The U.S. Border Patrol
on Tuesday unveiled its first national strategy in eight years, a
period in which the number of agents more than doubled and
apprehensions of people entering illegally from Mexico dropped to a
40-year low.
The
new approach — outlined in a 32-page document that took more than two
years to develop — uses buzzwords like "risk-based" and
"intelligence-driven" to describe a more nuanced, targeted response to
constantly evolving threats.
The
Border Patrol previously relied on a strategy that blanketed heavily
trafficked corridors for illegal immigrants with agents, pushing
migrants to more remote areas where they would presumably be easier to
capture and discouraged from trying again.
"The jury, for me at least, is out on whether that's a solid strategy," Chief Mike Fisher told The Associated Press.
The
new strategy draws on intelligence to identify repeat crossers and to
try to determine why they keep coming, said Fisher, who was expected to
address a House subcommittee on the plan Tuesday.
"This
whole risk-based approach is trying to figure out who are these people?
What risk do they pose from a national security standpoint? The more we
know, the better informed we are about identifying the threat and
potential risk," he said in a recent interview.
Conditions
on the border have changed dramatically since the last national
strategy, putting pressure on the agency to adapt to a new landscape.
An unprecedented hiring boom more than doubled the number of agents to
21,000 since 2004, accompanied by heavy spending on fencing, cameras,
sensors and other gizmos.
At
the same time, migration from Mexico has slowed significantly. Last
year, the Border Patrol made 327,577 apprehensions on the Mexican
border, down 80 percent from more than 1.6 million in 2000. It was the
slowest year since 1971.
The Pew Hispanic Center
reported last month that the largest wave of migrants from a single
country in U.S. history had stopped increasing and may have reversed.
The new strategy moves to halt a revolving-door policy of sending migrants back to Mexico without any punishment.
The
Border Patrol now feels it has enough of a handle to begin imposing
more serious consequences on almost everyone it catches from Texas' Rio
Grande Valley to San Diego. In January, it expanded its "Consequence Delivery System"
to the entire border, dividing border crossers into seven categories,
ranging from first-time offenders to people with criminal records.
Punishments
vary by region but there is a common thread: Simply turning people
around after taking their fingerprints is the choice of last resort.
Some, including children and the medically ill, will still get a free
pass by being turned around at the nearest border crossing, but they
will be few and far between.
The
new strategy makes no mention of expanding fences and other physical
barriers, a departure from the administration of President George W. Bush. Fisher said he would rule out more fences but, "It's not going to be part of our mantra."
The
strategy makes only brief mention of technology in the wake of a failed
$1 billion program that was supposed to put a network of cameras,
ground sensors and radars along the entire border. Fisher said the
agency is moving more toward mobile surveillance like unmanned aerial
vehicles and helicopters.
"We're
still trying to understand what the capabilities are with all the
technologies and the platforms," Fisher said. "I'm just trying to
figure out what is the best suite on all this stuff."
The
strategy makes it a top priority to ferret out corrupt agents, which
has emerged as a growing threat as the agency has expanded.
It
is the Border Patrol's third national strategy since 1994, when the
agency poured resources into the San Diego and El Paso, Texas, areas.
That effort pushed migrants to remote mountains and deserts and made
Arizona the nation's busiest crossing for illegal crossings.