Despite new technology, Border Patrol overwhelmed

Across an expanse of desert where nothing marks the Mexican border but a flimsy line of barbed wire, Border Patrol agent Mitch King flies his helicopter low to search for signs of illegal entry into the USA.

He spots footprints and tire tracks and hovers to get a better look. If the sandy impressions are fresh, he'll radio agents on the ground. But King's experienced eyes tell him these prints are at least a day or two old. Now, they serve only as evidence that more people have crossed the border illegally without getting caught.

More than three years after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the 11,000 men and women who serve as the border's front-line defense are overwhelmed. Despite an influx of new technology, such as underground sensors and cameras that pan the desert, agents catch only about one-third of the estimated 3 million people who cross the border illegally every year.

Most of the illegals are poor Mexican laborers looking for work. But officials are alarmed that a growing number hail from Central and South America, Asia, even Mideast countries such as Syria and Iran. In 2003, the Border Patrol arrested 39,215 so-called "OTMs," or other-than-Mexicans, along the Southwest border. In 2004, the number jumped to 65,814.

Those figures worry intelligence and Homeland Security officials, who say al-Qaeda leaders want to smuggle operatives and weapons of mass destruction across the nation's porous land borders. James Loy, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress last week, "Several al-Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons."

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, says the Border Patrol has "reliable intelligence that there are terrorists living in South America, assimilating the culture and learning the language" in order to blend in with Mexicans crossing the border.

"We really don't know who comes into this country illegally over the Southwest border," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., says. "This is a big problem."

The independent 9/11 Commission's report warned in August that "the challenge for national security in an age of terrorism is to prevent the very few people who may pose overwhelming risks from entering or remaining in the United States undetected." And that's a daunting task along these stretches of border in the Southwest.

In Mitch King's territory of remote south-central New Mexico, 109 agents work a 53-mile section of border. They patrol 14,000 square miles of rugged terrain using helicopters, horses and all-terrain and sport-utility vehicles.

Much of the area is far out of reach of the Border Patrol's cameras and sensors. It's easily accessible, however, to Mexicans and others who head north illegally across miles of sand dotted with nothing but the occasional cow or coyote. Forced east by tighter security along the California and Arizona borders, migrants cross here on foot and in cars, morning, noon and night - as many as 200 a day along this relatively small stretch of land.

"It goes on all day long, 24/7," says Richard Moody, the agent in charge of the area. His agents often work 14- to 16-hour days under stressful conditions. Late last month, the driver of a car full of people crossing illegally hit a Border Patrol agent with his side mirror while trying to run him down.

The agents who work for Moody in Luna and two other New Mexico counties caught 170 non-Mexicans in 2002, 293 in 2003 and 678 in 2004. Most are from South and Central America. But the agents also have picked up illegal border-crossers from China, southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Moody's agents are up against increasingly sophisticated smugglers. Even as the Border Patrol has gotten new high-tech equipment, so have the people they're trying to catch. Smugglers use two-way radios, cell phones, global positioning systems and other high-tech equipment to watch agents' movements and alert each other when the coast is clear.

"Ten years ago, they probably could not have bought a pair of infrared night-vision goggles on the open market, but now they can," says Robert Boatright, assistant chief of the Border Patrol in El Paso. "We see them changing tactics as we change tactics."

That can be unsettling out in the desert where, unless there's a full moon, the nights are so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. "We're under 24-hour surveillance by them," Moody says. "They have a very extensive counterintelligence operation. It certainly keeps us on our toes."

Ironically, the war on terrorism abroad has slowed the government's ability to secure the border in some areas.

Along King's helicopter route, roughly 7 miles of the border are marked by car barriers - 3- to 4-foot high, cement-filled pieces of casing pipe sunk deep in concrete and set every couple of feet. The barriers are in place mostly around the little town of Columbus, the start of a well-traveled smuggling route north to Deming.

The Border Patrol would like the barrier extended, but the Army engineering units and National Guard troops who did the hard work of installing the pipes over the past two years are no longer available.

"We'd like to get the whole area done," Moody says. "But there are two fronts in the war, and everyone's out of pocket now in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites)."

Agents say new technology - remote video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, more underground sensors, radiation detectors and access to criminal databases and terrorist watch lists - has helped them do their job.

At official ports of entry along the border and at checkpoints set up along highways heading north, the Homeland Security Department has stepped up security since the Sept. 11 attacks. Foreigners who need a visa to enter the USA must be photographed, fingerprinted and checked against terrorist watch lists. Cars and trucks are checked with dogs and radiation-detection equipment.

As a result, those seeking illegal entry have gone elsewhere. "When you crack down in one area, they're going to try to exploit weaknesses in another area," Bonner says.

President Bush (news - web sites)'s proposed 2006 budget calls for more high-tech gear for the Border Patrol, including $125 million to test and buy more radiation detectors and $51 million to improve sensors and video equipment.

