Introduction
Department of homeland security is one of the reactions of 9/11 attacks on United States of America. It is a cabinet department of federal government of USA. It was formed on November 25, 2002. DHS was mainly formed to fight terrorism. DHS imbibed Immigration and Neutralization Services in March 2003. After assuming its duties, DHS divided the enforcement and services functions in to two different new agencies. Those two new agencies are named as immigrations and customs enforcement and citizenship and immigration services. Investigation division and intelligence gathering unit of Immigration and Neutralization services and custom services were merged to form Homeland security investigations. All these are designed to make the homeland United States of America save and secure. It was formed to assure the people of USA to secure them from any kind of terrorist related activities and also from threats like illegal immigration. The five core missions of homeland security are as follows. (Smith, 2006)
- Prevent terrorism and enhancing security.
- Secure and manage our borders.
- Enforce and administer our immigration laws.
- Safeguard and secure cyberspace.
- Ensure resilience to disasters.
(http://www. dhs. gov/our-mission)
Department of homeland security strives to protect the nation from terrorism by increasing the security, by securing borders to prevent illegal immigration which is one of the ways for terrorists to enter in to the country. Country border security is maintained by DHS. This includes protecting USA air, land and sea point of entries. Border security force securely regulates lawful trade and travel. It also fights against illegal terrorist transactions. The department also revised laws related to immigration to prioritize the identification and removal of criminal aliens who will be the potential threats for public safety. DHS also secures cyberspace of civilian government computer systems. It also responds in the event of natural disasters coordination with federal and state partners. (Alden, 2012)
Illegal Immigration
As we know US is found by Great Britain. Over centuries USA has developed its culture. But still it has an essence of British culture. Unite States is known as nation of immigrants. Immigrants contributed a lot to nation’s development. Our nation trusted many immigrants to for its development and designing its infrastructure. If we trace the ancestors of many American citizens, they will lead to origin outside the country. America significantly has a heterogeneous culture. In 19th century immigrant labor made a significant contribution towards transcontinental rail road construction. In 20th century, immigrants like Enrico Fermi and Werner Von Braun made a notable contribution for national security. More noticeably there were significant contributions for broadcast and entrainment industry from immigrants. Some of the known examples are Penelope Cruz from Spain. Jim Carry, Pamela Anderson and Michael J Fox are from Canada. The ancestors of famous pop singer Michael Jackson who is also known as King of Pop is originally from Africa. A well-known actor and also former governor of California is originally from Gratz, Austria. This recognizable list of immigrants proves that USA receives open society of those who want to in migrate into country and make their identity. But, unfortunately there are many situations where illegal immigrations are reported which has become primary national threat in the present day. (Smith, 2006)
Illegal immigration has become one of the major threats for the nation. It has become a priority national security issue that has to be dealt with immediately and forcibly. It can no longer be viewed as secondary issue besides terrorism and drugs. Illegal immigration is related to both of them. It is of the reasons where terrorism and drug dealing issues are developing its roots in the country. Solving this issue can reduce the illegal weapon and drug transactions to maximum extent. If this is left unresolved, there is a chance for our enemies to take advantages of the situation which will be threat for public safety. This problem of illegal immigration leaves three symptoms. It poses a question on inability to defend the border and enforce the immigration laws strictly. On top of all the policies and laws exists in the federal and state levels, illegal immigrations makes the citizenship meaningless, legal immigrant status pointless and illegal immigrant status penalty-less. This adds to reasons for which drugs and terrorists increasing in the country. Secondly, due to technology in the present situation, illegal immigrants have ties with their origin which doesn’t make immigrants to invest proportionate effort to personally identify the new culture. This decreases factors like patriotism, loyalty and citizenship. Thirdly, at some point illegal immigrants was the cause of the reintroductions of the diseases that are eradicated decades ago. This poses a serious threat for the public safety. There are situations where some activists for illegal immigrants forced bilingual education and also subsidies on the education which was an extra burden on taxpayer. This makes the citizenship really meaningless. On top of all this, there are prisons filling with illegal immigrants of some petty crimes to drug dealing and even to murder cases. These situations leave a big burden on tax payer. This also will be the threat for public safety. Illegal Immigration in future turns in to national crisis even if it only circumscribed to our nation’s infrastructure. According to the latest news, the effect of illegal immigrations increased to a significant level. Large illegal immigration groups may cause a significant threat to nation’s security. There is a chance for terrorists to enter and also influence the other illegal immigrants towards their activities. There is also a chance of recruiting them in to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and other potential terrorist groups whose primary motive is to harm USA. The same illegal group under potential leadership may cause significant loss for the nation. (Rosenblum, 2012) (Smith, 2006)
There are many events where there is a human flood of immigration in to the country. Most of the immigrants came from northern and western parts of Europe before the civil war. From 1890 and 1920 more immigrants sailed from southern and eastern European countries like Greece, Poland and Italy. In 1910, there was a large group migrated in to the country which contributes to a significant number of about 13. 5 million who are settled in USA. The estimated population of both legal and illegal immigrations till date is about 35 million.
