effective control, CBP officials are downplaying the significance of the metric.
CNSNews.com asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin last Thursday when he expected to have the full U.S.-Mexico border under effective control.
Bersin Video 2:25 minutes
If you defined it by that characterization of a piece of real state, there are places on the border where it is not a useful characterization. And I have not seen, nor have I developed my own estimate about when using that tactical definition, when some, some final end state will, will occur, Bersin responded.
I dont think thats a useful way to look at the border as an exclusive lens. What we have to look at the border is in terms of, as I suggested, public safety for our communities, and the sense in which the border is being effectively managed, he said.
Bersin went on to say that the best way to secure the border is to create a legitimate labor market between the United States and Mexico, which a CBP spokesperson later said meant a guest worker program.
Its about flows of people and securing the border by deterring and preventing illegal immigration, Bersin said. The best way to do that is to have a legitimate labor market between the United States and Mexico. Absent that, we will manage the flows and protect the American people in terms of both public safety and in terms of effectively managing the border.
Absent comprehensive immigration reform, people will attempt to enter this country illegally drawn by the job market, he added. It is our job to stop them, and we will do our best to do that.
CBP is doing better than ever before in securing the border, Bersin said, but this is not about real state.
CBP spokesperson Kelly Ivahnenko told CNSNews.com that miles under effective control is not the sole manner in which we define nor is it a comprehensive examination of effective border management.
Effective control of the border was intended in the past as a tactical description used by local commanders, which was defined based on their local terrain, geographic challenges, and existing resources, she also told CNSNews.com.
Focusing solely on previously cited effective miles of border under control skews the bigger picture of the need for our agency to be responsive and agile. While that may not be as quantitative as miles under control, it does explain in a more comprehensive fashion the ever-changing environment and the need to apply the right mix of technology, infrastructure and personnel across the border based on unique aspects, Ivahnenko said.
Those aspects include smuggling trends/threats, operational intelligence, terrain, and geographic challenges and the ever-evolving border environment, she said.
Our goal is to effectively manage risk by using targeting, information sharing and intelligence to segment the cargo or traveler that may pose a threat, which is a small fraction of the trillions in trade and millions of legitimate travelers who enter our country every day, she said.
I went hunting with some damn good hunters this weekend (I wasn’t one of them =)). We covered a lot of high desert terrain in short time periods and I bet we could do a pretty good job of controlling the border using similar techniques.
I agree combine that with coordination of a few air bases and you could land troops if needed or call down air support. Border guarding isn’t rocket science its just a matter of political will and proper use of resources.
After watching the TV program ‘Border Wars’ I am disgusted with our efforts.
The officers work their butts off and then the illegals are given a bus ride back to the border. A few are ‘forbidden’ from coming into the US for 1 year.
And the filth they leave in the desert..
The officers should make the illegals clean up the nearest mess before they are carted off.
The failure to control the border is willful. The rationale of those presently in office being drug money and votes for Democrats.
Agreed. This is treason IMO. Plain and simple.
“The U.S. government does not have effective control of 1,081miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the division of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for securing the border.”
Paging the Stasi — please pick up the red courtesy phone.
I was there in 1971 and saw for myself. Even passed through through Checkpoint Charlie to “the other side” in military uniform, and walked around East Berlin, courtesy of the U.S. Army.
At least _they_ knew how to maintain and patrol a border.
If they could do it there, we can do it here.
Agreed, and it's criminal the powers that be tie the hands of the border patrol and thereby put their lives at risk.
A-10 Warthogs would do just fine.
The only news here is how little DHS is doing about it.
borders?
we have orders?
Is anyone really surprised by this? It’ll all lead to the amnesty program that the Obammy administration wants. Janet and her partners are pushing it. What better way to ensure Democratic domination of the House and Senate with all the future “citizens”. Completely sickening how our own government undermines our job on a daily basis.
Ping!
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Muchas gracias por el ping.
The border hasn’t been a border since Blackjack Pershing.
The Mexicans and Texicans got along just fine.
Then the libs set up programs to feed, house, clothe and educate aliens and the swarms began to come across the border. Then it began to cost us a bunch of money. The feds did nothing. Now we have a gang of ruthless narcogang types that make al queda look tame and again the feds do nothing. All the while, they are working to disarm law abiding citizens and sue Arizona for trying to get the feds to actually protect our country.