Those who use the equipment, however, say there's also a desperate need for more "boots on the line" to track and catch illegal immigrants. "The technology is great, but it doesn't actually go out and get the bodies," says Jim Stack, an agent in El Paso. "We are extremely short-staffed."

Although the government has added about 1,300 agents to the force since 2001, there still aren't nearly enough to patrol the 6,900 miles of border with Mexico and Canada.

Recognizing that need, Congress late last year authorized a near doubling of the size of the agency by adding 2,000 agents a year for the next five years. But this month, the Bush administration's budget requested $37 million to pay for one-tenth as many agents - 210 - in 2006.

Critics are calling that a grave mistake. "Until we make the investments necessary to protect the border, the country is seriously at risk," says former congressman Jim Turner of Texas, who was the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee last year.

"The holes that remain in our border security systems are not small," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, says. "They are gaping, and they are glaring to our terrorist enemies. They are coming for us."

To emphasize the last paragraph:

You want to reduce the load on teh border patrol, it is easy. Arrest, convict and jail those who employ illegal aliens. If there are no jobs they will go home, and not come back.

In 2003, the Border Patrol arrested 39,215 so-called "OTMs," or other-than-Mexicans, along the Southwest border.

And many of those "OTMs" are designated as "Special Interest Aliens" ......aliens from (Islamist) nations with ties to terrorism -- Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc.

5 posted on 02/23/2005 7:25:42 AM PST by Former Dodger (There is nothing quite so good as burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating. AH)

"Until we make the investments necessary to protect the border, the country is seriously at risk," says former congressman Jim Turner of Texas, ...

We've got a lot of American citizens who are more than willing to patrol the southern border, but everybody says "No"!

The government admits it's failing to protect the border, so why such hostility to those who would do it to protect their land?

If anyone complains that "citizens" aren't "trained" to police the border, remember that it was Americans who fought and died to establish that border; otherwise all of Texas would be under Mexican rule.

But this month, the Bush administration's budget requested $37 million to pay for one-tenth as many agents - 210 - in 2006. Critics are calling that a grave mistake.

To say the least. It's suicidal, in fact. ....an open invitation for terrorists to cross our borders at will (as if the current invitation isn't open enough).

And then you see this

http://staffing.opm.gov/BPA/

What? All the positions are full! Give me me a break.

P states all are "working out of pocket". IE no cash for more fence. I'll be glad to CONTRIBUTE to a fund to stop them. (Sort of extra tax.)

It would be interesting to see comparative cost figures between what Homeland Security is spending to secure our US borders and what the admin is spending to protect the Iraqi borders.

And what about the manpower differential, too?

For employers hiring illegals, fine them out the kazoo---- $1,000 per illegal the first time any are caught; $10,000 per illegal the second time; $100,000 per illegal the third time (which would probably never be necessary if the first two fines ever got enforced).

One of the problems that gets little attention is the diseases that are being brought in by those who escape detection.

Many diseases our health care had virtually eliminated are starting to recur. Diseases formerly known only in poor, underdeveloped, third-world countries are starting to show up. One major outbreak of some obscure plague carried in by an illegal could potentially wipe out millions. We have no idea what those not caught may be carrying in.

why not use the military? that was their job originaly - protecting the borders. set up some outposts like they have learned to do in the Afghanistan and Iraq, and give them two or three weeks duty and one off..

15 posted on 02/23/2005 9:02:39 AM PST by sdpatriot ("If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly." Rummy)

Ironically, the war on terrorism abroad has slowed the government's ability to secure the border in some areas.

Bullsh*t.

What has "slowed" the securing of the border comes straight from the top -- The President of the United States.

"And many of those [39,215] 'OTMs' are designated as 'Special Interest Aliens' ......aliens from (Islamist) nations with ties to terrorism -- Iran, Syria, Pakistan, etc."

Like cockroachs behind the wallboard, shall we assume far more than that 39,215 number have managed to slip into the US undetected?

Dubya Bush has ordered a purposely undermanned BP to "fight" our border war with nerf bats, while defending Iraq tooth and nail and AC-130s.

No way Reagan even tries to pull this crap.

It REALLY makes me mad that all of our congress critters KNOW the border problems exist and yet, few do anything about it.

I'm probably going to make some people mad but I don't care, so save your breath. LOL President Bush is to blame because of his insane amnesty/guest worker plan. IF he cared about us, and IF he was doing the job he promised to do by protecting us, he would NEVER have let this dangerous situation exist.

Arrest, convict and jail those who employ illegal aliens. If there are no jobs they will go home, and not come back.

Unfortunately, we have had several Presidents who refuse to do that. Both parties value the hispanic vote and big biz slave labor over the security of the American people. We're being sold out.

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