Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Department of Homeland Security announced this week that it has met its goal to increase Border Patrol staffing by 50 percent.  President Bush launched the massive hiring campaign in 2006. 

Correspondent Tom Banse reports on what it means along the U.S.-Canada border here in the Northwest.

Before the 9/11 attacks, a grand total of 340 agents patrolled the entire length of the northern border.  Today, it’s about five times that many and still growing. 

What are all those agents doing?  Blaine, Washington sector chief John Bates says for starters the intensity of patrols is way up.

John Bates: “Our ability has definitely increased with the additional manpower to be able to respond to incursions.  Now we have agents that are within just minutes – and sometimes seconds – away from those locations and able to respond.”

The Spokane sector started a horse-mounted unit to get into the backcountry more.

In western Washington, the agency now has enough manpower to set up temporary highway checkpoints dozens of miles away from the border.  That move has generated pushback from some long-time residents.

One interesting detail is that since all those additional eyes were added on the northern border, apprehensions went not up, but down -- down significantly.

The Border Patrol theorizes that putting more agents on the frontlines has had a deterrent effect on smugglers and illegal crossings.