In terms of security, since its current borders were defined, the United States of America has been blessed with two vast oceans to its East and West, a friendly neighbor to the North, and a non-threatening neighbor to the South. This traditionally afforded us the luxury of not having to invest in, or be much concerned with, the security of our physical borders. Instead, our border security efforts were focused on the legal immigration infrastructure, including the system of quotas and processing of inbound soon-to-be Americans, mostly from Europe, at places like Ellis Island.
After the Great Depression, when legal immigration plummeted, the legal framework and processing capacity never recovered. Instead, we mostly adopted a “look the other way” approach to immigrants, the vast majority of which were coming from Mexico and points further South, many illegally and motivated by the same thing that drew earlier waves of European immigrants – the prospect of a better life.
The attacks of September 11th will forever mark a dramatic turning point in the history of the United States and a moment when everyday Americans and policymakers could understand what those of us in the security business had known for a long time: Our geographic isolation could no longer protect us from the dangers of the modern world. The unfortunately usual political bickering, grandstanding, and stratification of our society have since prevented the implementation of a common-sense approach to securing our border in the modern age that, on the one hand, recognizes this new security reality, while on the other, respects the foundation of this country as a nation of immigrants and addresses the needs of our economy. As a result, our ability to maintain a safe, prosperous, and spiritually healthy country is suffering.
Over the last 20 years, during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, our government has dramatically increased its investment in preventing illegal immigration across the Southwest border with Mexico. Billions of dollars in technology and border infrastructure, along with a meaningful increase in Border Patrol staffing, have had a real impact on the number of illegals entering the country. It is significantly more difficult to illegally enter than it used to be. But we have a long way to go to secure the border, and much more investment and bold leadership is going to be required to continue to make progress.
The over simplification of our public discourse has produced an unfortunate public misperception: an individual is either pro-border security and therefore anti-immigrant, or pro-immigrant and anti-border security. The reality is that we are a nation of laws, and we need to rectify the disparity between what our law says and our ability and willingness to enforce it. That means increased investment in border security and the legal capacity to adjudicate both legal and illegal immigration cases. But it also means that we need to put in place a system that addresses the realistic needs of our economy for an immigrant workforce and creates a mechanism to meet it through legal means.
It’s time for reasonable people in the middle to come together to put into place a new system that is good for both our security and our economy, while staying true to a characteristic of America that has made us so strong.
W. Ralph Basham and Steve Atkiss are two Founding Partners of Command Consulting Group.
Atkiss served as White House Special Assistant to the President for Operations and Chief of Staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he was responsible for coordinating the agency’s interactions with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, state and local governments, and the press.
