ACLU-New Mexico hopes to influence the upcoming immigration reform debate. The group is seeking signees for an open letter to President Barack Obama, advocating for drastic changes in security along the border. Nationally, ACLU is a vocal critic of President Obama's border enforcement policies.
ACLU-New Mexico is asking the U.S. President to “adopt a reform plan that recognizes the growing need for accountability among our border officials and stops the senselessness of continuing to build a border enforcement regime.”
You can read the letter here. But we highlight some interesting facts brought up in the document below.
Disclosure, a Fronteras Desk story is referenced to conclude the fact that border cites are “a vital component of the half a trillion dollars in trade between the United States and Mexico.”
• Since 2003, the U.S. Border Patrol has doubled in size and now employs more than 21,000 agents, with about 85 percent of its force deployed at our 2000-mile Southwestern border.
• “In fact, so many Border Patrol agents now patrol the southern border that if they lined up equally from Brownsville to San Diego, they would stand in plain sight of one another.”
• From FY2004 to FY2012, the budget for U.S. Customs and Border Protection increased by 94 percent to $11.65 billion.
• Despite Border Patrol’s doubling in size since 2004, overtime costs have amounted to $1.6 billion over the last six years.
• Over the last decade, apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol have declined more than 72 percent
