World>Terrorism & Security
posted August 24, 2004, updated 1:00 p.m.
Is all well with the US border patrol?
Union survey finds job discontent in the trenches. Government disputes claims.
The Department of Homeland Security and unions representing border patrol workers and immigration officers locked heads over the release of a survey this week that concludes two out of three workers believe they have
not been given sufficient resources, training, and support to fight terrorism, reports the
Washington Post.Government officials called the survey
biased and inaccurate, claiming that the survey offered a limited picture of working conditions and cited the fact that it represented the views of only 500 of the newly created department's 42,000 employees, reports the
New York Times. The fact that all respondents were members of the union compromised the results, government officials claimed. The survey was sponsored by the National Border Patrol Council of the American Federation of Government Employees, (AFGE) which represents about 10,000 non-supervisory Border Patrol employees. The office of Border Patrol became part of the bureau of Customs and Border Protection when the Homeland Security Department was created in 2003.
The survey needs to be seen in the context of it offering a
voice for America's frontline defenders against terrorists entering the country, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. But the findings, he said, "went far beyond the issue of anti-terror preparation," reports the
Copley News Service.Officers believe stopping terrorists from getting into the country is their top mission, he says. Mr. Bonner claims the survey offers a strong indictment of the Department of Homeland Security for not doing enough to protect America's borders from terrorist infiltration, and shows the need to change both fundamental enforcement strategies and management practices that have caused morale to "plummet precipitously" among border agents and inspectors along America's 6,000 miles of international border, reports
Copley News. "What the survey is going to reflect are some
very specific concerns that the union and the membership have,"
Govexec.com quotes Charles Showalter, president of AFGE's National Homeland Security Council. "These are realistic, honest and heart-felt concerns that our membership believes need to be addressed." The report indicated that issus for officers include: better vehicles, training in Spanish for new officers and improved access to databases of potential terrorists so agents can run one biometric check that links them to all the information available.
Christiana Halsey, Homeland Security agency spokeswoman, says agents have been given new technology such as personal radiation monitors and the US-VISIT system, which fingerprints and photographs foreigners when they enter the United States and allows inspectors to determine whether they are carrying valid documents, reports
The Associated Press. Writing about immigration and US border control issues issues in the
About.com website, Jennifer and Peter Wipf assess recent
progress, and remaining problems with the US Border Patrol. • Progress
Infrared night-vision scopes, seismic sensors, and a modern computer processing system help the patrol locate, apprehend, and process those crossing into the US illegally. The border patrol is growing. More officers are being hired. Operation Gatekeeper installed steel walls that help reduce illegal crossings into major border cities. More technology is being heavily applied to border enforcement. Drones that have infraredsors and can detect the heat of the human body are being rolled out, along with other non-human patrol devices. • Problems
In smaller, wide open border towns, ranchers and crossers are having shoot outs. Miles and miles of border are still unmanned. Border patrol officers guard 6,000 miles of border with fewer officers than the NYC police department has. At least 1,000 have been killed since the border patrol began. Many more have been injured. Their starting salary is in the $20 thousands. The government estimates that they apprehend only one in four of all crossers. Thousands of illegals are still getting in, which means that terrorists and drug smugglers may also be able to slip in, not to mention violent offenders and thieves. Peter D. Hart Research Associates, a California-based public policy polling group, conducted the survey. It
based its findings on responses from 250 border patrol agents and 250 customs and border protection inspectors who were interviewed by telephone between July 30 and Aug. 7. The survey's margin of error is 4.5 percent, reports
AP. About 6,500 of 10,000 Border Patrol agents are members of the National Border Patrol Council union. About 60 to 65 percent of the 6,700 of another union, Customs and Border Protection inspectors are in the National Homeland Security Council. And, not conincidentally, the timing of the release of the survey maximizes the fact that border control is a political issue in the current presidential campaign. According to the
About.com article, John Kerry supports the initiatives President Bush has taken to make US borders more secure since 9/11, only he says he "will bring them about more quickly."
If [Kerry] is elected, he plans to accelerate the timetable for the action plans agreed to in the US-Canada and US-Mexico 'smart border' accords as well as implement security measures for cross-border bridges. Kerry is also highly concerned about the vulnerability of US water borders. Improvements in port security must be made.
About.com also lists some of the key changes brought about during Bush's tenure.
US-VISIT tracking system [see above]. Smart Border Declaration with Canada, similar agreement with Mexico. Officers at US borders and ports of entry equipped with technology to better detect radioactive material. Coast Guard purchased 700 high-speed vessels with communications systems. Initiative also calls for unmanned aerial vehicle patrols, four additional A-Star 350 helicopters and additional $1 million slated for new sensor technology. Department of Homeland Security now requires electronic advance cargo manifests from sea carriers 96 hours prior to arrival to give officials more time to check for potentially dangerous crew, passengers, and cargo. It remains to be seen what weight will be given to the border patrol survey. But history shows that when there is an issue of vital national concern, the American public will see through the political views of a report. When Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle," a scathing expose of the Chicago meatpacking
industry at the turn of the 20th century, his intent was socialist political reform. Indifferent to his politics, the nation demanded better sausages. The 9/11 Commission Report said
terrorist travel played a significant role in the Sept. 11 plot, and holes in US immigration and border security contributed to the attacks. Whether or not the border patrol survey is seen as biased, most Americans will call for more secure borders regardless if accomplishing that means more cops, more jails, more surveillance of all individuals, legal and illegal, crossing US borders, and more money.
Also...
•
Al Qaeda runs own travel agency (
WorldNetDaily)
•
United States border patrol (
Handbook of Texas online)
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The Mexican border patrol (
PageWise)
•
Homeland insecurity: DC hamstrings border officers (
WorldNetDaily)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Jim Bencivenga
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