Border Enforcement

The following are a list of resources about border enforcement.

2010

Operation Streamline and its Effects on the Courts and Law Enforcement on the Border

May 11, 2010 - National Immigration Forum

Operation Streamline is a government initiative to criminally prosecute persons crossing the border illegally. This backgrounder discusses the effect of the program on law enforcement and court resources on the border, which have been diverted away from the prosecution of more serious crimes.

The Border Security Buildup: True Border Security Requires Reforming Our Broken Immigration Laws

May 04, 2010 - National Immigration Forum

This backgrounder describes the increases in enforcement resources that have been placed on the southwest border in recent years, and questions the assumption that the borders are "out of control."

Fact Sheet: Operation Stonegarden

February 17, 2010 - National Immigration Forum

This fact sheet describes Operation Stonegarden, a federal grant program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, providing funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to enhance their capabilities “to jointly secure U.S. borders and territories.” The program suffers from lack of a clear agenda and from lack of guidance on how it is to improve border security.

Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence

February 16, 2010 - Jennifer Lake et. al., Congressional Research Service

Currently, no comprehensive, publicly available data exist that can definitively answer the question of whether there has been a significant spillover of drug trafficking-related violence into the United States. Although anecdotal reports have been mixed, U.S. government officials maintain that there has not yet been a significant spillover.

2009

Managing the United States-Mexico Border: Cooperative Solutions to Common Challenges

November 13, 2009 - Binational Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border

This report was written after a series of meetings with federal, state, and local officials; law enforcement officers in charge of daily border management, experts on specific topics, and representatives of non-governmental organizations; and from ordinary citizens of both countries who live in the border region and cross the frontier regularly. These individuals were asked what they think needed to be changed at the border in order to better serve the interests of the US and Mexico.

Humanitarian Crisis: Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Border

October 01, 2009 - ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights

This report describes the international human rights violations that take place daily in the border region between the United States and Mexico. It highlights the correlation between increased U.S. Border Patrol enforcement efforts and migrant deaths.

Secure Border Initiative: Technology Deployment Delays Persist

September 09, 2009 - Government Accountability Office

This report addresses the extent to which Customs and Border Protection has implemented SBInet and the impact of delays that have occurred, and the extent to which CBP has deployed tactical infrastructure and assessed its results.

Southwest Border Security Operations

July 14, 2009 - National Immigration Forum

A summary of current border enforcement initiatives and those of the recent past. Includes a glossary of federal and state border enforcement operations.

Operation Streamline Fact Sheet

June 23, 2009 - National Immigration Forum, ACLU

Operation Streamline is a prosecution partnership between Border Patrol and the Department of Justice. In the name of border security and tough enforcement, all migrants entering outside ports of entry are criminally prosecuted at great expense, with minimal procedural protections.

Recommendations to Dept. of Homeland Security and Dept. of Justice by Arizona Border Communities

June 18, 2009 - Border Network for Human Rights, Border Action Network, and the U.S.-Mexico Border and Immigration Task Force

These policy recommendations highlight the primary concerns of southwest border communities in activities intended to ‘secure the border.’

KEEPING MIGRANTS HERE: Recent Research Shows Unintended Consequences of U.S. Border Enforcement

June 17, 2009 - Immigration Policy Center

This fact sheet summarizes data from recent research by the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California regarding the recent decline in apprehensions of border crossers, and the unintended consequences of border enforcement.

Apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol: 2005–2008

June 16, 2009 - Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics

This Fact Sheet provides information on recent trends in U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions and the gender, age, country of origin, and geographic location of persons apprehended during 2005 through 2008.

Accountability, Community Security, and Infrastructure on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Policy Priorities

April 22, 2009 - U.S.-Mexico Border and Immigration Task Force

The U.S.-Mexico Border and Immigration Task Force offers these recommendations for legislative and administrative reform of border and immigration policy as policy makers begin to consider the elements of comprehensive immigration reform.

