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October 11, 2011
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Press Release
U.S. Border Patrol cancels a productive operational tactic. Agency will no longer conduct routine checks of commercial transportation in border areas. Last month, in a quiet change of policy, the Department of Homeland Security's Border Patrol issued an order to field units that routine transportation check operations were to be discontinued. Future operations of that nature must be what are described as "intelligence-driven." The phrase "intelligence-driven" means that transportation check operations may now be conducted only if there is specific advance information that illegal aliens or drugs are likely to be found by the operation. For nearly sixty years Border Patrol Agents have routinely observed passengers at bus stations, airports, and train depots in towns near the border. When their practiced eyes and minds develop suspicions of alienage, agents may question an individual or group. This practice, authorized by the Immigration and Nationality Act and confirmed by court decisions, results in the arrests of thousands of illegal aliens a year across the nation. Many of them are violent criminals or smugglers of drugs or humans. NAFBPO is appalled by this new, next step in the degradation of the Border Patrol's ability to secure the border. Effective border control is an operation that must take place in depth. That depth goes beyond simple mileage and includes control of modes of transportation that illegal aliens use to move away from the scenes of their crimes along the border. NAFBPO notes editorially that aliens illegally in the United States now have one less reason to fear detection and removal. We call upon the Department of Homeland Security to live up to its name and rescind this change.
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