The US Border Patrol has recently released its new strategic plan, the 2012-2016 Border Patrol Strategic Plan, which the agency says is "risk-based."
What is the greatest risk to the border or cross-border threat to the "homeland"? Measured in numbers, that would be marijuana - the weed that citizens in Colorado and Washington on November 6 voted to legalize for recreational use and which is considered a legal medication in 17 states.
However, as drug seizures, mostly marijuana, have reached record levels, unauthorized immigration flows have steadily declined - dropping to the lowest numbers in four decades. The Border Patrol states that it is protecting the homeland against "dangerous goods and dangerous people." But its own statistics show that it is largely focused on drug-war operations, especially against cross-border flows of marijuana.
With the exception of two years (2008 and 2010), every year since 2001, when the current border security buildup began, the Border Patrol has reported record-breaking marijuana seizures. Before the US government declared that it would "secure the border" with new border security strategies and spending, the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2001 (ending on September 30, 2001) seized roughly 1.1 million pounds of marijuana. Last year the Border Patrol reported hauling in more than 2.5 million pounds of cannabis – an increase of more than 125% since the post-9/11 commitment to border security.
When measured by the number of drug seizures of cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin, marijuana, and ecstasy, the Border Patrol reported 16,355 seizures along the southwestern border in fiscal year 2011 – 15,252 being marijuana seizures. Overall, marijuana accounts for more than 93 percent of drug seizures along the US-Mexico border. Along many stretches of the southwestern border, particularly rural areas, agents patrolling the border only rarely, if ever, encounter anything but marijuana. Illegal drugs other than marijuana are most often discovered near urban areas or while stopping traffic already well within the country, since the higher-priced and more easily concealed drugs aren't crossed in areas patrolled by the Border Patrol but through the legal ports-of-entry.
More at
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13094-securing-the-homeland-against-marijuana
What is the greatest risk to the border or cross-border threat to the "homeland"? Measured in numbers, that would be marijuana - the weed that citizens in Colorado and Washington on November 6 voted to legalize for recreational use and which is considered a legal medication in 17 states.
However, as drug seizures, mostly marijuana, have reached record levels, unauthorized immigration flows have steadily declined - dropping to the lowest numbers in four decades. The Border Patrol states that it is protecting the homeland against "dangerous goods and dangerous people." But its own statistics show that it is largely focused on drug-war operations, especially against cross-border flows of marijuana.
With the exception of two years (2008 and 2010), every year since 2001, when the current border security buildup began, the Border Patrol has reported record-breaking marijuana seizures. Before the US government declared that it would "secure the border" with new border security strategies and spending, the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2001 (ending on September 30, 2001) seized roughly 1.1 million pounds of marijuana. Last year the Border Patrol reported hauling in more than 2.5 million pounds of cannabis – an increase of more than 125% since the post-9/11 commitment to border security.
When measured by the number of drug seizures of cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin, marijuana, and ecstasy, the Border Patrol reported 16,355 seizures along the southwestern border in fiscal year 2011 – 15,252 being marijuana seizures. Overall, marijuana accounts for more than 93 percent of drug seizures along the US-Mexico border. Along many stretches of the southwestern border, particularly rural areas, agents patrolling the border only rarely, if ever, encounter anything but marijuana. Illegal drugs other than marijuana are most often discovered near urban areas or while stopping traffic already well within the country, since the higher-priced and more easily concealed drugs aren't crossed in areas patrolled by the Border Patrol but through the legal ports-of-entry.
More at
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13094-securing-the-homeland-against-marijuana
