The United States Border Patrol has ceased proactive transportation check operations along the northern border according to breaking news from the Associated Press.
A significant percentage of apprehensions are made by the Border Patrol when agents routinely conduct transportation checks at bus and trains stations and at airports. The Spokane Sector of the Border Patrol has been performing these checks for decades.
Over 7,400 arrests were made by the Border Patrol along the northern border in Fiscal Year 2010 with Spokane Sector arresting 356 aliens. These numbers are dramatically down from Fiscal Year 2000 when 11,669 arrests were made on the northern border and Spokane Sector made 1,324.
TERRORISM
Transportation Checks conducted by the Border Patrol do result in the apprehension of non-criminal aliens but most importantly, any alien can be questioned. The most important aspect of the Border Patrol Mission is to detect terrorists and Weapons of Mass Effect.
Several of the hijackers who committed the 9/11 attack against the United States were illegally within the United States because their Immigration Visas were expired or out of status. Border Patrol Agents have the right to check the Immigration documents and status of immigrants who are within the United States at transportation hubs such as airports, bus or Amtrak Stations.
Once an immigrant enters the United States, his status is seldom questioned unless the subject is involved in a domestic criminal matter or checked by the U.S. Border Patrol at transportation hubs. Border Patrol Agents are uniformed, armed and well trained, providing an effective deterrent against acts of terrorism at our transportation hubs.
Border Patrol Agents are also provided with Personal Radiation Detectors(PRDs) which alert to the presence of nuclear materials. Agents equipped with PRDs are trained to detect radioactive materials. The detection of a dirty bomb at a Transportation Hub would save countless lives.
FALTERING ECONOMY
With the United States’ faltering economy it is completely unjustifiable for the Border Patrol to shift manpower away from transportation checks. The apprehension and removal of subjects illegally within the United States provides for more employment for legal residents and potentially provides for less public assistance in the form of unemployment benefits and welfare to persons not legally within the United States.
Record numbers of agents are now assigned to northern Border Patrol stations with more than 2200 agents assigned to northern border stations in FY 2010 up from only 306 in FY 2000. With the dramatic decrease in apprehensions on the northern border, transportation checks allowed for some productivity from the increased manpower.
CRIMINAL ALIENS and NARCOTIC SMUGGLING
Border Patrol Agents have routinely apprehended criminal aliens who are a threat to society while performing transportation checks.
Numerous seizures of narcotics are also discovered during these routine checks. In the Spokane Sector, canines trained to locate narcotics are often utilized at the transporation hubs often resulting in seizures of narcotics secreted in the luggage.
SHIFT IN OPERATIONS NOT HARMLESS
This shift in the routine operations of the U.S. Border Patrol may be seen as harmless but the transportation checks provide an important and vital link in our nations’ security and its overall well-being.
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