Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group
Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group
Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group
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that is risk based, we must constantly evolve within that broad border<br />
security initiative framework regarding how we protect this country<br />
against all threats and with more inclusion of our federal, state, tribal<br />
and local law enforcement partners and the local communities that<br />
are within the border areas and are affected by those threats that we<br />
see every day.<br />
Q: Can you elaborate on the <strong>Border</strong> Patrol’s strategic plan?<br />
A: The <strong>Border</strong> Patrol Strategic Plan is the second strategy that the<br />
<strong>Border</strong> Patrol put into practice since CBP was created in 2003. The<br />
original strategy that guided the way we operate along the borders was<br />
written in 2004. In the new strategy, there are two overarching goals<br />
and each of those goals has specific strategic objectives that will carry<br />
the <strong>Border</strong> Patrol through 2016. We are in the process right now of<br />
building the implementation plan both within the organization at the<br />
leadership and field levels, within the workforce and also within the<br />
security and technology industries. It’s important to get the [technology<br />
industry’s] perspectives about what we’re looking to do over the<br />
next five years. The strategy really involves a strategic shift and changes<br />
some of our strategic imperatives in terms of things that we know we<br />
need to achieve over the next five years, given what we have done since<br />
9/11 and since the evolution of the 2004 strategy.<br />
Q: Can you tell me what the two overarching goals are and what the<br />
objectives of each goal are?<br />
A: The first goal is about our border security mission: What does<br />
it mean in today’s threat environment to secure the border? How<br />
do we transition from a workforce that really doubled the agency’s<br />
size and capability in terms of staffing? What do we do now with<br />
nine unmanned aircraft systems that back in 2004 we were still just<br />
experimenting with? We have things like remote vehicle surveillance<br />
systems; these are ground-based radar systems that have daytime and<br />
nighttime cameras. These give us a whole array of capabilities that we<br />
didn’t have before. The first goal is focused on optimizing our capabilities.<br />
With all of the new technology and more capability in terms of<br />
staffing, how then do we build a strategy for implementation to carry<br />
us through the next five years?<br />
It’s a different scenario than the strategy from 2004, which was<br />
focused on building resources. We knew that we were getting a lot<br />
of enhancements, and so as we were hiring <strong>Border</strong> Patrol agents and<br />
building roads and fences and as we were acquiring new technology, it<br />
became a show of force: Deploy every available resource and stop the<br />
flow from coming across our borders, whether that was vehicles just<br />
driving across or hundreds and thousands of people on any given day<br />
coming through a very porous border.<br />
The second goal focuses on the organization itself, specifically<br />
the men and women of the agency: How do we build and continue to<br />
mature the workforce? The theme between both goals intrinsic to the<br />
strategy is really identifying, developing and training future leaders of<br />
the <strong>Border</strong> Patrol. This is critical for us to be able to fully implement<br />
and mature the strategy and create a more secure border. The second<br />
goal also includes writing doctrine. We must formalize the process.<br />
With the size of the organization and the complexity that our border<br />
security, and now national security, mandates require, we have to<br />
actually build doctrine to institutionalize a process by which we would<br />
implement such a strategy. Goal two speaks to these issues, our processes,<br />
our system: How do we do joint and integrated planning and<br />
18 | BCD 1.1<br />
Arizona CBP Operations include aerials of CBP locations, canine inspections, ports of entry and<br />
exit, border patrols, OFO operations and inspections, apprehensions, drug seizures, and check<br />
points. [Photo courtesy of DHS/by Donna Burton]<br />
execution within the organization of CBP, within the department, and<br />
then within a whole of government approach?<br />
Q: How does CBP work with the U.S. military and other federal<br />
agencies?<br />
A: Before CBP in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the military worked along<br />
the border predominantly in a counter-drug mission. During that time,<br />
the U.S. government was doing a lot, like source country interdictions.<br />
Working on the border, the special response teams and the Special<br />
Operations <strong>Group</strong> within the <strong>Border</strong> Patrol was working with the military.<br />
The <strong>Border</strong> Patrol worked with both Title 10 and Title 32 forces.<br />
The Title 10 were the full-time military under orders. We worked with<br />
the U.S. Marine Corps and the 5th and 7th <strong>Group</strong> Special Forces. We<br />
also worked with Title 32 forces, which is predominantly the National<br />
Guard—the National Guard was deployed back then under specific<br />
funding for DoD counter-drug missions. The military provided much<br />
needed eyes and ears for <strong>Border</strong> Patrol agents when we didn’t have a lot<br />
of staffing and technology, so they were a force multiplier for us on the<br />
border and it was very effective. That relationship has grown.<br />
Right now, we continue to coordinate very closely with NORTH-<br />
COM [U.S. Northern Command], specifically Joint Task Force-North<br />
[JTF-N] in El Paso, Texas, which is our conduit to the larger combatant<br />
command of NORTHCOM. We provide our border requirements<br />
quarterly to JTF-N, which coordinates military units that volunteer to<br />
source some of those requirements to various locations along our borders.<br />
Currently, we are working with the military through Operation<br />
Phalanx, which started out several years ago with the deployment of<br />
up to 1,200 National Guardsmen along our borders. We have recently<br />
transitioned to helicopters and other types of air support in predominantly<br />
two theaters of operations, one in the Arizona corridor and one<br />
in the South Texas corridor.<br />
Q: How are CBP OAM P-3s utilized for counter-narcotic missions<br />
and what are a few recent mission successes?<br />
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