Border Security Through Technology and Manpower Essay

This year’s election cycle brought heated debates and discussions about many things; “the wall”, free trade, NAFTA, immigration issues, borders security and policy issues. Regardless of which side of the political isle you stand, which way the political winds sway in Washington D.C., one thing is certain not to change with the election cycle, and that is, the actual physical border between The United States and Mexico. Therefore, if we can’t change that, and we can’t, then there needs to be solutions to problems that continue to exist between the two sovereign countries. Trade and Security are two of the most important factors for neighboring countries and they must not be ignored. Beyond just good political, diplomatic, and strategic vision it is important to understand there are cultural, education and diversity complexities which takes tremendous and often times delicate maneuvering to come together for the greater good of both economies and governments, as millions of people rely on successful trade agreements and security.

Texas border security has been a huge issue over the past years, things such as violence, illegal drugs trade, terrorism, and immigration have increase steadily without a direct solution to back it up. The violence between the US and Mexico’s border increase rather quickly since the declaration of the so-called “war on the drug cartels” by former Mexican president Felipe Calderon in the late 2006. With all the ineffective policies, the drugs traffiking and terrorism on Texas border won’t end anytime soon

Whatever happened to the 854 miles of border fencing that American citizens were promised on the U.S. southern border? If the government really wanted to stop illegal immigration, they should pursue it a bit more aggressively. This is not something that can be fixed overnight, but the government needs to at least show some means of urgency toward this serious matter since “only 12 miles of the 854 miles of border fencing called for in the Secure Fence Act have been constructed” (“Border Fencing Is Crucial…”). It seems that the government obviously must not care too much about American security. Keeping the border wide open creates a major passageway for illegal immigrants, drug smuggling, and terrorism. It was found that “in 2005, 155,000 foreign nationals from countries other than Mexico were apprehended attempting to cross our land border with Mexico…these individuals originated from country’s of national security concern” (“Border Fencing Is Crucial…”). It is obvious that other countries know that

One of the pros for building the fence is that “control of the borders are required for national security”. With the rise of terrorist groups around the world including

Despite the effort of the immigrants, the wall will make it more difficult for them to cross into the United States. Priscilla Alvarez, an assistant editor for The Atlantic, explains, "For example, the San Diego sector, where the prototypes have been built, [apprehension numbers] dropped from 560,000 in 1992 to 68,000 in 2010. Notably, however, the number of border apprehensions is also on the decline" (4). This proves that the wall will, in fact, stop immigrants from crossing over into the United States. Regardless, immigrants will still find a way into the country. When a double layer fencing was enforced near San Diego, "The apprehensions shifted dramatically away from the areas guarded by western stations at Imperial Beach and Chula Vista,

The Department of Homeland Security “dhs” were set to build a total of 370 miles but only completed a 300 mile section by the end of december 2008. The biggest problem that hey rain in too was that they couldn't get all the land that they needed to finish the fence. They reserved the right to build the fence on April 1, 2008. There is still a number of miles that has no wall or fence (vitiello). The wall caused an estimated 4 billion annually to keep the wall maintained. There will also be a cost to pay people to

Lourdes Medrano is a strong advocate for immigration reform to strengthen the border and the security manning the border. She supports her argument by showing how President George W. Bush’s surge on the US-Mexican border. President Bush doubled the man power along the border, while leading the technological advance on the border. Medrano shows how President Bush brought immigration reform into the spotlight, when roughly 1.6 million immigrants where entering the US illegally. Now the number is historically lower at 356,873 immigrants. The budget for the border patrol has been steadily increasing 1.1 billion in 2001 to 3.5 billion in 2012. Medrano presents how President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act in 2006, which authorized 700 miles of fencing. This his directly contributed to 651 miles of fencing created by 2012. Surge on immigration reform has also doubled the man power from 2001 to 2012, which is exactly what President Bush envisioned. With the border patrol now being a division of Homeland Security and help from the national guard, they have grown much bigger then what they once were. Even the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that “our borders have, in fact, never been stronger.”

In 2014, the budget for the United States border patrol was upwards of $3.5 billion according to the CBP. This country is already spending an absurd amount of money on border control. Despite all of this funding undocumented immigration still runs rampant. Let's face that facts Donald, increased border protection doesn't work. As Malcolm Galdwell would say, it follows the inverted-u logic. Put simply Border Patrol produces diminishing returns and may even increase undocumented immigration. All the "Mexican Great Wall" does is just further prove Trump's animosity towards hispanics.

