United States Border Patrol
The United States Border Patrol is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Customs and Border Protection and is responsible for securing the borders of the United States. According to its website as of 2022, its mission is to "Protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity."
With 19,648 agents in 2019, the Border Patrol is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States. For fiscal year 2017, Congress enacted a budget of $3,805,253,000 for the Border Patrol.
History
In the nineteenth century, United States borders were open and unrestricted; there was no systematic control or even recordkeeping of immigrants. The first legislation restricting immigration, after the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807, was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.Mounted watchmen of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor patrolled the border in an effort to prevent illegal crossings as early as 1904, but their efforts were irregular and undertaken only when resources permitted. The inspectors, usually called "mounted guards", operated out of El Paso, Texas. Though they never totaled more than 75, they patrolled as far west as California trying to restrict the flow of illegal Chinese immigration.
In March 1915, Congress authorized a separate group of mounted guards, often referred to as "mounted inspectors". Most rode on horseback, but a few operated automobiles, motorcycles, and boats. Although these inspectors had broader arrest authority, they still largely pursued Chinese aliens trying to avoid the National Origins Act and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. These patrolmen were immigration inspectors, assigned to inspection stations, and could not watch the border at all times. U.S. Army soldiers along the southwest border performed intermittent border patrolling, but this was secondary to "the more serious work of military training". Aliens encountered illegally in the U.S. by the Army were directed to the immigration inspection stations. Texas Rangers were also sporadically assigned to patrol duties by the state, and their efforts were noted as "singularly effective".
The National Origins Act authorized the formation of the U.S. Border Patrol on May 26, 1924. Two days later, the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924 established the Border Patrol as an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor assigned to prevent illegal entries—primarily along the Mexico–United States border, as well as the Canada–U.S. border. The first Border Patrol station began operations in Detroit, Michigan, in June 1924. A second station, in El Paso, Texas, began operations in July 1924. In 1925, coastal patrols began as well. Operations were established along the Gulf Coast in 1927 to ensure that foreign crewmen departed on the same ship on which they arrived. In 1932, the Border Patrol was divided into two offices. Mexican border operations were directed from El Paso, Texas, and Canadian border operations were directed from Detroit, Michigan. The Canadian border operations from Detroit employed more men than the El Paso operations along the Mexican border because of a focus on the prevention of liquor smuggling during prohibition. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Executive Order 6166 formed the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1933 by consolidation of the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. Following the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Border Patrol staffing doubled to 1,500 in 1940, and the INS was moved from the Department of Labor to the U.S. Department of Justice. Additional stations were temporarily added along the Gulf Coast, Florida and the Eastern Seaboard during the 1960s after Fidel Castro triumphed in the Cuban Revolution, and that was followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis.
File:Detroit - Inside Greyhound Bus Station - P1080197.JPG|thumb|right|U.S. Border Patrol Agents at the Greyhound bus station in Detroit, Michigan, in February 2011. Immigration checks on trains, buses, and highways within 100 miles of the northern border have become more common.
In 1992, the United States Border Patrol had approximately 4,139 patrol agents on the job. Attrition in the Border Patrol was normally at 5%. From 1995 to 2001 annual attrition rose to above 10%, which was a period when the Border Patrol was undergoing massive hiring. In 2002 the attrition rate climbed to 18%. The 18% attrition was largely attributed to agents transferring to the Federal Air Marshals after 9/11. In 2017, the attrition rate was at 6%.
The INS was decommissioned in March 2003 when its operations were divided between U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 authorized hiring an additional 10,000 agents, "subject to appropriation". This authorization nearly doubled the Border Patrol size, from 11,000 to 20,000 agents by 2010. As of 2016, roughly half of the agents are Latino Americans. The Border Patrol has the lowest proportion of female agents or officers of any federal agency.