Border Security: Barriers Along the U.S. International Border

March 16, 2009 - Congressional Research Service

The report raises policy issues to be examined regarding border fencing, including effectiveness, costs versus benefits, location, design, environmental impact, potential diplomatic ramifications, and the costs of acquiring the land needed for construction.

2008

Effective Border Policy: Security, Responsibility And Human Rights at the U.S.-Mexico Border

November 19, 2008 - Border Network for Human Rights, the Border Action Network, and the U.S.-Mexico Border and Immigration Task Force

The report details the impact current border enforcement strategies have had on border communities in the last several years. It notes that the government’s border strategy has not worked to stop the flow of undocumented workers. The report lays out dozens of recommendations to make border enforcement more targeted and more accountable , and to end programs that have so far proven ineffective.

Controlling Unauthorized Immigration from Mexico: The Failure of “Prevention through Deterrence”

June 10, 2008 - Wayne A. Cornelius, et. al., Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS), University of California-San Diego

This report provides the most direct and up-to-date evidence of whether border-enforcement efforts are actually keeping undocumented migrants out of the U.S., and reveals the border strategy's significant unintended consequences.

Money for Nothing: Immigration Enforcement without Immigration Reform Doesn’t Work

May 21, 2008 - Immigration Policy Center

Rather than reducing undocumented immigration, the enforcement-without-reform strategy has diverted the resources and attention of federal authorities to the pursuit of undocumented immigrants who are not a threat to anyone. It has done nothing to lessen the dependence of many U.S. industries on the labor of undocumented immigrants.

2007

A Humanitarian Crisis at the Border: New Estimates of Deaths Among Unauthorized Immigrants

February 08, 2007 - Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, M. Melissa McCormick, Daniel Martinez & Inez Magdalena Duarte, in Immigration Policy Brief, Immigration

This paper summarizes a report by the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, which estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 immigrants have died along the Southwest border since 1995.

2006

BORDER INSECURITY: U.S. Border-Enforcement Policies and National Security

April 19, 2006 - Immigration Policy Center

U.S. efforts to stem undocumented immigration have increased the profitability of and fostered greater sophistication in the smuggling networks through which a foreign terrorist might enter the country. U.S. national security would be better served accommodating U.S. labor demand.

2005

US Border Enforcement: From Horseback to High-Tech

November 01, 2005 - Deborah Waller Meyers, Migration Policy Institute

This paper gives a history of our border enforcement policy and implementation, with a focus on 1986 to the present.

Beyond the Border Buildup: Towards a New Approach to Mexico-U.S. Migration

September 08, 2005 - Douglas S. Massey, for the Immigration Policy Center

The solution to the problems associated with undocumented migration is not open borders, but frontiers that are reasonably regulated on a binational basis.

Five Myths About Immigration : Common Misconceptions Underlying U.S. Border-Enforcement Policy

August 02, 2005 - Douglas S. Massey, Ph.D. for the Immigrant Policy Center

Current border-enforcement policies are based on mistaken assumptions and have failed. Undocumented migrants continue to come to the United States. Developing effective and realistic immigration policies requires overcoming basic myths about immigration.

One Face at the Border: Behind the Slogan

June 23, 2005 - Migration Policy Institute

Two years after the Department of Homeland Security initiated "One Face at the Border," the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) still has significant weaknesses that could undermine border security if they are not confronted squarely and soon.

Real Challenges for Virtual Borders: The Implementation of US-VISIT

June 09, 2005 - Migration Policy Institute

The US-VISIT program can only be a small part of the counterterrorism tool kit even when fully deployed. This report raises questions about whether the program’s potential benefits justify the necessary investments.

2004

Evaluating Enhanced U.S. Border Enforcement

May 01, 2004 - Wayne Cornelius for the Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute

From 1993 - 2003, a tripling of spending for border enforcement has failed to deter significant numbers of unauthorized migrants. Instead, there have been more than 2,640 border crossing-related deaths and a sharp increase in permanent settlement of unauthorized Mexicans in the United States.