Many experts acknowledge that the absence of effective border control is the main obstacle in solving the chronic immigration problem in the United States. Any reforms or measures taken to resolve the situation of immigrants, who are already residing in the country, are doomed to fail because of the continuous and unregulated flow of new immigrants. The acuteness of this problem is also compounded by the fact that the secret routes used by illegal immigrants to enter the United States, can also be used by smugglers and terrorists.
The abnormality of this situation is made especially clear by comparing the length of U.S. borders with the length of former Soviet Union’s land borders. Not counting the distant sub-polar Alaskan borders with Canada, the Soviet Union's borders were almost twice as long as those of the United States, but they were completely closed. The borders of today's Russia, however, are being infiltrated by illegal arrivals from Kazakhstan and China. Some will argue that the impermeability of Soviet borders arose from the fact that nobody wanted to immigrate to these countries. This may be so, but it is also true that many sought to leave the Soviet Union for neighboring countries such as Germany, Finland, and Turkey. Some of these brave souls paid for their fearlessness with their lives, proving that the lock on those borders held fast.
Recently, especially with the derailment of the immigration reform bill in Washington, the situation along the U.S.-Mexican border has changed. Just two years ago, there were so many border-crossers who flocked to the U.S. border every night that, according to one border guard, it resembled "the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade." Now the number of border-crossers has fallen significantly. There were 26 percent fewer incidents between October 2006 and June 2007 than in the same period for the previous year. In regions that border-crossers used to use frequently, the number of incidents has decreased by more than 50 percent. This is not surprising. After resistance from his fellow Republicans in Congress, President Bush was forced to change his focus from amnesty to border security.
Similar measures were taken in the past, but only at a local level. From 1993 to 1994, patrols were significantly increased along the Rio Grande River in Texas. Also, a wall with searchlights along its top was built in San Diego, California. The number of border-crossers in these areas fell noticeably, but their flow increased in neighboring Arizona.
There are other explanations for the current drop in border crossers. Illegal Mexican immigrants keep in close telephone contact with potential copycats in Mexico, discouraging them from crossing the border with news that the housing boom in the United States has waned; therefore, the need for construction workers is coming to an end.
The slower flow of illegal immigrants coincides with the unveiling of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) comprehensive plan to develop the immigration infrastructure along the southern border. The authors of this plan, which envisages using the latest technology, maintain that its implementation will bring the border under complete control. There are currently 13,000 specially-trained border guards in these areas, and according to this plan, their numbers will increase to 20,000 by 2009. To achieve this, the number of applicants recruited by the academy that trains border guards has increased five-fold, and the age limit for those matriculating has been raised from 37 to 40.
The construction of a 700-mile border fence, which National Guard troops have been enlisted to build, will simplify the achievement of these goals. DHS policy has also been instrumental in changing the border situation. Now the majority of cases against Mexicans caught crossing the border illegally are dealt with promptly and are followed by immediate deportation. There has been little success in dealing with non-Mexicans.
It used to be that since local deportation centers were almost always overcrowded, border-crossers were usually released with a court summons, which was generally ignored. Now, thanks in part to a detention center built in Raymondville, Texas that can hold up to 2,000 people, all illegal immigrants arrested are put in detention centers right away. No more than three percent of the almost 18,000 illegal immigrants who have done their time (usually about two weeks) in local, windowless facilities have tried to cross the border again. The agency, which is active on the Mexican side of the border, has announced that local hotels near the border that were once filled with potential illegal immigrants have emptied out.
The situation along the border will be fundamentally changed by the installation of devices used for military purposes, which will provide surveillance of vast sweeps of land on both sides of the border. Starting this month, nine platforms equipped with radar and surveillance cameras able to catch the smallest movements within a 10-mile radius will be put into operation along the Arizona border. The construction of a greater number of platforms is problematic because Congress is not inclined to approve further spending. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had harsh words for the Boeing Corporation, which holds the contract to build these platforms but has raised the overall cost of the order to $8 billion, not including the construction of platforms along the U.S.-Canadian border.
Even so, the need for this equipment is clear since a regular fence lacking radar and cameras cannot be considered impenetrable. Smugglers have been able cut through the fence in many places with electric saws.
Another problem is that environmentalists have come out in opposition to the fence. Activists in Texas protested against a 150-mile fence along the Rio Grande, asserting that the fence would deface local parkland and prevent animals from reaching water holes. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has rejected the pleas of environmentalists many times, asserting that security trumps other concerns.
There is no question about how the border should be outfitted. The only things needed to realize these plans as soon as possible are determination and sufficient funding.