Thanks much there demonrat party and your media for bringing us this national nightmare.
LOL. There is no border. There is a 100-mile wide "zona de tolerancia" Think of it as the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where tribal families operate with impunity on either side of the "border."
There are dirty cops and politicians on both sides, and in many cases they are relatives. Not much action on this from either party.
The United States has strange priorities along the border with Mexico
By Jonathan Gurwitz
San Antonio Express-News
Oct. 18, 2010
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/10/18/2556234/gurwitz-the-united-states-has.html
Imagine for a moment that the New York State Police are warning American
boaters to steer clear of the Canadian side of Lake Ontario because they
might fall victim to pirates.
Imagine that violent gangs armed with military weaponry created a no man’s
land along a portion of the border shared by the United States and Canada
that challenged the sovereignty of both nations.
Would this for a moment be tolerable? Would the president of the United
States or the leaders of Congress simply treat it as a regrettable yet
acceptable border problem? Of course not. Yet residents of South Texas are
expected to endure precisely this situation on the U.S.-Mexican border.
In May, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned boaters on Falcon Lake,
which straddles the border, to stay on the U.S. side after a number of armed
robberies. The perpetrators, the statement said, were believed to be
“members of a drug trafficking organization or members of an enforcer group
... who are heavily armed and using AK-47s or AR-15 rifles.”
On Sept. 30, these gangs apparently claimed their first American victim on
Falcon Lake. According to Tiffany Hartley, several boats of gunmen ambushed
her and her husband, David, as they rode their Jet Skis. David Hartley was
shot in the head and is presumed dead.
More than two weeks later and with threats of violence hampering search
efforts, his body had not been recovered. The lead Mexican investigator in
the case was murdered last week, his severed head placed in a suitcase left
outside a military base.
This isn’t Iraq at the height of the al Qaeda insurgency, Afghanistan under
the Taliban or the ungovernable tribal areas of Pakistan. It is Mexico, a
stone’s throw from the United States.
During the first half of 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported, 48 U.S.
citizens were killed in Mexico, including an employee of the U.S. Consulate
in Ciudad Juarez and her husband. That number pales in comparison with the
more than 28,000 Mexican citizens who have lost their lives since President
Felipe Calderon began to fight back against the cartels in 2006.
Taken together, however, the escalating violence should serve as an ominous
indicator of just how lethally serious the border security problem is. But
how seriously is the U.S. government taking that problem?
Two answers come from the Government Accountability Office, the
investigative arm of Congress.
In a draft report released this month, the GAO found that environmental laws
are hampering the Border Patrol’s ability to operate on government land
along the U.S.-Mexico border. Patrol agents-in-charge for 17 of the 26
Border Patrol stations on the Southwest border said they had experienced
“delays and restrictions in patrolling and monitoring federal lands because
of various land management laws.”
As an example, off-road vehicles used to patrol and pursue suspects on
federal lands may leave tire tracks that disrupt the natural flow of water.
“The volume of undocumented aliens crossing federal lands can overwhelm the
law enforcement and resource protection efforts,” the report observes. But
illegal immigrants and drug smugglers are able to flout the environmental
laws that restrict the Border Patrol.
Another GAO report released in July found that two years into the three-year
Merida Initiative to assist Mexico’s law enforcement and judicial agencies,
the U.S. government had disbursed less than 10 percent of the $1.3 billion
appropriated for the program.
Last month, the Obama administration asked Congress to impound $26 million
that was to be released because the Mexican government hasn’t made enough
progress in addressing human rights concerns in its battle with the drug
cartels.
The cartels are as violent and brutal as any terrorist organization. The
Calderon government is fighting against them to uphold law and order.
The U.S. government, to the extent that it is engaged in this conflict, is
as concerned about the Huachuca water umbel — an endangered plant — and
the transparency of Mexico’s military justice system as it is about
maintaining stability in a nation of 110 million people that shares a
2,000-mile border with the United States.
How many more U.S. and Mexican citizens must die before the United States
gets its priorities straight?
Jonathan Gurwitz writes for the San Antonio Express-News.
jgurwitz@express-news.net
But don't you see? That doesn't matter. The fact is, these people deserved to die because they ignored clear warnings about venturing into recreational waters that the federal government can't, or won't, protect. That, at least, is the contention of a fair number of Mexican apologists here on FR who believe we are at fault. It's the "Hinky" set, doncha know...
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