10 percent of borders are under control, and DHS has no plans to expand control

Eight years after the attacks of 9/11 and four years after the 9/11 Commission cited America’s porous borders as a serious risk to national security, the Department of Homeland Security does not seem remotely concerned that it has just 894 miles of border “under effective control”. That’s 894 miles out of 8,607 miles of land and coastline that DHS is responsible for controlling.

What about the other 7,713 miles of land and sea borders? DHS doesn’t seem too worried. Their stated goal for FY 2010 is to have the same 894 miles “under effective control” one year from now.

DHS’s seeming nonchalance about gaining control over the other 90 percent of our borders stands in jarring contrast to the security challenges facing the United States. Several terrorist plots exposed over the past month underscore the continued determination of our enemies to deliver a blow on U.S. soil. Meanwhile the chaos and violence in Mexico, which has claimed 11,000 lives over the past three years, continues to worsen and could easily spill across our southern border.

While DHS is standing pat on border security in FY 2010, they are moving with alacrity to gear up for a full-scale amnesty for illegal aliens in the coming year. Though legislation that would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens is still but a twinkle in the eye of President Obama and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the presumptive congressional author of such a bill, The New York Times reports that the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency is already committing resources in preparation for processing millions of applications. “We are under way to prepare for that,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of USCIS said.

Both the Obama administration and Sen. Schumer have sought to assure the American public that an unpopular illegal alien amnesty would be balanced by meaningful efforts to prevent another onslaught of large-scale illegal immigration. In June, Sen. Schumer released a seven point plan for reforming U.S. immigration policy. The second of these points states, “Operational control of our borders – through significant additional increases in infrastructure, technology, and border personnel – must be achieved within a year of enactment of legislation.”

With just 894 miles of borders under “effective control,” and no plan to bring even a single additional mile under control in the coming fiscal year, it is hard to imagine how Sen. Schumer’s pledge of “operational control” of our borders within one year of enacting his legislation could possibly be achieved. Moreover, with DHS already pouring money and manpower into preparing USCIS for what Schumer’s plan describes as the “process of converting [millions of illegal aliens] to legal status and earning a path to citizenship,” it is unlikely that DHS would have the resources to fulfill the promise of border security even if they were actually committed to that goal.

Given the enormity of the threats to our nation, no American can feel reassured by the knowledge that the cabinet department established to defend our homeland security has little more than 10 percent of our borders under control. It is even more disturbing that the people running DHS seem content with what they have achieved and see no urgency in gaining control over the remaining 90 percent of our borders that are vulnerable to terrorists, criminals and future illegal migration.