Part of the Obama Plan: “Strengthen Border Security”
Photo courtesy of U.S. DHS website
As outlined in some detail by the Department of Homeland Security, President Obama’s recently announced immigration plan has quite a few components. The very first item on the DHS list are measures to “Strengthen Border Security”:
“DHS will implement a Southern Border and Approaches Campaign Strategy to fundamentally alter the way in which we marshal resources to the border. This new plan will employ DHS assets in a strategic and coordinated way to provide effective enforcement of our laws and interdict individuals seeking to illegally across land, sea, and air. To accomplish this, DHS is commissioning three task forces of various law enforcement agencies. The first will focus on the southern maritime border. The second will be responsible for the southern land border and the West Coast. The third will focus on investigations to support the other two task forces. In addition, DHS will continue the surge of resources that effectively reduced the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally this summer. This included additional Border Patrol agents, ICE personnel, criminal investigators, additional monitors, and working with DOJ to reorder dockets in immigration courts, along with reforms in these courts.”
DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson in a memorandum titled the “Southern Border and Approaches Campaign” to the heads of agencies involved in border enforcement outlines new policies “in furtherance of . . . Department wide Southern Border and Approaches Campaign Plan . . . announced on May 8 , 2014 . These directives are an extension of this Department’s new Unity of Effort initiative . . . announced on April 22, 2014.” The directive calls for the formation of three task forces and the formulation of a new border enforcement campaign:
“The overarching goals of the Southern Border and Approaches Campaign are to enforce our immigration laws and interdict individuals seeking to illegally cross our land, sea, and air borders; degrade transnational criminal organizations; and decrease the terrorism threat to the Nation, all without impeding the flow of lawful trade, travel, and commerce.
The ten objectives of the Southern Border and Approaches Strategy will be:
1. Minimize the risk of terrorism.
2. Increase the perceived risk of engaging in or facilitating illegal transnational or cross-border activity.
3. Interdict people and goods attempting to enter illegally between ports of entry.
4. Increase situational awareness in the air, land , and sea border and approaches.
5 . Decrease or disrupt the profitability and finances of transnational criminal activities at the optimal points.
6. Dismantle criminal and terrorist organizations and networks.
7. Prevent the illegal exploitation of legal flows.
8. Maximize the resiliency of key nodes, conveyances, pathways, and transportation infrastructure.
9. Minimize the cost to travelers and delays to shippers in being screened and vetted at ports of entry.
10. Maximize the number of travelers and value of imported goods that undergo screening before arriving at ports of entry.”
The efforts to “strengthen border seciurity” outlined by the DHS seem relatively modest. The three task forces will for the most part seem to be focusing on improving existing border enforcement efforts. The the ten stated goals of border security — including protecting the nation from threats of terrorism and criminal activity — appear to align nicely with other changes announced by the President in terms of focusing immigration enforcement on true dangers to the public safety (i.e., deport felons, not families).
It seems to me that strengthening of border security has been a consistent theme of President Obama’s immigration enforcement policies, with annual removals in the neighborhood of 400,000 a testament to those efforts. Nonetheless, the DHS border security initiatives remind us that the President is committed to border enforcement. This is an important matter politically as every comprehensive immigration reform proposal seems to include an enforcement plank and many Republican political leaders accuse the President of failing to ensure the integrity of U.S. borders.
KJ