Border Patrol union: High-tech systems overlook value of agents

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer | Saturday, November 20, 2004 9:38 PM PST ∞

As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security prepares to spend millions of dollars on inkless fingerprinting and photographing many U.S. visitors, Border Patrol union officials are saying that those and other high-tech counterterrorism investments carry a price tag that is hampering other types of more effective enforcement.

Undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson met with Southland journalists last week to tout the department's experimental kickoff Monday of $340 million in technological upgrades that are soon to be in use at 50 U.S. ports of entry along the Mexican and Canadian borders.

Federal officials expect to have all of the systems up and running by the end of the year, and in the case of the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings, by Dec. 13, two weeks ahead of schedule, Hutchinson said. The same technology is already in place at 115 U.S. airports and seaports.

Digital finger scans and photos are matched with databases to determine if visitors might be wanted for immigration problems and crimes or are on lists barring them from entering the country because of suspected terrorist ties.

Hutchinson said that in response to terrorism and in the aftermath of 9-11, some immigration enforcement resources have been "temporarily" shifted to increase the use of high-tech tools, including the new scanning systems and unmanned aerial drones. Those high-tech tools will help keep terrorists out of the country, he said.

"This is a major enhancement to our national security," Hutchinson said of the latest technological improvements.

"You look at the 9-11 terrorists, and they came through our ports of entry, so that's where we are looking," he said, referring to the new scanning systems.

That reasoning is flawed, said the president of the San Diego sector's National Border Patrol Council, the union representing rank-and-file Border Patrol agents.

"Any terrorist is going to avoid ports of entry, because they don't want to voluntarily submit to inspections," said Joseph Dassaro, adding that the money could be better spent on hiring more agents and purchasing equipment for them.

Hutchinson said that as Congress authorizes more funding, more will be spent on other areas of immigration enforcement, including the hiring of more agents.

As the Department of Homeland Security spends millions on technological upgrades, it is cutting into the operating budget of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Border Patrol union officials say the Border Patrol is feeling the pinch.

Fewer agents

In early 2004, about 11,200 agents were employed by the Border Patrol. But that number has fallen to about 10,700, the National Border Patrol Council's national president, T.J. Bonner, said last week. The federal government may believe that those technological improvements are the best use of limited resources but, "we are already understaffed and essentially overwhelmed by the sheer volume of traffic that is crossing the border, and no one seems to care," Bonner said.

A spokesman with the Border Patrol's San Diego sector said Friday that security issues prevented him from releasing the number of agents working in the San Diego sector. Agent Richard Kite did say, however, that "quite a few have been transferred to Arizona," to help stem the tide of illegal aliens crossing the border in that state.

"That says to California residents, 'we don't hear your (complaints), and if we do, we don't care,'" the union's Dassaro said.

In 1994, the federal government instituted Operation Gatekeeper, a massive effort to reduce the tide of illegal immigrants pouring across the U.S. Mexican border along a 14-mile stretch from San Ysidro eastward. The efforts were largely successful, officials say, but resulted in pushing the action to the east, at first into mountains of east San Diego County and later into the desert in Imperial County and Arizona.

Between October 2003 and the end of September 2004, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States in the Tucson sector, Border Patrol officials have reported. During the same period, agents in the San Diego sector apprehended about 138,000 illegal immigrants, Kite said Friday.

The San Diego sector has seen a steady drop in its number of agents, Dassaro said.

"Prior to 9-11, our union rolls exceeded 1,890 members, and now it's about 1,350," he said, adding that he attributes almost all of that decline to agents either leaving the agency or being transferred.

Dassaro said he believes that 2,500 to 2,700 agents would be required to adequately perform the job in the San Diego sector.

Equipment also needed

Bonner said that the budget squeeze has also left agents without the equipment they need to do their job.

"We have vehicles that are falling apart, outdated night vision goggles and expired body armor," he said.

A Washington spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday said that Border Patrol administrators "are aware of the concerns about the fleet out in the field."

"The fleet in general is a concern at the national level. We are always having to re-evaluate," said Mario Villarreal. "The vehicles that the agents drive are used in some of the most rugged and desolate terrain in the U.S."

The federal government has cut $14.8 million from the Border Patrol's operational budget and reallocated about $74 million to technological systems, Bonner said. He added the two amounts represent more than 5 percent of the Border Patrol's annual budget.

Villarreal said that the $74 million was not money that was not taken from the agency's operational budget but separate funding that was authorized for the technological improvements.

"The money ... was specifically earmarked for technology," he said. "It will assist agents on the front line to better do their job."

And, he added, the Border Patrol's budget actually increased in the current fiscal year, rising from 2003-04's $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion in the 2004-05 fiscal year.

The efficiency of some of those high-tech systems, such as the unmanned aerial drones and the remote cameras being used along the border with Mexico, is questionable or has yet to be proven, Bonner said.

"We have had some real difficulty with the way the remote cameras are performing," Bonner said. "But even if they worked perfectly, they're just eyes and ears, and we need hands to catch the people that are crossing the borders; millions are getting by us every year."

Hutchinson said that after 9-11, the federal government added about 2,000 agents to Border Patrol ranks.

Bonner differs.

"That is simply not true," Bonner said. "About the best they can claim is about 1,100 new agents during the Bush administration."

The recent drop in the number of agents "should not be the case," Hutchinson said, but "the current budget numbers do not allow for another major increase (in staffing). What we are trying to do is balance technology with our human resources."

Dassaro said he understands the concept of limited resources, however "now you have tax cuts, so how serious are we in the war on terror, if we are not willing to devote the resources to pay for it?"

Inland checkpoints

Border Patrol agents at the Temecula station have long said that 300 agents would be necessary to adequately staff 11 checkpoints that are spread around Southwest Riverside and North San Diego counties.

A union official working out of the Temecula station said Friday that the station currently has about 125 agents assigned to cover those checkpoints and the surrounding 3,600-square-mile area.

The main Border Patrol checkpoint on the Interstate 15 has seen its hours of operation cut significantly in recent months. In January of this year, that checkpoint was fully operational 60 percent of the time. By July that number had fallen to 21.9 percent of the time. And while updated figures on the checkpoint's hours of operation were not available for this story, the checkpoint appears to be operating only occasionally.

In late September, the federal Government Accountability Office began an extensive review of U.S. Border Patrol inland checkpoints across the Southwestern United States. The review came at the formal request of five U.S. congressmen, including U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Temecula and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside.

During the multi-month review process, GAO officials are taking a look at the checkpoints' effectiveness in the fight against illegal immigration, officials with the agency have said. A spokeswoman with the agency said last week that the results of that review will most likely be published in a report this spring.

During his San Diego visit, Hutchinson acknowledged the important role that the interior checkpoints play in catching illegal immigrants.

"The checkpoints have been helpful in reducing the funnel," he said. "The chokepoints have been a successful part of our efforts; obviously they need to be sufficiently (staffed)."

Bonner said that if federal officials are serious about reducing illegal immigration, they have to listen to the Border Patrol agents themselves, because they are the ones with the experience and knowledge to do the job.

"Politicians are playing 'Father Knows Best,' forcing solutions from their ivory towers in Washington," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or wbennett@californian.com.

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