Countries across the world are usually set apart from each other by clearly demarcated boundaries which dictate the extent to which a particular country can exercise its jurisdictional authority. These countries again put up measures aimed at securing their border points by clearly indicating entry points to avoid neighboring countries from infringing on their territory illegally. According to Gutierrez, Juett & Kiekintveld (2013), the border posts are usually regulated by specially trained officers who determine who or what is allowed in a country and who or what is not allowed in the specific country. This, however, does not mean that borders always connote negative relationships between neighboring countries, but it is usually the best way of safeguarding a country’s sovereignty and supremacy.
While some countries have one or two adjacent countries, other nations are bordering up to five or more countries. According to Linnell et al. (2016), the more a country has more neighboring countries, the more volatile its security can be. This is so since they have to ensure that all border points are well guarded meaning a lot of resources must go into it. When it comes to the issue of border security, it is not a secret that there are countries which have had negative experiences due to infiltration of illegal immigrants who pose a threat. Additionally, some criminal elements use these borders to conduct unlawful trade by evading the customs at border points.As such, countries are forced to come up with more strict policies to seal such loopholes to ensure that their nations are secure enough. The United States of America is a nation of concern seeing that it faces a lot of security threats due to its firm stand on terrorism activities around the world making it a target for many criminal elements.
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Border Security: Past, Present and Future
Aspects of Border Security
Border security is wide-ranging since it extends from land to the sea with various agencies concerned with ensuring that the border points are as secure as possible. According to Cote-Boucher, Infantino & Salter (2014), the federal and state governments continuously come up with legislation and policies which are aimed at ensuring that the border points are secure through the use of available technology. This kind of technology is deployed to assist the border point officers to deal with any breach of security which would cause harm to a country. Experience has taught most countries that with increased rates of terror activities there is a great need to secure any entry point since criminals and terrorists can either attack from the sea or land. Nations that border volatile nations are aware that danger is always looming and a lot of efforts should be put in place to secure its people from random attacks.
Focus on US Border Security
The United States of America is one nation in the world that has put much emphasis on border security since it is considered a nation targeted by various terrorist formations as a result of its campaigns against terror activities in the world. Being a nation that sends its troops to quell conflicts across the globe, the US must be well aware of its borders in order to protect its citizens from retaliatory attacks as a result of its numerous attacks. This claim became a reality on September 11, 2001, when terrorists bombed the Twin Towers leaving many people dead, property destroyed and other people maimed (Bach, 2005). Additionally, the US is considered by many as a land of opportunities meaning that a lot of people from its neighboring countries especially Mexico continuously make attempts to get into the country illegally. The effects of such illegal immigration which increases crime rates as well as trade of illegal goods such as drugs and fake products. Being aware of these threats to its sovereignty, the US has invested heavily in border security to ensure illegal immigrants who may cause trouble are not be allowed into the country.
US Border Patrol History
The US border patrol has a long-standing history dating back to 1904. According to US Customs and Border Protection (n.da), the beginnings were humble where the government made use of guards who mounted on horses as early as 1904 to prevent illegal crossing into the United States of America. However, their efforts were marred by numerous irregularities since their efforts were usually not coordinated by a central authority. Additionally, they had limited resources to expand their efforts on the entire border and could only do so when the resources allowed. Therefore, their efforts were almost futile. However, with the limited resources in terms of human players who were about seventy-five, they tried to patrol all the way to California in the West to keep the illegal Chinese immigrant from getting in the country. In later years the Congress kept on passing various legislations concerning ways of improving border patrol going by the initial hunches. Notable among the legislation include the Eighteenth Amendment to the constitution which was meant to prohibit the manufacture, importation, and transport of alcoholic beverages in 1920 to try and seal the loopholes that would emanate from such dealings. Other legislation included the Immigration Acts passed in 1920 and 1924 to allow the entry of illegal immigrant who had failed in their attempt to enter the US using the legal platforms.
