Border Enforcement and National Security

Since 9/11, concern has mounted among policymakers and  law-enforcement authorities that foreign terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda  might use Mexico as a transit point to enter the United States, relying on  the same people-smuggling networks as undocumented immigrants and becoming  lost in the large undocumented flow. Some lawmakers have voiced fears that  terrorists might be among the growing number of undocumented non-Mexicans crossing  the southern border, although these Other Than Mexicans (OTMs) come  principally from Central and South America. There is no evidence this has  happened, despite suggestions by several lawmakers that the extremely small  number of Arab and Muslim OTMs apprehended at the border constitutes a threat  to national security.

Ironically, the U.S. government’s efforts to stem  undocumented immigration by fortifying the U.S.-Mexico border have increased  the profitability of the people-smuggling business 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 if  undocumented labor migration were taken out of the border-security equation  by reforming the U.S. immigration system to accommodate U.S. labor demand. In  the process, fewer immigrants would try to enter the country without  authorization, the market for people smugglers would be undercut, and foreign  terrorists would be deprived of the large undocumented flows and smuggling  infrastructure that might aid their entry into the United States. Moreover,  the U.S. Border Patrol could focus more on finding terrorists and less on  apprehending jobseekers.

  Among the findings of this report:

• Immigrant       smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border is a growth industry. The share       of undocumented immigrants apprehended along the southern border who       reportedly were smuggled into the United States rose from 5.5 percent in       Fiscal Year (FY) 1992 to 22.2 percent in FY 2004.

• The       OTM share of apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border rose from 1.1       percent in FY 1997 to 5.8 percent in FY 2004 and then, according to       preliminary estimates, spiked to 13.2 percent in FY 2005. More than       three-quarters of OTMs are from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

• The       largest increases in OTM apprehensions at the southern border since 1998       have occurred among citizens of Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil, none       of which is a likely source of terrorists bent on attacking the United       States.

• “From       FY 1999 through FY 2004, apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border of       OTMs from Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian countries of       “special interest” to national security amounted to only 0.02       percent of all apprehensions and 0.7 percent of all OTM apprehensions.       The number of such apprehensions declined after 2001.

• Until       lawmakers create new avenues for both permanent and temporary       immigration that are realistic and flexible, U.S. national security will       continue to be undermined by border-enforcement efforts that divert       labor migration through undocumented channels and into the hands of       people smugglers.

Read the entire report at: http://www.ailf.org/ipc/border_insecurity_spring06.pdf