Now, in order to be able to cross the U. The Federal Government passed laws imposing restrictions and penalties for hiring immigrants. Even though the program was not without controversy, it managed to regulate Mexican guest workers in the U. In a year-time-span, 4. This era also marked a rise in illegal immigration, as many workers who were not qualified to participate in the Bracero Program crossed the border illegally and found work with growers who wanted to keep their costs low.
The operation consisted on Border Patrol agents locating, processing and deporting Mexicans who had entered the U. An estimated 1,, people were returned to Mexico, half a million from Texas alone. Also known as the Hart-Celler Act, it changed the way immigration quotas were allocated in the United States.
This law also brought numerical limits to immigration from Mexico and Latin America for the first time. High unemployment pushed more migrants to find work in the United States. On September 8, , the border patrol began expelling adult Mexican males by boat-lift from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz. The project was discontinued two years later after nearly 50, Mexican nationals had been returned home.
Various other flights, train trips, and bus trips originated along the border and terminated in the interior. Though partially successful, they also were expensive and were phased out primarily because of costs. Furthermore, by that time unauthorized migrants had begun entering on private aircraft.
In cooperation with other federal services, the border patrol began tracking suspect flights. In the El Paso office of the border patrol established a Fraudulent Document Center that was afterward moved to Yuma. During the Cuban missile crisis of the early s, Cuban defectors living in Florida flew aircraft out over the ocean in an effort to harass their former homeland. The American government made this harassment illegal, and assigned the border patrol to prevent unauthorized flights.
The patrol added officers, but discharged of them when the crisis ended in The early sixties also witnessed aircraft-hijacking attempts by various psychopaths, and President John F. Kennedy ordered border patrolmen to accompany domestic flights and prevent takeovers. The Miami sector of the border patrol coordinated the effort. By that time the old business of human trafficking began to involve drug smuggling. The border patrol assisted other agencies in intercepting illegal drugs from Mexico.
The border patrol of the s carries out its functions with a variety of devices, including helicopters, blimps, airplanes, radar, floodlights, motion detectors, cameras, informants, dogs, various vehicles, and fences and walls. Its duties are divided into several categories. A linewatch does surveillance of the border and apprehends illegal crossers when they enter.
A farm and ranch check involves evaluating farms and ranches, which employ a broad variety of workers, many of them transient. Traffic checks are twenty-four-hour-a-day checkpoints along highways, where traffic is stopped and drivers are asked to prove their citizenship. Most of the 10 largest cities in the U. Some states, like Florida, lie entirely within this border band so their entire populations are impacted.
The Fourth Amendment to the U. Constitution protects against arbitrary searches and seizures of people and their property, even in this expanded border area. And, depending on where you are in this area and how long an agent detains you, agents must have varying levels of suspicion to hold you.
We will examine specific scenarios where one might encounter CBP in more depth, but here are your key rights. These apply to every situation, outside of customs and ports of entry. As part of its immigration enforcement efforts, CBP boards buses and trains in the mile border region either at the station or while the bus is on its journey.
More than one officer usually boards the bus, and they will ask passengers questions about their immigration status, ask passengers to show them immigration documents, or both.
Although these situations are scary, and it may seem that CBP agents are giving you an order when they ask you questions, you are not required to answer and can simply say you do not wish to do so. As always, you have the right to remain silent.
If this occurs, you should ask if you are being detained. Also, if an agent begins to question you about non-immigration matters, say to ask about drug smuggling, or if they haul you off the bus, they need at least reasonable suspicion that you committed an offense in order to briefly detain you while they investigate.
You can ask an agent for their basis for detaining you, and they should tell you. The longer CBP detains you the more suspicion they need — eventually they will need probable cause once the detention goes from brief to prolonged. If the agent arrests you or searches the interior of your belongings, they need probable cause that you committed an offense.
You can ask the agent to tell you their basis for probable cause, and they should be able to articulate their suspicion.
Depending on the checkpoint, there may be cameras installed throughout and leading up to the checkpoint and drug-sniffing dogs stationed with the agents.
At these checkpoints, every motorist is stopped and asked about their immigration status. In , the Border Patrol was under-resourced and had only 6, agents to protect 6, miles of land borders and 2, miles of coasts.
In comparison, during the Cold War, the United States maintained a force of approximately , troops in West Germany to help protect miles of land border. The Border Patrol also lacked modern surveillance systems, the physical infrastructure to prevent border crossings in critical e. Today, the Border Patrol is a much more capable and professional organization. Approximately 18, agents now protect our borders between ports of entry. However, significant challenges still face the Border Patrol and other federal agencies with immigration-control responsibilities.
Following construction of miles of barriers along the U. As a result of significantly increased immigration-control measures at air, land, and seaports of entry, the U. In July , the Border Patrol apprehended , individuals —- reflecting a fundamental shift in the drivers of migration flows and levels not seen in 20 years.
However, factors that attract immigration to the United States -— such as low risks of apprehension when entering the U. As a nation, we need to decide if we want secure borders or if the status quo -— near-record rates of illegal immigration across the U.
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