The Border Patrol, however, became influential in 1924 when the Congress passed the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924. The law officially established the U.S. Border Patrol with the primary aim of ensuring security at borders points especially between the inspection stations. Come 1925, its roles expanded to include patrol of the sea coast seeing that it was becoming a point of entry for the illegal immigrants. From mere seventy-five officers, more officers were recruited, making the number to be about 450 officers further enhancing the effectiveness of the border patrol unit. Additionally, there was more coordinated effort with a regulatory authority taking into task the officers to ensure that they did everything possible to secure the borders. To mark its success, the Border Patrol opened a training academy at El Paso in 1934 where it trained at least thirty four trainees. By 1935 the Border Patrol graduate from doing their jobs on horsebacks as they started to use motorized vehicles with radios which enhanced their work further. The horses, however, remained in use considering that most of the terrain they worked in was rugged meaning that the motorized cars would not navigate through them efficiently.
The following years brought about new perspectives into the border patrols job description.With the onset of war border patrol units faced more significant threats. Thus, Congress further increased their responsibilities and powers. For the first time, border patrol officers were allowed to make arrests on illegal immigrants getting into the country through aircrafts coming into the US. This happened in the face of increased immigration especially from Mexico as they sought refuge in the US in the wake of World wars. Consequently, the border patrol repatriated more than 50,000 illegal immigrants back to Mexico to secure the US.
The following years proved hard for the border patrol as immigrants found out ingenious ways of infiltrating the United Staes. One of the techniques used was the use of private aircrafts which would not raise suspicion. The matters not worse though when attempts to hijack aircraft became a threat in the early 1960s which forced the, then President John F. Kennedy ordered the border patrol officers to be on domestic flights to prevent the hijackings. To make matters worse, the borders became volatile with the illegal immigrants now smuggling drugs through the borders as they immigrated to the US this meant that the border patrol units were facing more threats and thus had to do a lot more to secure the borders.
Border Security in the Present
As discussed the issue of border security has a long-standing history which has helped shaped the current border security as the United States faces new and complicated challenges. The 1980s and 1990s remain etched in the US history as the era where increased illegal immigration was witnessed. As a result, the Border Patrol authorities were forced to come up with enhanced strategies as well as technological infrastructure to arrest this situation before it escalated to unprecedented levels. Some of the technological solutions that border patrol adopted is the use of seismic sensors, infrared night-vision scopes as well as computer processing systems to help them to locate, apprehend as well as process the illegal immigrants before they crossed over to the US (Haddal, 2010).
In the wake of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the lawmakers started accessing the border security with increased attention to find out ways of enhancing border security to avoid a repeat of the same. The focus was shifted to the homeland security with regard to getting more funding and coming up with better policies to counterattack such terrorism attempts. Consequently, in March 2003, the government established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in addition to integrating Border Patrol into the US (Warner, 2010). Customs and Border Protection which is a component of DHS. This was done with the aim of increased border control effectiveness with collaboration with different authorities.
With President Donald Trump coming into power, the issue of border control has taken a new turn for the better perhaps for some individuals. Trump’s administration has announced drastic steps to be taken to ensure that US borders are secure. One of these radical moves is the plan to put a 3,200 kilometers wall along the US-Mexican borders to make it difficult for illegal immigrants from getting into the United States. Trump further directed that punishments would be meted on cities thought to be harboring illegal immigrants in addition to bringing back a CIA detention camp where illegal immigrants will be punished (Ainsley, 2017). To others this a such a drastic move which has received praise and criticism in equal measure with the critics claiming that this may affect the positive ties that have existed between the US and Mexico seeing that they are longtime trade partners. In addition to this, the Trump administration is keen on ensuring that the 11 million illegal immigrants, primarily from Latin America, are deported back to their countries to improve border security further. This is to be done to seal off the borders that many feels is porous and may have adverse effects if proper measures to secure them are not taken but with caution.
Border Security in the future
The future seems to present a different set of threats altogether with increasing technological advancements including increased cases of cyber crimes as well as the discovery of advanced weapons of mass destruction. This then means that the border patrol units will be facing complicated security threats. Therefore, a lot of attention must be paid to securing the borders with stronger and advanced technological solutions. Manning the borders will not only be about foot soldiers placed at strategic points on the border, but sophistication in security systems will be very critical. Currently, the United Staes is under siege, especially with North Korea’s, plan to test its missiles a threat that President Trumps administration is dealing with but with no available solutions due to North Korea strong defense on why it needs such weapons. It is clear that the US is continually creating enemies for itself due to its firm stand against such missiles.
