The real story of border enforcement

By Robert Casimiro on 5 February 2022
Tags: 
border
Border Patrol
enforcement
illegal immigration

The Border Patrol's role is to prevent illegal entry into the country, but this outcry of abuse is always one sided. There is another side, one of valuable, effective enforcement, and even timely, humanitarian actions by these underappreciated officials.

Since President Biden has been in office, immigration enforcement has been turned on its head, with the halt to border wall construction, suspension of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, and the recent announcement that enforcement will be limited to "those who pose a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security ("DHS Begins Implementation of Immigration Enforcement Priorities," Department of Homeland Security, Nov. 29).

The Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been repeatedly demonized, with the most recent example the bogus story of the Border Patrol "whipping" migrants. They were using the horse reins, but the use of the word "whips," and its allusion to slave plantations, is deliberately more incendiary. The photographer who took the pictures, Paul Ratije, said: "I didn't ever see them whip anybody, with the thing," he said of the reins ("Border Patrol pics were 'misconstrued' as whipping, photographer says," New York Post, Sept. 24, 2021)."

The Border Patrol's role is to prevent illegal entry into the country, but this outcry of abuse is always one sided. There is another side, one of valuable, effective enforcement, and even timely, humanitarian actions by these underappreciated officials. Here are examples taken from daily bulletins sent out by ICE and the Border Patrol, which anyone can receive by going to the CBP website:

"Lost Migrant Rescued in the Mountains"
"Border Patrol Agents Find Unaccompanied Children"
"CBP Rescues Kidnapped Juvenile, (and) Arrest Alleged Perpetrator"
"Laredo (Texas) Sector Border Patrol Agents rescue child in distress."

These rescues occur on a near daily basis. In addition, there are the daily arrests of sex offenders, gang members, drugs, and convicted criminals:

"Del Rio Sector (Texas) Agents Arrest Two Convicted Sex Offenders"
"Mara-Salvatrucha and Paisa Gang Members Arrested in RGV" (Rio Grande Valley, Texas)
"CBP Officers Seize over $600K in Methamphetamine at Hidalgo International Bridge"
"Laredo Sector (Texas) Border Patrol agents arrest wanted undocumented criminal individual."

All of these examples are from December reports. From Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept 30, 2021 CBP conducted 12,833 life-saving efforts ("CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2022").

Another under-reported story concerns "get-aways," the illegal aliens who avoid capture, something that won't be found on the CBP website.

One April 2021 estimate is that 1,000 per day were crossing our borders without being identified or arrested ("Border officials say more people are sneaking past them as crossings soar and agents are overwhelmed," Washington Post, April 2, 2021).

Securing the border is made more difficult when Border Patrol agents have to process the many migrants they apprehend:

"The large volume of illegal border crossers that we continue to experience puts a tremendous strain on our resources and reduces our ability to effectively patrol the border," Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens said ("Another Busy Weekend in Del Rio Sector," Dec. 7, 2021).

Finally, I know of the situation on the southern border firsthand from my 10 trips there, starting in 2005 as a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and later, when they disbanded, with local border watch groups in Arizona, the Arizona Border Defenders, and Arizona Border Recon.

While we can understand the reasons for people wanting to come here, we are a nation, and we have a right and obligation to our ourselves, and our fellow citizens, to know who comes into our nation, preferably legally, and in an orderly fashion.

Robert Casimiro of Bridgton is executive director of Mainers for Responsible Immigration and former executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Immigration Reform.

Related

How "got away" counts are used to determine how many illegal aliens live in the United States?

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