Challenges To Border Protection

Significant challenges regarding border protection or illegal immigration There are many different challenges that the United States is faced with in regards to border protection. Some of these challenges include, but are not limited to: political conflict, immigration smuggling, funding, and the immigration nationalism. The main challenge is the amount of funding given to border protection agencies. Legislation continues to debate over how much funding should be given to border control based on political conflicts and the issue of Nationalism. "A focus on border control, as has been the debate in the Legislature during the last year, is simply an extension of a longstanding political trend" (Ibrahim & Bargerhuff & Krikorian & Canty, para.

"Interdiction seeks to stop flows of goods or people by intercepting them in movement, often at or near international boundaries" (Heyman, 1999, para. 1). Another initiative is that the United States has hired more patrol members to make sure that the borders are secured more efficiently. Patrol officers stop people coming into our borders and identify their nationality and immigration status. They confirm whether or not they have seen that person cross the border into our country previously, "and then make arrests of anyone who is `out of status ' in the United States” (Heyman, 1999, para. 11). A person who is ‘in status ' is someone who is a United States citizen, a legal immigrant who came to our country with a work or school visa, and someone who has a visitors pass into our country. Although US government officials have been dealing with the initiatives that are put into place to tackle the challenges of border protection, those initiatives continue to update as time progress and the challenges will continue to be fought by "increasing the number of Border Patrol agents directly on the border, the erection of walls at heavy traffic areas, and insertion of electronic surveillance systems" (Guerette & Clarke, 2005, para.

There have been many different challenges in the strategic plan, some of the hardest challenges are; "that entities intent on harming the United States are becoming sophisticated in their methods of gaining illegal entry, the workload is unpredictable and…there is variety in the motivations of some entities to exploit our immigration system for immoral purposes. (Service, 2007, p. 7). There have been different visions and goals that the USCIS strategic plan has put into place to protect the US security: strengthen the security and integrity of the system; provide effective immigration benefits and information services; support immigrants who are integrating into the American culture; promote flexible policies and programs, and “strengthen the infrastructure supporting the USCIS mission and operate as a high-performance organization that promotes a highly talented workforce" (Service, 2007, p.