Bracero program is one of the events where there is significant amount of immigration. Bracero program was designed by United States after 2nd world war to compensate the shortage of agriculture labor. The program was started in 1942 and ended in 1964. The program legally employed 4. 5 million Mexican citizens to work mainly in Texas and California. This was a temporary arrangement which stated that they should return back to their country after 1964. Bracero program had a statutory position of a bilaterally treaty that offered measure of regulation and control. This was used as a loophole by many immigrants to enter with the intention of settling here. The estimated immigrants through bracero program are about 1. 1 million. This equals to adding a city which is a size of Dallas every year. This leads to cause problems for legal residents. This also leads some terrorists to migrate in to the country easily. There are many reports stating there are many criminal activities near USA border such as MS-13. Terrorists using flaws in immigration laws enter in to the country and leads to some severe problems. Not only terrorists, there are many others like drug cartels that enter in to the country exploiting flaws in the immigration laws. Drug dealing is mainly controlled by illegal immigrants. Besides all this, corrupt Mexican law enforcement officials help in illegal immigration through southern border. (Alden, 2012) (http://www. dtic. mil/ndia/2008homest/needs. pdf) (Rosenblum, 2012)
Exploiting immigration laws also served as an opportunity for the Lee Boyd Malvo who is alleged for random sniper attacks in Richmond, VA and Washington D. C. It was reported that he was illegally immigrated following his mother who is also migrated illegally and remained in the country. Along the southern border there was increase in lawlessness which pushed civilian border patrol and law enforcement personnel in to risk. This lawlessness by illegal immigrants helped them to generate income through drugs and support a drug cartel that indeed supports terrorist organizations. This also served them to intrude in to the country and develop their network all over the country. This also explained how 9/11 hijackers exploited immigration laws and entered in to the country.
Economic impact is one of the primary reasons for illegal immigration. Irish potato blight of 1845-1849 is one of the economic disasters. At that time many refugees left Ireland for USA. The main reason for Mexicans to enter the country is mostly economic. As we know Mexico is a developing country. There are two significant sources income for the Mexico. One is direct sales of oil and second is income from the people who resides in USA and sends money to their relatives. Although there are some entrepreneurs and skilled workers there is more unemployment which leads them for migrating it to USA where the can find ample of employment opportunities. The only reason for them to migrate is money. The can earn money which has higher value than their national currency and as mentioned plenty of employment oppurnities. Prior to 9/11 attacks either governments was strict about immigration laws. The illegal worker was named as undocumented worker. After 9/11 attacks, laws were made rigid to prevent illegal immigration which may cause threat to public safety.
Border security:
It is the core element of Department of Homeland Security to prevent illegal immigration with U. S. border patrol (USBP) within the Bureau of customs and border protection (CBF). Border security acquired additional attention since 9/11 attacks. Since 1990 migration was controlled at the border by the strategy called “ prevention through deterrence”. It is the idea that the concentration of personnel, surveillance technology and infrastructure along thickly trafficked region of the border prevents unauthorized entry. Since 2005, CBF attempted to reduce illegal entry by imposing heavy penalties and implementing policies known as “ enforcement with consequences”. Immigration and reform act was implemented in 1986. After many events, IRCA authorized 50% increase in the size of USBP. 10 additional laws was added which are related to immigration. This was the reaction for 9/11 attacks. Country faces a deadly situation where border security has become primary entity. The significant decrease of illegal immigrants was lowered only after 2007. This is only because of increased enforcement. Illegal immigration has become a major problem when bracero program was implemented. From the laws of enforcement was made rigid. Despite of rigid laws there was a significant increase in illegal immigration till 2007. It was only controlled from 2007. (Rosenblum, 2012)
Border control strategy:
Seventy later its formation, border patrol designed its first formal national border control strategy in 1994 which is called as National strategic plan. This plan was updated as a reaction of 9/11 attacks. The new plan was published in 2012. The existing plans were based on the operational strategy of “ prevention through deterrence” as mentioned earlier. Its main goal is to reduce illegal immigration to a significant level. CBF has also strived to decrease illegal entry by imposing high penalties and also by “ enforcement with consequences” strategy. (Rosenblum, 2012)
National strategic plan:
In is the outcome of increased unauthorized immigration along southwest border of USA. It was developed in 1994. Drug smuggling was the serious problem along the southwest border. INS then changed it approach of arresting the illegal immigrants to prevent their entry. NSP designed multi-phase strategy where phase I involves “ hold the line” program in El Paso, TX, and operational gatekeeper in San Diego, CA. Phase II includes increase of Operation Rio Grande in Texas. Phase III and phase IV includes remaining southwest border. This was a successful strategy where arrests of illegal entry were increased and reduced number of immigrants.
National border patrol strategy:
After 9/11 attacks, USBP has formulated new NBPS. It was designed to emphasis on terrorism. Its main motto was to prevent terrorism. The five main objectives of NBPS are as follows. (Rosenblum, 2012)
By increasing the number of apprehension of terrorists and prevent their illegal entry and also prevent weapon smuggling.
Decreasing illegal entry by improving enforcement laws.
Detecting, apprehending and deterring smugglers of drugs and human.
Leveraging “ Smart border” technology.
Reducing crime in border communities.
Conclusion:
Illegal immigration is one of the biggest threats to nation. It is one of the reasons for terrorism and drugs in the country. It decreases the value of legal citizen. It acts as root cause for many criminal activities, drugs, terrorism etc. This has to be prevented. Border security is striving to fight against illegal immigration.
