ABSTRACT
In recent years, the Border Patrol has become correctly occupied with another type of immigrant, one of the terrorist sort. The Border Patrol, as a result of the events of 9/11, was merged into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and then further aligned with its historic partner, Customs.1 Customs has an even longer history than the Border Patrol. Originally established as a revenue collector with the founding of the United States in
1776, Customs evolved into much more than the revenue machine it continues to be today. Customs has primary oversight on questions of cargo, duties, and revenue enforcement; trade and environmental law questions; imports and exports; and cargo and port issues. The range and breadth of responsibilities simply impresses. On a typical day in 2014, CBP
• Processed • 1,026,234 passengers and pedestrians • 70,334 truck, rail, and sea containers • 307,680 incoming privately owned vehicles
• Conducted 1333 apprehensions between U.S. ports of entry • Arrested 21 wanted criminals at U.S. ports of entry • Refused 241 inadmissible persons at U.S. ports of entry • Discovered 425 pests at U.S. ports of entry and 4447 materials for quarantine:
plants, meat, animal by-products, and soil • Seized
• 10,327 pounds of drugs • $650,117 in undeclared or illicit currency • $3.4 million worth of products with intellectual property rights violations
• Identified 548 individuals with suspected national security concerns • Intercepted 76 fraudulent documents • Employed 59,544 CBP employees, including
• 22,274 CBP officers • 2368 CBP agriculture specialists • 20,824 Border Patrol agents • 729 air interdiction agents (pilots) • 329 marine interdiction agents • 133 aviation enforcement officers
• Deployed more than 1463 canine teams and 300 horse patrols • Flew 213 hours of enforcement missions over the United States • Conducted operations at
• 328 ports of entry within 20 field offices • 136 Border Patrol stations and five substations within 20 sectors, with 35 perma-
nent checkpoints • 21 air and marine branches, six national security operations, and one air and
Today, DHS delegates the integrity of our land border to a newly formed entity within DHS-the U.S. CBP program. CBP is responsible for guarding 7000 miles of land border the United States shares with Canada and Mexico and 2000 miles of coastal waters surrounding the Florida peninsula and the coast of Southern California. The agency also protects 95,000 miles of maritime border in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (Figure 9.2).
