Blog:The Border Already is Secure

The REPAIR Immigration Proposal claims that “clear and concrete” border and internal security benchmarks must be met before we reform our visa system and legalize those already here.

But as Secretary Napolitano attests, we’ve significantly upgraded and secured our borders over the past ten years, and the Department of Homeland Security has met practically every security benchmark already set by Congress.

• Since 2004, we’ve doubled the number of Border Patrol agents. These agents seized 15% more cocaine and heroin, and 37% more marijuana in 2009 than in 2008. These were record increases according to senior Border Patrol officials.

• Over the past year, we’ve quadrupled the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents working with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement to streamline information and intelligence sharing.

• According to the Immigration Policy Center, since 1992, we’ve increased the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) budget by 700%, and increased the ICE budget by 50% since 2004. The ICE budget alone will surpass $5 Billion in 2010.

• We’ve constructed more than 600 miles of border fence since 2007.

• We arrested more undocumented immigrants with criminal records. During 2006-2008, more than 70% of the arrested undocumented had no criminal records. In 2009, approximately 45% of them did possess criminal convictions.

• We issued more workplace arrests—6,287 in 2008, more than 12 times the number of workforce arrests issued in 2002.

• In 2008, ICE and CPB removed more than 359,000 undocumented individuals. This year marked the sixth consecutive record high.

• ICE interviewed more than 341,000 incarcerated foreign nationals and issued more than 232,000 charging documents to remove these individuals before the termination of their sentence.

Enough is enough. The record shows that steps have already been taken to increase border security. Further calls to militarize and secure the border are simply political tactics intended to delay real reform. The United States is more than ready to implement non-security components of immigration.