Is the US Military’s Involvement in Border Security Too Expensive?

By: Sylvia Longmire

Last September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the eyebrow-raising report, Observations on the Costs and Benefits of an Increased Department of Defense Role in Helping to Secure the Southwest Land Border.

 

Essentially, GAO took a look at whether or not it was worth all the taxpayer money being spent to send National Guard Troops to the US-Mexico border, as well as the cost vs. benefit of military equipment being employed under the border security mandate.

 

To conduct the review, which was performed between March and September, 2011, GAO “reviewed relevant legal authorities governing military forces operating under state and federal status; the funding and cost data related to the deployment of Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, equipment, unmanned aerial systems, and manned surveillance aircraft; costs and benefits of recent efforts by DoD to assist Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the southwest land border; after-action reports and evaluations related to recent efforts to support law enforcement efforts at the southwest land border; and interviewed appropriate officials from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, and Transportation.”

 

The results of the GAO inquiry were surprising in many instances, and were sure to cause more than a few proponents of “militarizing” the southwest border to reexamine this approach.

 

Since 2006, thousands of National Guard soldiers have been deployed to various stretches of the Southwest border to assist Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and their component Border Patrol in accomplishing their mission. The Guard by law cannot act in a law enforcement capacity, so they’ve been used as extra sets of eyes and ears for Border Patrol, allowing them to respond more quickly to smuggling or border crossing incidents. They’ve also provided civil engineering and intelligence analysis support.

 

Due to increased staffing requirements by CBP, the Guard deployments allowed DHS time to recruit, hire and train thousands of new inspectors and agents to be sent to the Southwest border area.

 

DoD has also increased their role in the drug war, both by providing military equipment to law enforcement agencies along the border - helping them do their jobs more effectively - and providing training and guidance to agencies on the Mexican side of the border. By executive order, because DoD also has a mandate to assist in the national counterdrug mission, how the drug war progresses is very important to the Pentagon.

 

GAO took a look at the cost of National Guard deployments and the use of DoD equipment over the course of several years to determine if the benefit was worth the expenditure of approximately $1.3 billion between 2006-2010. Both DHS and DoD officials expressed several concerns.

 

First, DoD noted the absence of a comprehensive strategy for southwest border security and the resulting challenges to identify and plan a DoD role. This has historically been a concern that extends well beyond the DoD, as the US government’s policy of interdiction has generally been defined as one of stopping as much as possible of everything trying to come across without prioritization based on intelligence-driven threat analysis.

 

Second, DHS officials expressed concerns that DoD’s border assistance is ad hoc in that DOD has other operational requirements; DoD assists when legal authorities allow and resources are available, whereas DHS has a continuous mission to ensure border security. This ensues from the need to have a comprehensive border security plan where DoD’s role is clearly defined and requirements outlined.

 

Third, Department of State and DoD officials expressed concerns about the perception of a militarized US border with Mexico, especially when State and Department of Justice officials are helping support civilian law enforcement institutions in Mexico to address crime and border issues. These officials are extremely sensitive to past negative history between the two countries. But while Mexican citizens are more open now to the possibility of US military intervention in the drug war, it is a reality that’s a long way off.

 

Finally, Federal Aviation Administration officials stated they are concerned about safety in the national airspace, including challenges in the unmanned aerial system’s ability to detect, sense and avoid an aircraft. Considering that Mexican military aircraft - usually helicopters - have unwittingly entered US airspace along the border dozens of times in the past few years because pilots claimed they didn’t know where the border was, such an incident with a UAV is plausible.

 

The study also took a look at two separate major deployments of National Guard troops to the border: Operation Jump Start (2006-2008) and Operation Phalanx (2010-2011). Jump Start cost $1.2 billion over the course of two years, and Guard soldiers assisted in 11.7 percent of all illegal immigrant apprehensions and 9.4 percent of all marijuana seizures along the southwest border. Phalanx cost $110 million, and the National Guard assisted 5.9 percent of all illegal immigrant apprehensions and 2.6 percent of all marijuana seizures along the southwest border.

 

There are also additional logistical and financial challenges to DoD’s role in border security. Twice as many Guardsmen are needed in many cases where one Border Patrol agent would suffice. DoD equipment also is more expensive to use or rent than DHS agency equipment. Bringing soldiers in from out-of-state is expensive, too. Training Guardsmen new to the border is time consuming and takes them away from in-state missions like natural disasters and civil disturbances. Red tape makes the DoD approval process for border assistance painfully slow, and there’s always the potential negative perception of the “militarization” of the border.

 

This isn’t to say the National Guard and DoD’s roles in border security are a waste of time or money; they’re not, and they’ve proven themselves to be a vital part of that strategy. But their employment can’t just be a knee-jerk reaction to criticism over the perception of a porous southwest border. It needs to be well thought out, planned, reviewed and reviewed some more so that taxpayer dollars aren’t just thrown at the border in the form of Guardsmen and military equipment, but rather used efficiently and effectively.

 

A retired Air Force captain and former Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Homeland Security Today correspondent Sylvia Longmire worked as the Latin America desk officer analyzing issues in the US Southern Command area of responsibilty that might affect the security of deployed Air Force personnel. From Dec. 2005 through July 2009, she worked as an intelligence analyst for the California state fusion center and the California Emergency Management Agency's situational awareness Unit, where she focused almost exclusively on Mexican drug trafficking organizations and southwest border violence issues. Her book, "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars," was published in Sept. To contact Sylvia, email her at: sylvia(at)longmireconsulting.com.

 

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