Friendly Skies?
By James Jay Carafano Posted in Immigration — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Another stop on this investigation looking at conditions on America’s borders took me to Los Angles airport—LAX. LAX serves as a reminder that all of America’s border crossing sites are not on the border. Many of the U.S. ports of entry are at America’s international airports. LAX is a case in point. International air travel is back to pre-9/11 levels. LAX is only surpassed by JFK airport in New York in the number of international flights it handles.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) both have a substantial presence at LAX. They work well with each other and with local security officials. Behind the scenes they do lots of things to make air travel and airports safer. In fact, these efforts probably do far more to thwart terrorists and criminals than the passenger screening checkpoints.
As security ramps up on the border, these airports are seeing more folks trying to sneak into the country through the international air ports of entry—a reminder that border security means a lot more than just security at the physical border. Border security is like poking a balloon—push in one place and it bulges some place else. It is a reminder that we need comprehensive solutions to border security that pay attention not just to the border, but also to the points of entry and to policies of internal workplace enforcement. These are goals we need to accomplish – not by granting amnesty but by creating sufficient legal opportunities for folks to come and work in the United States.
Next, I’m off to the land border.