The Secure Fence Act, signed by President Bush on October 26, 2006, has met with much opposition. In October 2007, environmental groups and concerned citizens filed a restraining order hoping to halt the construction of the fence, set to be built between the United States and Mexico. The act mandated that the fence be built by December 2008. Ultimately, the United States seeks to put fencing around the border, but the act requires only of fencing. DHS secretary Michael Chertoff has bypassed environmental and other oppositions with a waiver that was granted to him by Congress in Section 102 of the act, which allows DHS to avoid any conflicts that would prevent a speedy assembly of the fence.
This action had many environment groups and landowners speaking out against the construction of the fence. Environment and wildlife groups feared that the plans to clear brush, construct fences, install bright lights, motion sensors, and cameras would scare wildlife and endanger the indigenous species of the area. Environmentalists said that the ecosystem could be affected because a border fence would restrict movement of many animal species, which in turn would keep them from water and food sources on one side or another. Desert plants could also feel the impact, as they would be uprooted in many areas where the fence was set to occupy.
In 2008, property owners in these areas feared a loss of land. Landowners would have had to give some of their land over to the government for the fence. Brownsville mayor Pat Ahumada favored alternative options to a border fence. He suggested that the Rio Grande be widened and deepened to provide for a natural barrier to hinder illegal aliens and drug smugglers.
In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Border Patrol was placed under the umbrella of the United States Department of Homeland Security, and preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States was added to its mission. The Border Patrol's traditional mission continued: deterring, detecting and apprehending illegal aliens and individuals involved in the illegal drug trade who generally entered the United States at places other than through designated ports of entry. The Border Patrol also erected 33 permanent interior checkpoints near the southern border of the United States.
For fiscal year 2019, the nationwide total of Border Patrol agents was 19,648, with 16,731 patrolling the southern border. Agents primarily patrol the Mexico–United States border, where they control drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
The majority of Border Patrol agents are minorities. According to 2016 data, Latinos constitute slightly more than 50% of the Border Patrol.
In late 2021, after public criticism, the Border Patrol outfitted agents with body cameras, which it had rejected in 2015 as too expensive, bad for agent morale, and unreliable; it had previously required state and local law enforcement to turn off their body cameras during joint operations with CBP.
In September 2021, while mounted Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, responded to an influx of refugees from Haiti crossing the Mexico–United States border, a photograph was captured of an agent appearing to use his bridle reins as a whip against a Haitian migrant. U.S. president Joe Biden said, "To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped. It's outrageous. I promise you those people will pay. There will be an investigation underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences." The photographer, when interviewed, said he did not see any whipping. Months later, in November 2021, The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General declined to investigate allegations against the agents on horseback.
By November 2025 during the second Trump administration, at least half of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement's top leadership had been fired or reassigned, and many were replaced with Border Patrol officials. The Chicago Tribune described the shakeup as part of the second Trump administration's desire to increase deportations at all costs, noting that Border Patrol's methods were less targeted than ICE's and involved stopping random people on the street and demanding to know their birthplace and citizenship status. Border Patrol agents deployed to urban areas throughout the country to assist with deportations, often being accused of using excessive force against protestors and bystanders. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act included significant increases in funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol.
Strategy
1986: Employer sanctions and interior enforcement
The Border Patrol's priorities have changed over the years. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act placed renewed emphasis on controlling illegal immigration by going after the employers that hire illegal aliens. The belief was that jobs were the magnet that attracted most illegal aliens to come to the United States. The Border Patrol increased interior enforcement and Form I-9 audits of businesses through an inspection program known as "employer sanctions". Several agents were assigned to interior stations, such as within the Livermore Sector in Northern California.Employer sanctions never became the effective tool it was expected to be by Congress. Illegal immigration continued to swell after the 1986 amnesty despite employer sanctions. By 1993, Californians passed Proposition 187, denying benefits to illegal aliens and criminalizing illegal aliens in possession of forged green cards, identification cards, and Social Security numbers. It also authorized police officers to question non-nationals as to their immigration status and required police and sheriff departments to cooperate and report illegal aliens to the INS. Proposition 187 drew nationwide attention to illegal immigration.