ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of US Customs And Border Protection

1239 Words5 Pages

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection focuses on guarding our borders. They are in charge of enforcing U.S. regulations (customs, borders…) and preventing illegal material, goods, and people from entering the country. As the CBP Official website states, “Protecting our borders from the illegal movement of weapons, drugs, contraband, and people, while promoting lawful entry and exit, is essential to homeland security, economic prosperity, and national sovereignty.” The purpose of the CBP is safety. Along with keeping illegal substances and other materials out of the U.S., they are also responsible for keeping terrorism out of the United States. “...the Border Protection helps maintain borders that work - facilitating the flow of legal immigration …show more content…

Another key point in this problem is the amount of illegal and counterfeit goods that are being imported under false labels into the U.S. This impacts the U.S. economically and the health and safety of United States citizens. CBP stats show that apart from food goods, the main counterfeit item that is imported is personal care items/pharmaceuticals and clothing items, which greatly concerns the health and safety of people. These personal items and pharmaceuticals are usually very low quality (inferior). One instance of this happening with prescription drugs is on the Arizona-Mexico border. These smugglers cross the borders and end up distributing and receiving packages of (usually) counterfeit prescription pills, usually with help from other criminals. There are many cases where people hide things on their body, but luckily they all were stopped. The CBP website can be quoted on, “Last year (2016), CBP seized more items that pose health and safety risks than ever before.”https://www.cbp.gov/FakeGoodsRealDangers …show more content…

As stated in a news report about the Chinese garlic being illegally imported, many people that are trying to import items into the U.S. illegally label the shipments with false names just to pass it through and selling it at a much lower price for the benefit of their company, hurting the U.S. in a few different ways. Harder inspection would lead to a decline in the amount of illegal or counterfeit goods found in the U.S. that are illegally imported. Again, the number of officers will need to increase to ensure that there are enough officers across U.S. borders to allow this solution to fully function. According to page 83 in the textbook, there are approximately 37,000 Customs and Border Protection Officers in the United States. This number accounts for all of the officers that are in charge of different duties, but one of the most necessary is the closer inspection of goods. The ability to hire thousands of new officers needs to work with the agency funding as well. The CBP has limited funding, yet, in perspective, it is one of the most important agencies that protects the wellbeing of our country. A counter to this problem could be that the CBP is doing good and it is not equally important as other agencies, (doesn’t need funding), but the CBP falls under Homeland Security, which takes care of basically all of the outside interaction with other countries and regions around

Open Document