Report says immigration reform critical to border security

A recent report by the Center for American Progress criticizes the Department of Homeland Security for repeated failures in its major border security and surveillance program.

The report by the Washington D.C.-based think tank highlights cost overruns and extensive delays in the Secure Border Initiative, the DHS plan developed to control the nation’s borders and stem illegal immigration through more Border Patrol agents, the border wall and use of technology to create a ‘virtual fence.’

But the report also includes recommendations on what can be done to improve border security, including passage of comprehensive immigration reform, greater collaboration with Mexico and outreach to border communities. It says the concept of fences, cameras and sensors can work if they are successfully integrated together.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who chairs the Homeland Security subcommittee on border, maritime and global counterterrorism, said the report indicates that a comprehensive approach is needed to address security concerns along the Southwest border.

"It’s going to take time," Cuellar said. "There’s no magic bullet out there, but if we do what has worked well in the past, we can minimize border violence, improve security and stop the drug cartels."

The report says the Secure Border Initiative is "marked by numerous missed deadlines, unfilled promises, and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent with relatively little to show for it."

The virtual fence — part of a program called SBInet that incorporates advanced technology such as cameras and sensors to detect illegal movement across the border — in particular has been plagued with issues with more than 1,300 defects found in the system in a one-year period, the report says. It would also take 320 years to put the virtual fence across the entire Southwest border at the technology’s current rate of deployment.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced a funding freeze in March for the virtual fence, pending a full review of its usefulness and effectiveness after the program’s missed deadlines, cost overruns and poor performance.

But the use of technology is still a critical component of a border security strategy, said Cuellar, who has criticized Boeing — the primary contractor— for delays in the program and maintained that the federal government should have tighter control over its performance.

Recommendations included in the CAP report also encourage Homeland Security to partner with border communities and Mexico. Some border law enforcement leaders said that they knew nothing of the state’s spillover violence contingency plan when Gov. Rick Perry when he rolled out the plan in March.

Local law enforcement and community leaders can be vital sources of information for federal and state authorities because they know their community best, said state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, the chair of the House Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. Evaluating the effectiveness of the state’s operations at responding to border violence and the effectiveness of communication between state and federal agencies will be part of discussions during a state hearing held in McAllen on April 29.

Gonzales said Mexico also has an incentive to address border security and should be included in the planning process.

"These criminal organizations operate in both Mexico and the U.S.," she said. "Collaboration between agencies on both sides of the border will help each country combat the drug traffickers and the byproduct of violence that accompanies it."

But the Center for American Progress says enacting comprehensive immigration reform is critical to border security.

Immigration reform that creates a legal pathway to U.S. citizenship would reduce the inflow of illegal immigrants and allow Border Patrol to focus on smuggling and other criminal enterprises, the report says.

Angela Kelley, the vice president of Immigration Policy and Advocacy at the center, said a regulated flow of immigrants would take pressure off the Border Patrol.

"For a number of both political and policy reasons," she said, "it’s hard to see (immigration reform) not being addressed."