Border Security 2015

Since the peak of Europe's so-called 2015 'migration crisis', the dominant governmental response has been to turn to deterrent border security across the Mediterranean and construct border walls throughout the EU. During the same timeframe, EU citizens are widely represented - by politicians, by media sources, and by opinion polls - as fearing a loss of control over national and EU borders. Despite the intensification of EU border security with visibly violent effects, EU citizens are portrayed as 'threatened majorities'. These dynamics beg the question: Why is it that tougher deterrent border security and walling appear to have heightened rather than diminished border anxieties among EU citizens? While the populist mantra of 'taking back control' purports to speak on behalf of EU citizens, little is known about how diverse EU citizens conceptualize, understand, and talk about the so-called 'crisis'. Yet, if social and cultural meanings of 'migration' and 'border security' are constructed intersubjectively and contested politically (Weldes et al. 1999), then EU citizens —as well as governmental elites and people on the move— are significant in shaping dominant framings of and responses to the 'crisis'. This book argues that, in order to address the overarching puzzle, a conceptual and methodological shift is required in the way that border security is understood: a new approach is urgently required that complements 'top-down' analyses of elite governmental practices with 'bottom-up' vernacular studies of how those practices are both reproduced and contested in everyday life.

The government reports included in this book range from June to September 2018 and examine US border control and security. The first report is focused on the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and began operations in 2003. This report examines the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans as well as its Sub-Offices. The second report is an assessment of selected DHS components requirements infrastructure (such as Customs and Border Protection, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Coast Guard, and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services). It provides recommendations on additional practices that could help better develop operational requirements. Next, the southwest border of the United States has long been vulnerable to cross-border illegal activity. According to Border Patrol data, in Fiscal year 2017, Border Patrol agents apprehended 304,000 illegal entrants. Additionally, the US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) spent approximately $2.3 billion between 2007 and 2015 to deploy physical barriers along the nearly 2,000-mile southwest border. In the third report, the progress DHS has made is examined as well as the challenges it has faced implementing its border security efforts. In January and March 2017, the President issues a series of executive orders related to border security and immigration. The fourth report included in this book reviews the agencies' implementation of the executive orders and related spending. Finally, the processes for tracking and unifying separated families are looked at and the progress and challenges in recruiting, hiring and retaining law enforcement personnel for US Customers and Border Protection is discussed in detail.