AP Exclusive: Border Patrol to toughen policy

AP Exclusive: Border Patrol to toughen policy

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The U.S. Border Patrol is moving to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment.

The agency this month is overhauling its approach on migrants caught illegally crossing the 1,954-mile border that the United States shares with Mexico. Years of enormous growth at the federal agency in terms of staff and technology have helped drive down apprehensions of migrants to 40-year lows.

The number of agents since 2004 has more than doubled to 21,000. The Border Patrol has blanketed one-third of the border with fences and other physical barriers, and spent heavily on cameras, sensors and other gizmos. Major advances in fingerprinting technology have vastly improved intelligence on border-crossers. In the 2011 fiscal year, border agents made 327,577 apprehensions on the Mexican border, down 80 percent from more than 1.6 million in 2000. It was the Border Patrol’s slowest year since 1971.

It’s a far cry from just a few years ago. Older agents remember being so overmatched that they powerlessly watched migrants cross illegally, minutes after catching them and dropping them off at the nearest border crossing. Border Patrol Chief Mike Fisher, who joined the Border Patrol in 1987, recalls apprehending the same migrant 10 times in his eight-hour shift as a young agent.

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AP Exclusive: Border Patrol to toughen policy

 Let me be honest; I lived and worked in El Paso, TX for about 9 years. I moved to El Paso 30 years ago, so, you would assume that it was not so much a bad place then as it is today. Right?

Make no mistake, even then, in certain areas, it really WAS just as bad then as it is today, maybe worse. The news just didn’t cover it in such an open and graphic manner. But if you were an *in touch* kind of person, you’d go to Juarez to eat and/or shop, and back in those days, I drove my own car down to Juarez.

As long as you knew what areas to avoid, it was a fun *day trip*.

I have had certain individuals attempt to take me to task over my beliefs of what needs to happen to those that INVADE our nation; Illegal Invaders, border jumpers, undocumented workers, future Democrats, wetbacks, whatever works for you.

I’m not too terribly concerned if some get offended by my less than PC descriptives.

Some have attempted to brand me a RACIST for my views on ILLEGALS, even though I have yet to be shown where ILLEGAL is a RACE, unless you call it a RACE as the illegals race away from the Border Patrol. 😛

I know for a fact that our border with Mexico was/is terribly porous. A LEGAL person will make a legal crossing, in BOTH directions. ILLEGALS don’t care if their crossing is illegal, hence the term ILLEGALS! And again, make no mistake, it’s been that way for over 30 some odd years that I am personally aware of.

When I lived in El Paso one of my neighbors was a Border Patrol Agent and we spent time a lot of time talking and comparing notes on various issues. One of his gripes was the fact that th U.S. government had built a new USBP station out on Montana Blvd.

The gripe wasn’t the station itself, it was a great facility, they had all of the amenities, new building, great air conditioning, comfortable offices, new and effective areas to hold those that they arrested as they were processed and they had new buses to be used in transporting the *turn arounds* back to Juarez.

Yes, the *turn arounds*.

You see, my friends gripe was this, “Hell Fred, we work our asses off, we pick them up, we bring them in, we process them, we take them back to Juarez and in most cases, they are back in El Paso before WE are…”

You see, actual enforcement of our immigration laws has been sorely ignored by those in a position of power for many years, and it has been a source of great frustration for those that are tasked with the job of immigration enforcement.

There have been no real consequences for those that break U.S. law, and until now, there has been no real concern by those that PASS those laws.

Maybe, just maybe, we’re about to see a new approach from the powers that be, but until I see it 1st hand, and see those that come to the USA in violation of our laws suffer some real consequences, put me in the skeptics column.

Do YOU believe Obama and Company will actually enforce immigration laws? Seriously?