Border Patrol’s checkpoints overlooked in debate over wall
LAREDO, Texas — As vehicles line up at the Border Patrol’s checkpoint a halfhour drive’s north of the U.S.-Mexico border, its agents have around 10 seconds to check each driver and decide which few they will stop for additional inspection.
It’s a situation challenged constantly by smugglers, sometimes with deadly consequences. In July, 10 migrants died after a tractortrailer packed with people made it through Laredo North, only to be discovered two hours later in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio. Dozens of others streamed out of the trailer, gasping for air.
The Border Patrol considers its 34 permanent interior checkpoints along the United States’ southern border such as Laredo North a crucial layer of its strategy to stop smuggling. The checkpoints inside the U.S. can be up to 100 miles from any border, in addition to the ports of entry where people face inspection when coming into the country.
But agents who work the Laredo North checkpoint say they’re understaffed and sometimes overwhelmed by traffic. And while top Border Patrol officials say President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall would help them cut the number of overall smuggling cases, some critics don’t believe a wall would reduce illegal immigration and is drawing attention and money away from the checkpoints and other critical needs on the border.
The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal includes $1.6 billion to start building a wall that the administration has estimated will cost $18 billion. It asks for funding to hire more Border Patrol agents. It also includes $33 million to build a new Border Patrol station in Freer, Texas, northeast of Laredo. But it doesn’t directly address needs at other checkpoints, and it proposes zeroing out new spending on tactical infrastructure like roads used by border agents and replacement border fencing.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat who sits on the U.S. House subcommittee directing homeland security funding, wants U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, to invest in additional scanners and other improvements at Laredo North, as well as interceptor boats and radio towers for remote border areas. Cuellar also says the government should fund retention bonuses to keep agents from leaving the patrol.
“They’re taking money away from proven law enforcement systems to put it into this 14th century solution,” Cuellar said.