Border Patrol Arrests Are At A Low Point
One statistic which may be either bad or good is the fact that arrests by the US Border Patrol are at their lowest point in the last forty years. I dont know whether this statistic is a good one or not because the immediate indication could be two different things.
The first thing that it may reflect is that drug smuggling and human trafficking across the border is down. This is likely because of all of the technology that we now have available to track traffickers and smugglers but I dont believe it to be the case.
It is true that drug smugglers have used their imaginations to find other ways to ply their trade but the demand is just too great for the products and services that they offer. Drug users demand their products and smugglers are bound to find a way to supply their needs. Drug smugglers have been using submarines to smuggle their products into the United States and some have found it easier to transport their products to Canada and smuggle them into the United States from there.
Border patrol agents are racking up huge overtime costs which may be attributable to the decline in drug smuggling. Our border with Mexico is huge and it is just about impossible to cover the entire area. There has been talk of using the US Military to assist border patrol agents but the military has understandably balked at this idea because it would use troops for an other than intended purpose and eat up valuable time that they could be trained to do something else.
Agents earn anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent extra pay an hour for the first two hours of overtime, with the extra cash being steadily reduced every hour after that because of complicated overtime rules. Over the course of a year, an agent can earn about $15,000 more than the base salary, which for a more experienced agent is typically over $60,000 a year. Agents are limited to $35,000 in overtime annually.
If this overtime pay is justified then it is well worth it. We save much more revenue than we spend when we bust drug operations for huge quantities of drugs. If you look at the potential savings in crimes committed to buy drugs and crimes caused by the use of illegal drugs, along with the costs of law enforcement to deal with dealers and users Im sure that you will agree.
Most illegal border crossers are apprehended along the 2,000-mile long Mexican border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. In the budget year that ended in September, 18,506 agents made a combined 327,577 apprehensions. The agency spent about $283 million on overtime.
But along the northern border with Canada there have been far fewer arrests, a statistic long used to judge the amount of illegal activity along the borders. For example, the 201 agents in the Houlton Sector in Maine arrested just 41 illegal border-crosses. Agents on the northern border earned a combined $37 million in overtime pay.
The more than 200 agents assigned to the Border Patrol's headquarters also made a combined $4.8 million in overtime last year.
The Border Patrol says the overtime pay is justifiable and I say that if it is then lets do what we have to do. Our border needs to be retaken and secured at any and all costs. Illegal gangs are expanding their operation to both sides of the border with drug cartel members regularly crossing back and forth to ply their trade. We need to secure our border in my opinion even if we have to use the military to do so.a href=http://www.militaryringexpress.com/products> Military Ring Express
The first thing that it may reflect is that drug smuggling and human trafficking across the border is down. This is likely because of all of the technology that we now have available to track traffickers and smugglers but I dont believe it to be the case.
It is true that drug smugglers have used their imaginations to find other ways to ply their trade but the demand is just too great for the products and services that they offer. Drug users demand their products and smugglers are bound to find a way to supply their needs. Drug smugglers have been using submarines to smuggle their products into the United States and some have found it easier to transport their products to Canada and smuggle them into the United States from there.
Border patrol agents are racking up huge overtime costs which may be attributable to the decline in drug smuggling. Our border with Mexico is huge and it is just about impossible to cover the entire area. There has been talk of using the US Military to assist border patrol agents but the military has understandably balked at this idea because it would use troops for an other than intended purpose and eat up valuable time that they could be trained to do something else.
Agents earn anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent extra pay an hour for the first two hours of overtime, with the extra cash being steadily reduced every hour after that because of complicated overtime rules. Over the course of a year, an agent can earn about $15,000 more than the base salary, which for a more experienced agent is typically over $60,000 a year. Agents are limited to $35,000 in overtime annually.
If this overtime pay is justified then it is well worth it. We save much more revenue than we spend when we bust drug operations for huge quantities of drugs. If you look at the potential savings in crimes committed to buy drugs and crimes caused by the use of illegal drugs, along with the costs of law enforcement to deal with dealers and users Im sure that you will agree.
Most illegal border crossers are apprehended along the 2,000-mile long Mexican border in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. In the budget year that ended in September, 18,506 agents made a combined 327,577 apprehensions. The agency spent about $283 million on overtime.
But along the northern border with Canada there have been far fewer arrests, a statistic long used to judge the amount of illegal activity along the borders. For example, the 201 agents in the Houlton Sector in Maine arrested just 41 illegal border-crosses. Agents on the northern border earned a combined $37 million in overtime pay.
The more than 200 agents assigned to the Border Patrol's headquarters also made a combined $4.8 million in overtime last year.
The Border Patrol says the overtime pay is justifiable and I say that if it is then lets do what we have to do. Our border needs to be retaken and secured at any and all costs. Illegal gangs are expanding their operation to both sides of the border with drug cartel members regularly crossing back and forth to ply their trade. We need to secure our border in my opinion even if we have to use the military to do so.a href=http://www.militaryringexpress.com/products> Military Ring Express
