Enforcement blues
From USA Today: Congress is going to take a look at the following issue:
From 2006 to 2010, the number of Customs and Border Protection officers who inspect people and cargo crossing through the ports of entry along the southwest border increased by 15%, while the number of CBP Border Patrol agents who patrol the rugged terrain between those ports increased by 59%, according to CBP figures.
In other words, our real problems--drugs and guns--are getting short shrift in order to be seen as "doing something" about undocumented immigration. We'll see how Republican address the problem, since they are simultaneously committed to security and fiscal restraint. In this case, you either shift resources or spend more.
2 comments:
Only in bizarro government world could increasing the resources devoted to something by 15% be considered giving it "short shrift." (And nobody smuggles drugs or guns, just people, across open desert?)
Then again I'd zero out the budget for stopping all three, but I'm weird that way.
I am focused on the disproportionate attention on undocumented immigrants vs. real threats--we can quibble about "short shrift" but the overall threat perception is the problem IMO. If you think both should be zero, then obviously you automatically disagree about proportions.
And yes, large numbers of heavy guns are very hard to carry through the desert. Drugs are obviously easier.
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