LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Illegal Immigration: Border Patrol
built 630 days ago
In the face of increasing illegal immigration, enforcement efforts have had mixed results. Early efforts in the 1970s and 1980s were largely ineffectual. They succeeded in raising coyote use rates among migrants, which created a flourishing smuggling industry offering steadily decreasing fees. The more recent enforcement initiatives have been more successful, driving up coyote prices and possibly discouraging more migrants from trying to cross the border. Additional evidence is the change in migrants' crossing patterns. When the Border Patrol has cracked down on one area, migrants have responded by crossing elsewhere.
Source:
Illegal immigration into the United States occurs mostly via land and sea. In 1993 a large group of undocumented Asian immigrants attempted entry into the United States via a sea vessel. Ten of them arrived dead. [1] In March of 2006 the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC) estimated the undocumented population ranged from 11.5 to 12 million individuals[2], a number supported by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO)[3]. Using data from March of 2004, PHC estimated that 57% of this population comes from Mexico; 24% from Central America and, to a lesser extent, South America; 9% from Asia; 6% from Europe, and the remaining 4% from elsewhere.[4] Significant illegal immigration into the United States ... takes place through its border with Canada, with most notorious recent case being that of a reportedly Algerian terrorist planning to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. [5] [6]
Source:
Following are recent events and positions representing the "hard line" on illegal immigration. These individuals point to weak border control as a source of illegal human trafficking, increased migrant fatalities, greater drug trafficking, and increased gang activity. These individuals believe that illegal immigration affects all Americans as it depresses wages, leads to job loss, drains the US economy of public funds for social services and education, and compromises homeland security.:
Source:
In 1997, Marines shot and killed 18 year old U.S. citizen Esequiel Hernandez Jr[106] while on a mission to interdict smuggling and illegal immigration in the remote Southwest. The soldiers observed the goat herder from concealment for 20 minutes maintaining radio contact with their unit. But at one point, this young man (who the Pentagon says previously had fired shots in the vicinity of Border Patrol agents) raised his rifle and fired shots in the direction of the concealed soldiers. After firing two shots, this young man was, in turn, shot and killed. In reference to the incident, military lawyer Craig T. Trebilock argues that "the fact that armed military troops were placed in a position with the mere possibility that they would have to use force to subdue civilian criminal activity reflects a significant policy shift by the executive branch away from the posse comitatus doctrine."[107] The killing of Hernandez led to a congressional review[108] and an end to a nine-year old policy of the military aiding the Border Patrol[109].
Source:
Any "immigration reform" must include certain and effective prosection of illegal aliens. As a recent story in the Arizona Daily Star reported, "For all the tough talk out of Washington on immigration, illegal entrants caught along the Mexican border have almost no reason to fear they will be prosecuted. Ninety-eight percent of those arrested between Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 30, 2005, were never prosecuted, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. Those crossers, more than 5 million, were simply escorted back across the border and released. Many presumably tried to slip into the
Source:
U.S. authorities responded to rising illegal immigration by increasing enforcement. As shown in Chart 3, border enforcement—measured by the number of hours Border Patrol agents spend on linewatch duty—grew in three phases between 1964 and 1999. [5] For enforcement to deter illegal immigration, it must raise the costs undocumented migrants face. This is usually done by increasing the probability of apprehension but ... can occur if the migrant faces other increased risks, such as the chance of death or injury. Has the probability of being apprehended, and hence the cost and risk to the migrant, increased during the enforcement periods under study?
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Border Patrol