Border Patrol Essay, Research Paper

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 $1.6 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?