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| Federal Report: Border Patrol Needs Better Checkpoint Data |
| 2005-07-24 |
| A recently completed federal review of U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints across the Southwest concludes Border Patrol officials need to find better ways of measuring the effectiveness of those checkpoints. Only then, the report states, will agents be able to respond to the increasingly sophisticated technology and evasion tactics used by immigrant smugglers. Opponents of the checkpoints are using the study to further their argument that the checkpoints should be closed. Issued Friday, the report makes the following recommendations: * the Border Patrol develop additional performance measures for the productivity and effectiveness of interior checkpoints as they relate to operational costs. * Include the data produced by those additional performance measures in regular reports, along with suggestions on how interior enforcement can be improved. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said letters from five members of Congress sparked the reviews. Three of those congressmen are from Southern California: Darrell Issa, R-Vista; Ken Calvert, R-Riverside; and Christopher Cox, R-Newport Beach. In February 2004, Issa and Calvert wrote to the Government Accountability Office: "We believe a GAO study will find that the checkpoints operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are not an effective deterrent to illegal immigration and that the resources committed to checkpoint operations could be better utilized in other apprehension efforts." The accountability office conducted the review of checkpoints in four sectors in the Southwest: San Diego; Tucson, Ariz.; Laredo, Texas; and McAllen, Texas. The GAO is an independent, investigative arm of Congress. The agency studies how the government spends taxpayer dollars and advises Congress on how it can make government more effective and responsive... However, despite the report's conclusions that more efficient data needs to be generated to measure the effectiveness of checkpoints, the GAO report did not appear to agree with Issa's and Calvert's assertions... Yet, the report also acknowledged the difficulties the Border Patrol faces in attempting to control illegal immigration... In a written statement Friday, Issa said there are better ways of stopping smugglers than by using fixed freeway checkpoints, such as the ones on Interstate 15 in Temecula and Interstate 5 in San Clemente... He said that by moving resources "closer to the border, locations where illegal immigrants are known to gather, and the routes that smugglers use to evade capture, will strengthen apprehension efforts." Border Patrol officials could not be reached late Friday for comment. However, the report says that officials with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, stated the report is factually correct. |
| Posted by:Pappy |