In spite of the challenges that are evident going into the future, the U.S. Border Patrol has not stalled in its efforts to protect American borders. The team is aware that the 21 st century is a century with a lot of promises especially when it comes to advancement in technological innovation and solutions. The enormous leaps in the field of technology promise to offer practical and efficient technology which can be used to protect borders from the imminent threats in the future. Consequently, the border patrol teams are continuously modernizing their units with increased training to their staff on innovative of securing the American borders from land all the way to the oceans through the integration of technology in all their field operations. More so the border patrol units have a taken a step further and have liaised with their neighbors in order to increase border safety through coming up with balanced and impartial legislation and policies (Olson & Lee, 2012). It is hoped that these efforts will go a long way in securing the US from future threats which will undoubtedly be there as long as this nation lives.
Port Security Legislation
The border patrol units as said earlier are concerned with securing the US borders both on land and in the waters considering that many threats may come from the waters. The Congress was aware that terrorists could attack the country from any mod of transport following the September 11 attacks shifted their focus on securing the US water territories. To ensure that US waters are secure the government has over time passed various legislations to the effect of this objective. Some of these legislations are as follows
Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002
The Congress passed the MTS Act in the November of 2002 with the aim of raising security standards in their water bodies and channels connecting the US to its neighbors. The primary focus of this debate focused on whether the existing efforts aimed at improving security in the ports were effective in addressing future threats. According to Fritelli (2005), it was realized that the efforts of the Coast Guard though useful to some extent there remained some gaps that required immediate fixing to protect the country from future terrorist attacks thus the need to implement this Act.
Security and Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006
The SAFE Port Act of 2006 was passed to offer amendments to the MTSA Act of 2002. The Act aims at ensuring that border patrol authorities put in place to include a salvage plan in case of security incidents. What this means is that the response team must put in place transportation requirements to quickly respond to any incidences (Congress.gov, nd). These incidences as defined in this Act are those that could lead to loss of lives, damage to the environment, economic or transportation disruption.
Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT)
To further improve border security at the ports the Us government came up with this agency which is part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure safety in cargo coming and going out of the US ports. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (ndb), CTPAT collaborates with the trade community when it comes to supplying chains at international levels to improve border security in the US. As a result, it becomes easier to ensure that illegal cargoes do not infiltrate into the US territory which would, in turn, put the lives of the Americans at risk.
Container Security Initiative (CSI)
As a reaction to increased volatility in the US port, the government came up with CSI to ensure that the cargoes that enter the US are screened before they can be offloaded. This is important since criminal elements both inside and out of the US may use the port to infiltrate weapons which may be used to effect terrorist attacks on the American soil. To increase its efficiency, CSI ensures that the containers are scrutinized in a foreign port by a team of its experts to avoid a repeat of the September 11 terrorist attack. Additionally the foreign CSI officer s work closely with the host governments in an effort to identify high-risk containers before they are shipped to the US. This then ensures that only those containers that pass security standards are allowed into the US.
Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology (SMART) Act
This is the most recent legislation geared towards securing the US border from foreign infringement which may threaten the security of the US citizens. According to Hurd (2017), this legislation aims at ensuring that the US adopts the most effective strategy in order to make sure that its border with Mexico is secure. The decision to adopt this act is largely influenced by increased infiltration of the US borders by violent drug cartels which use modern technology to cross and breach the Us border. The most frustrating thing is that this technology which is being used by the drug cartels is superior to the ones used by the border patrol units making it hard to fight off these criminal elements and ultimately secure these borders. As such, there is a need to ensure that there is an adoption of better technological solutions which go beyond the 21 st century. The proponents of this Act are thus considering the use of a Smartwall which makes use of high-tech gadgets such as radar, sensors, drones fiber optics and cameras to enable the officers to track and detect any attempts to cross the borders. It is believed that adoption of the Smart Wall technology will go a long way in securing the US-Mexican border which has remained a source of a headache for US administrators.
