The US Customs and Boarder Protection - Essay Example

The United States Customs and Boarder Protection (CBP) stand out as one of the federal agencies whose principal mandate remains a vital element to the growth of this giant nation. Functioning as a corporate, independent entity reporting directly to the newly created Department of Homeland Security right after the September 11 incident, the agency was instituted with tighter measures to ensure that all imports and exports to the United States comply with the federal exchange laws and regulations (National Research Council, 2010).

Customs and Boarder Protection responds to immigrations and customs violations such as smuggling with a frontline service as far as the law enforcement responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security are concerned. Based primarily at U.S. border-points of entry as well as ports, the agency duties involves apprehending illegal immigrants, stemming the flow of illegal drugs/chemicals, and protecting the nation’s agricultural interests from external harmful pests and diseases. The agency also collects data on imports and imports for the nation’s control of its strategic trade balance as a player in international economics (DHS, 2012).

Basically, law enforcement involves the services of a chain of agencies right from the federal level down to the local sheriffs operating at the community level. Given its operative mechanics cutting across through to the intelligence networks, the agency monitors collect, analyses and disseminate its intelligence reports to and from the federal, state, local and international links for a proper understanding of illicit international exchanges, which touches but goes beyond immigration issues.

Indeed, the engagement between this particular agency and the local law enforcement agencies since September 11 has been fruitful enough to keep the nation off another deadly attack from its sworn enemies, the al-Qaeda. While it is commendable that information trickling down from the agency helps local organizations to function much better for a secure nation compared to the past decade, Mexican border remains a loose net oftentimes beating the authorities with smarter smuggling techniques (DHS, 2009).

Even though the activities of the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations spillover effects to the US have been scaled down through improved surveillance machinery, the job remains largely undone. Just as it is with terrorism liaison channels, a joint diplomatic mission to dismantle the operatives from the source would work much better for prosperous nation into the future.