Redefining Border Security: A Plan for Migration Management and Border Security

Over the past eight years, the U.S. has seen a dramatic shift in the type of migrants who arrive at its southern border. As fewer single adults and more families and children seek asylum, the inappropriateness and ineffectiveness of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s current policies have become more apparent. The existing CBP system is one of punitive enforcement, treating all migrants — including families and children — as dangerous criminals. “Redefining Border Security: A Plan for Migration Management and Border Security,” an article written by Theresa Cardinal Brown for the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), analyzes these issues and points to potential solutions. According to the BPC, the U.S. should restructure and redefine its approach to border security by setting up two distinct systems: one for receiving and processing asylum seekers and another for responding to crime, drugs, contraband, and terrorism. Specifically, the BPC recommends that the CBP construct specialized, fully-staffed Regional Migration Processing Centers; provide temporary influx housing and comprehensive medical care for migrants; and reform its applicant processing system. Simultaneously but separately, the CBP can fortify its crime-fighting efforts by bolstering and reforming that sector’s personnel, policies, and physical and technological infrastructure. In the long term, the BPC also advises that the U.S. increase its long-term regional investments in its Mexican and Central American partners in order to grow nations’ migrant-processing capacities and improve the underlying conditions that induce emigration crises. (Kyla Schmitt for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)