The state of security at the borders of the United States has been a divisive issue in the country. For example, during the 2016 presidential election, the two leading candidates had widely differing ideas on how to safeguard Americans from external threats (Gravelle, 2018). The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the primary agency that ensures that unlawful people and cargo does not enter the United States, whether by sea, air, or land. It seeks to eliminate threats, which include terrorism, human trafficking, and smuggling of narcotics and other illegal substances (Payan, 2006). However, despite the enormous efforts of the agency, there are still various reports of unauthorized entry into the country. It is, therefore, essential to determine if border protection should remain in the hands of one agency and whether there are any tangible results thus far.
The CBP monitors over three hundred ports of entry. The teams have various resources to deal with the specific threats at each port. Some of their assets include weapons, vehicles, computer infrastructure, and a canine division (Holland, 2018). However, due to the varying threats and logistics for each port, the agents are not able to thwart illegal entry. For instance, land borders are often a target since the personnel cannot monitor every yard of the boundary line. Also, the effectiveness of the teams is lower at night, and when there are adverse weather conditions.
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Despite these challenges, the agency has eliminated multiple threats. For instance, the Customs and Border Protection website published that on October 4, one team disrupted human trafficking in the Rio Grande Valley. The next day, another team captured assorted narcotics with a value of 1.4 million dollars.
A central agency, such as the CBP, is best suited to protect the US borders. However, there is a need to continually invest in the agency so that they do not stretch their resources too thin. Moreover, a subdivision of the agency into various specialty groups that each to deal with a particular threat will allow the agency to tighten the leash even further.
References
Gravelle, T. B. (2018). Politics, Time, Space, and Attitudes toward US-Mexico Border Security. Political Geography , 65(1), 107-116
Payan, T. (2006). The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security. Westport: Praeger Security International.
Denton, E. (2016). Anatomy of Offending: Human Trafficking in the United States, 2006–2011. Journal of Human Trafficking, 2 (1), 32-62.
Holland, K. (2018). Sniffer Dogs . International Journal of Security Studies , 1(1), 1-10.