Demographically, it is becoming a more Hispanic state, opening up the prospect of Democrats making gains there if they can present themselves as more sympathetic to the concerns of immigrants. At the same time, residents such as the Vickers are dealing firsthand with the problems caused by the influx of undocumented migrants” (Zabludovsky, 2014). Texas ranch owners along the Mexico border are facing thousands of dollars in damages because of immigrants crossing through their private property. Texas has 1,241 border patrol troopers to cover 1,254 miles of Texas-Mexico border. Texas also has “1,254 miles of the 1,900-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border” (The Texas Tribune). With roughly two-thirds of the border, Texas faces huge amounts of illegal immigration, thus explaining why it is so important to the people of the state. Texas also recently brought a case to the Supreme Court regarding an Executive Order issued by President Obama that would have provided a block of deportation for roughly five million illegal immigrants. The case ended in a tie by the Supreme Court, thus blocking it from going into effect (Liptak, Shear,

The U.S. Border Patrol to me is very important to the United States of America and to me as well. Without the Border Patrol, America would be a goat standing in the middle of a wolf cage. The Border Patrol and their agents border the boundaries of America so we can be safe in our homes. People don’t realize how important any kind of law enforcement is, until the day that they need assistance comes. I don’t take our men and women who protect us Americans; it is something that not everyone can say that they have. I have no one in my family that has worked with the Border Patrol, and I want to be the first in my family to join the Border Patrol. I am from Del Rio Texas, a border town neighbors with Mexico. The U.S. Border

In previous years, many countries and territories around the world have attempted to build walls, and many have had very much success. For example, Most of the walls built after World War 2 and the Cold War still exist today. There were a total of 110 walls built between that time period. Professor Nazli Avdan led a study that had a goal of identifying if a border wall reduced or increased the risk of a transnational terrorist attack. This study found that since the year 1900, transnational terrorist attacks have seen a thirteen percent annual decrease in countries with border walls (Border fences reduce...attacks). This has been a real focal point that President Donald Trump has used to get people to agree with him. Another reason of his includes the disrupting of the funneling of illicit money and drugs into the United States of America (Border fences reduce...attacks). The bonus of the building of the wall is that it will be a visible sign of the government taking action.

In 2006, in response to the Illegal immigration, Terrorist threats, and Drug trafficking facing the United States, the United States passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006. The policy name was called the Secure Fence Act of 2006, policy ID # 109-367 (The White House, 2006). This policy was supposed to build 700 miles of physical barriers, as well as authorizing Homeland Security to intensify advanced technology. Such as cameras, satellites and drones, also including increased checkpoints, ground based sensors, and radar coverage. On May 30, 2008 fence, should have been constructed and fully functional, two layers of reinforced fencing were to be built. Secretary of Homeland Security was to report back to Congress to inform them of the progress

The area known as the U.S.-Mexican border wasn’t first recognized until about the 16th century, when a multitude of settlers of different backgrounds came to this area in order to get rich off the silver that was discovered. This land technically belonged to the kingdom of New Spain but due to it being so big, it made it incredibly hard for the kingdom of New Spain to settle in northern parts of the territory. It wasn’t until about the 19th century when the United States purchased land westward of the Mississippi River from France, called the Louisiana Purchase, which the northern Mexican area started to have changes. Mexico,

Customs and Border Protection website. This vast amount of space takes a lot of work. This work comes from surveillance cameras, security checks, and our guards. We have increased our number of guards since America’s border patrol began to develop, but Ted Cruz knows that we need more. Our technology can only fight back so hard. We need more feet out there to protect our country. As reported by Ted Cruz’s website, he plans to “triple the number of border patrol agents.” The length of land that we need to cover is so large, how could we ever think we have enough guards? Cruz recognizes this and is ready for the

Starting in 2006, the United States started to develop the wall along parts of the frontier between U.S. and Mexico. There was 670 miles of the wall authorized to be assembled, and there were many objections to it being built. Besides the oppositions, from 2006 to 2009 there was already more than 100 miles of the wall constructed (Gilman 258). Congress passed the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act” in 1996. The act gave power to the government to create walls or barriers along the border, and it allowed it to seize land from people if it is imperative in protecting the borderline of the country (Gilman 259). In 2006, the “Secure Fence Act” was passed that instructed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a fence stretching from 5 different areas of the border. In 2007, there was 70 miles of the wall built in the Arizona and Mexico frontier. Since this occurrence, the government then shifted its surveillance to the border along Texas and Mexico in 2007, and started suggestions to assemble more than 100 miles of the border wall by 2008 (Gilman 260). Towards the end of 2007, the