The U.S. Border Patrol is the organization that polices the entry of
illegal immigrants into our country. The official mission of the United States
Border patrol is to protect the boundaries of the United States by preventing
illegal entry, and by detecting, interdicting, and apprehending illegal
aliens, smugglers, and contraband. Today, the United States Border Patrol
consists of 21 sectors. Each sector is headed by a chief patrol agent. There
are 145 stations located throughout the continental United States, and in
Puerto Rico. The Border Patrol controls the border by land, sea, and air. The
Border Patrol has jurisdiction across all United States borders and at least
25 miles off the border. The Border Patrol agents are responsible to check
factories for illegal workers. As of September of 1995, the Border Patrol had
530 agents.
The Border Patrol's efforts may be sufficient but many people believe that
there are many problems in the methods of the Border Patrol. First, many
people think that all of the equipment is costing the taxpayers too much. An
estimation by TIME magazine states that in California alone, $400 million is
spent on healthcare for illegal immigrants. CNN says that the care of illegal
immigrants in one hospital in Jacksonville, Florida costs taxpayers $44.5
million. A Federal Government estimate says that __BODY__.6 billion dollars is spent
on the education of illegal immigrants each year in California alone. Just
think of how much money is spent on illegal immigrants across the country. Now
this is just the cost of the immigrants that get through the border patrol.
These costs could be greatly lowered if the Border Patrol would do its job.
Let alone the cost of the illegal immigrants that manage to get through the
Border Patrol, the Border Patrol alone is costing plenty. In an overview, some
people believe that we are spending too much money on the border patrol,
considering that they simply are not doing their job. We are giving them so
much money to get the latest equipment, but still people are getting through.
The people in favor of the Border patrol have the basic idea that, yes, the
Border Patrol used to be ineffective, but now due to many improvements in
federal money, manpower, and technology the Border Patrol is very effective.
They say that the reason for all the illegal immigrants in the U.S. is due to
when the Border Patrol was not as effective as it could or should be. From the
start of the Clinton administration, a $500 million crackdown on illegal
immigration was put into effect, most of that money put into the Border
Patrol. "Operation Gatekeeper" financed new lights, fencing,
vehicles, equipment, and agents. It was the most extensive crackdown ever made
against illegal immigrants. Robert Bach, the top policy and planning official
for the immigration agency states, "It is a wonderful progress in an area
where, frankly, most of us never believed that government intervention like
this would work", "This is historic. These routes of travel that
Mexicans have been using for decades. We have broken that up." After only
one year of "Operation Gatekeeper," the size of the Border Patrol
has doubled. The amount of immigrants caught has also almost doubled. In an
overview of the supporters argument, they believe that new improvements in the
Border Patrol have indeed decreased the amount of illegal immigrants and
should be allowed continuing funding to further decrease the amount of illegal
immigrants entering the country.
As you can see, there are many different views toward the processes of the
Border Patrol. There is no doubt that the Border Patrol and the illegal
immigrants getting into the country is costing the American Government a lot
of money, but is the money being spent as well as it could be? Do you think
that there should be more or less funding of the border patrol? Where do you
find yourself in this debate? Are you for or against the efforts of the United
States Border Patrol?
