The Los Angeles Times has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek article about the boredom of Border Patrol agents now that apprehensions are down, having "dropped more than two-thirds from 2000 to 2010, from 1.6 million to 448,000."
Byerly finished the energy drinks and put the comedy into his DVD player. (Agents are prohibited from using personal electronic devices while on duty.) "I figured something funny would keep me awake, but I still fell asleep," said Byerly, who was fired because of the incident. Two other agents have also been disciplined for falling asleep on the job, said Derek Hernandez, president of the Yuma sector border patrol union.
Senior officials acknowledge that monotony is a concern. Agents are offered extra training and special details at tactical checkpoints and hot spots in other border regions, they say. Agents are also pulled off the line to do more interior enforcement, including pursuing illegal immigrants at bus stations as far away as Las Vegas.
Next time someone warns that we're being "invaded" by illegal immigrants, remind them that the Border Patrol is having trouble staying awake.
Conservatives have tried to use the lower number of apprehensions as evidence that the administration isn't taking illegal immigration seriously, but that's a bit like saying we have a medical crisis because people aren't getting sick. Still, border apprehensions are down at least in part because fewer people are coming over, and it's not clear that's because of increased border security. The Pew Hispanic Center put out a report with this chart last year, noting that unauthorized immigrant migration into the U.S. is down across the board:
These aren't the kind of numbers we generally hear about given the alarmist nature of the political discourse on illegal immigration. There are fewer unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. than two years ago, and fewer coming over than there used to be. The hyperbole is particularly pronounced when it comes to the border, where crime has been "essentially flat" for the past 10 years.
So does that mean all those resources being thrown at the border are working? We don't really know. In the past, dips in apprehensions have been temporary as undocumented workers find new and often increasingly dangerous methods of getting across. We won't really know how effective the border security effort is until the economy starts booming again and workers start trying to come across in larger numbers again. Sounds to me like it's a good time to start thinking about how we want to approach a realistic immigration policy that doesn't involved purging the 11 million people already here.