Border Enforcement Agencies
The security at border points in the US is heavily reliant on the border enforcement agencies which have been put in place. These agencies are given the mandate of enforcing the government policies and legislation passed by the Congress and the House of Representatives in the light of ensuring that America remains safe from threats that mainly occur at border points. The following are some of the agencies which are tasked with the responsibility of securing the US borders.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
The US Customs and Border Protection agency is one of the largest border protection agencies in the world. It is mandated with the task of ensuring that all the US borders are fully protected to prevent any infringement of security by foreign nations and forces. It works closely with other agencies both in the US and out of the US including its neighbors as well as its trade partners to secure its borders. According to US Customs and Border Protection (ndc), the CBP further consults with both the federal and state governments who in turn come up with legislation and policies to make their work more bearable and efficient. By working with the various stakeholders, this agency can achieve its dreams of achieving a safe and secure America where all the Americans can live in peace. They do this with the knowledge that there are greater chances of increased border infiltration which must deal with before it escalates to unmanageable and unprecedented levels.
United States Coast Guard (USCG)
United States Coast Guard is another agency mandated by the American constitution to patrol the United States waterways with the aim of ensuring that its water borders are not open to infringement from illegal immigrants and terrorists. They do these with increased knowledge that terror elements can make use of the ports to infiltrate weapons which they use to attack the American citizens. According to Military. Com (nd), just like their counterpart agency USCG must work closely with the government and other stakeholders to ensure that their work is more efficient and effective as these two agencies are primarily tasked with port security enforcement.
In conclusion, the security of any nation lies in its ability to protect its borders which extend from land to the coast against any foreign infringement. To do this nation come up with agencies which are specially trained to handle any form of intrusion with the capability of harming its citizens. The US is a perfect example of a nation that has taken such drastic measures considering its physical and economic position. Most of its threats usually emanate from Mexico with numerous cases of illegal immigration reaching its all-time high. Going by the history of its border patrol efforts, one can say that this nation has grown from simple means of securing its borders to the much-complicated ones that make use of advanced technology. However, this has been even more possible with the numerous legislations which have helped come up with policies to secure their borders further. It is hoped that the patrol teams will increasingly become more efficient especially in the wake of increased terror attacks on the American soil.
References
Ainsley, J. E. (2017). Trump moves ahead with the wall, puts a stamp on U.S. immigration, security policy. Reuters. Retrieved on 25 October 2017 from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration/trump-moves-ahead-with-wall-puts-stamp-on-u-s-immigration-security-policy-idUSKBN1591HP.
Bach, R. (2005). Transforming border security: Prevention first. Homeland Security Affairs 1(2).
Congress.gov. (n.d). H.R.4954 - Safe Port Act . Retrieved on 25 October 2017 from https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/4954.
Cote-Boucher, K., Infantino, F. & Salter, M. B. (2014). Border security as practice: An agenda for research. Security Dialogue, 45(3).
Fritelli, J.F. (2005). Port and maritime security: Background and issues for Congress. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved on 25 October 2017 from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL31733.pdf.
Gutierrez, E., Juett, J. & Kiekintveld, C. (2013). Generating effective patrol strategies to enhance U.S. border security. Journal of Strategic Security, 5(6), 152-159.
Haddal, C. C. (2010). Border security: The role of the U.S. border patrol. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved on 25 October 2017, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL32562.pdf.
Hurd, W. (27 July 2017). Hurd introduces 21st century SMART wall legislation. Retrieved on 25 October 2017 from https://hurd.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/hurd-introduces-21st-century-smart-wall-legislation.
Linnell, J, D.C. et al. (2016). Border security fencing and wildlife: The end of the transboundary paradigm in eurasia? PLOS Biology, 14(6).
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Olson, E. L. & Lee, E. (2012). The state of security in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Border Research Partnership. Retrieved on 26 October 2017 from https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/State_of_Border_Security_Olson_Lee.pdf.
US Customs and Border Protection (n.da). Border patrol history . Retrieved on 25 October 2017 from https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/along-us-borders/history.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (n.dc). CBP’S role in strengthening the economy . Retrieved on 25 October 2017 from https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/401784%20CBPs%20Role%20in%20Strengthening%20the%20Economy.pdf.
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