November 2005 ■ No. 7 SUMMARY Beginning with immigration inspectors who patrolled on horseback, border US Border Enforcement: enforcement traditionally has focused on the Southwest border. The issue From Horseback grew in prominence during the 1970s following the implementation of per- to High-Tech country limits on legal immigration and the earlier termination of the US- Deborah Waller Meyers Mexican Bracero program. Border Patrol funding has grown more than I. Introduction 500 percent over the last two decades, as legislative and policy Borders are a concrete representation of a nation’s statehood, changes (including 1986 immigration as each state seeks to control entries into its sovereign terri- reform and a new 1994 border tory. Indeed, the ultimate responsibility of a government is to control strategy of “prevention safeguard the security and well-being of its citizens. In the through deterrence”) specified minds of the American public, the term “border enforce- concentrated and enhanced personnel ment” conjures images of Border Patrol agents in green uni- and technological resources. During forms, trying to prevent the entry of drugs, thugs, and illegal this time, immigration control and immigrants along a relatively uncontrolled, and at times drug enforcement efforts at the chaotic, US-Mexico border. And for most of the 20th century, border became intertwined, and that was an accurate characterization, as enforcement military tactics and equipment were resources were allocated in that manner. adapted for both efforts. Genuine border enforcement, however, consists of integrating The scope of border enforcement the work, resource allocation, and information capacity of all efforts widened approaching the ports of entry—including northern and southern land bor- millennium to include the northern ders, airports, and seaports—as well as the territory between border, airports, and seaports. It official ports of entry and US consulates abroad in an effort to expanded with unprecedented protect the country. Though some components of this broader intensity and magnitude in the definition were in the minds of key policymakers by the mid- aftermath of 9/11, incorporating 1990s, only in the last few years has this holistic approach to overseas consulates in efforts to push border enforcement become more widely accepted as a new the border outward and promoting paradigm for serious policy discussions in this arena. inter-agency and inter-governmental coordination to increase information- This Insight provides an overview of border enforcement and sharing and enhance homeland how it has changed since the passage of the Immigration security. Nevertheless, questions Reform and Control Act (IRCA) nearly two decades ago. remain about the effectiveness of During this period, border enforcement has variously sought border enforcement, as well as to prevent the smuggling of alcohol and drugs, the flow of its consequences. illegal immigrants, criminal violence in the With a few exceptions,3 border enforcement border region, and threats posed by terrorists. failed to rise again to national prominence in At the same time, border control has also policy debates until the late 1970s. In part, evolved from a low-tech, one-agency exercise inattention reflected the fact that the majority focused strictly on the Southwestern border of Mexico-US migration from 1942-1964 was itself, to a far more encompassing concept legal under the Bracero Program, and most including multiple agencies, the extensive use unauthorized migrants returned home season- of technology, and a broad geographic focus ally.4 Furthermore, Mexicans were able to which not only includes the entire US border enter the United States without quantitative and coastline but also projects to transit states limits prior to the 1965 amendments to the and countries of origin. Immigration and Nationality Act (implemented in 1968). And it was not until 1976 that the II. Historical Background Congress extended the strict 20,000-per-coun- try limit and preference system to countries in Seventy-five immigration inspectors on horse- the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico.5 back first began enforcing immigration laws on the US-Mexico border in 1904, a border By the late 1970s, with the US economy in that was not even formalized until the 1848 recession and the country facing an energy Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the crisis, migration pressures mounted in Mexico Mexican-American war. An independent due to the new numerical restrictions. Border Patrol was first established by Apprehensions and deportations increased Congress as part of the restrictive Immigration dramatically from earlier in the decade to Act of 1924, with 450 employees deployed more than one million annually. Boatloads of along both US land borders in response to ille- Vietnamese refugees began arriving in 1976, gal entries and alien smuggling. By 1930, the and President Jimmy Carter introduced a plan Border Patrol’s size had nearly doubled, and in 1977 to address illegal immigration that additional growth ensued during World War II included enhanced enforcement efforts at the based on national security concerns.1 US-Mexico border.6 By 1978, the Congress had appropriated funds for 2,580 Border The mission of the Border Patrol, working Patrol staff, accounting for one-quarter of total between official inspection stations, was to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) exclude “illegal aliens,” including Asian and staff at that time.7 Although a stalemated European immigrants trying to circumvent Congress failed to act on President Carter’s newly established entry quotas through illegal plan, it did create the Select Commission on entry along the US-Mexico border. Yet as pro- Immigration and Refugee Policy (SCIRP) in hibition went into effect, resources were 1979 to study and make recommendations on diverted to stem the illicit flow of alcohol illegal immigration and immigration reform.8 It (particularly along the Canadian border). The was the recommendations of the Select 1933 repeal of Prohibition coincided with the Commission, created only a few years after Great Depression and reduced flows of unau- imposition of the per-country limits and pref- thorized labor into the United States, decreas- erence system on Mexico, that became the ing the demand for border enforcement during basis of policy debate and legislation through- this period.2 out the 1980s. 2 Insight In the interim, 125,000 Cuban refugees and legalizing the existing unauthorized, and tens of thousands of Haitians arrived on US enforcement at the border.12 The law also pro- shores, and apprehensions of unauthorized vided a significant infusion of resources to immigrants along the US-Mexico border con- enhance the Border Patrol’s existing approach tinued to climb (see Table 1), further con- to the detention and apprehension of illegal tributing to public perceptions that immigra- entrants.13 In particular, Section 111 of IRCA tion was out of control. At the same time, stated that an essential element of immigration President Reagan formalized and continued control would be “an increase in the border Richard Nixon’s “War on Drugs,” which patrol and other inspection and enforcement peaked in intensity in February 1985 with the activities of the Immigration and Naturalization kidnapping and slaying of a US Drug Service and of other appropriate Federal agen- Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special cies in order to prevent and deter the illegal Agent in Mexico.9 entry of aliens into the United States and the violation of the terms of their entry.”14 Thus, III. IRCA and Its Aftermath: the bill called for a 50 percent increase in 1986-1992 Border Patrol personnel in Fiscal Years 1987 and 1988. The Border Patrol also was tasked After many years of debate, Congress passed with assisting in employer sanctions, employer the Immigration Reform and Control Act of education, and the apprehension and removal 1986 (IRCA). The basic concepts of IRCA, as of criminal aliens. exemplified by the first three titles of the bill, were: “Control Illegal Immigration,” At the time of IRCA’s passage, Congressional “Legalization,” and “Reform of Legal appropriations had increased to fund nearly Immigration.”10 They were based on the 3,700 Border Patrol staff, over 30 percent of Select Commission’s conclusions that: total INS personnel. IRCA raised it to more than 5,500 in 1987 with appropriations for • Lawful immigration served a positive benefit; Border Patrol nearly double what they had • Illegal immigration was a serious problem been only five years earlier.15 Moreover, the that needed to be addressed prior to any Border Patrol received an influx of new equip- expansion of legal immigration; ment, including twenty-two helicopters for all • Legal admissions should continue to be nine sectors (up from a total of two helicopters based on family connections, employment, in one sector) and hundreds of night-vision and humanitarian needs; scopes, night vision goggles, and surveillance • Immigration policies shouldbe non- systems. Additional Border Patrol stations and discriminatory. checkpoints and new detention centers were also built.16 Thus, the Commission’s proscribed approach was to “close the back door and open the Border enforcement received a disproportion- front door.”11 ate percentage of the resulting financial resources: 57 percent ($70.5 million) of the IRCA’s attempt to control and reduce illegal supplemental funds for IRCA’s implementa- immigration focused on imposing