Border Protector Michael J. Fisher - KMI Media Group

A: The P-3 right now, and even over the last year, have historically
been deployed in south Florida; they’re under command and control
of Joint Interagency Taskforce-South [JIATF-S] down there, and are
patrolling the straights there as narcotics come up through Central
America. They also provide a forward looking capability to identify
“pangas” and “go-fast boats” that are smuggling contraband so that we
can then coordinate either with the host country for the interdiction
or launch Coast Guard cutters that may be out in that area if the targets
are close to U.S. shores. The P-3s work predominantly in the transit
area. By all accounts, CBP’s P-3 operations provide the vast majority
of air detection capability for JIATF-S missions. The P-3s patrol in a
42 million square mile area of the Western Caribbean and Eastern
Pacific, known as the Source and Transit Zone, in search of drugs that
are in transit towards U.S. shores. In the first half of fiscal year 2012,
they have detected more than 36,000 pounds of cocaine worth $2.6
billion. In FY11, they were responsible for the detection of 12 of the
15 self-propelled semi-submersible events intercepted by JIATF-S, and
accounted for more than 68 percent of all JIATF-S seizures.
Q: How is CBP working with local law enforcement and Mexico to
prevent violence from crossing into U.S. territory?
A: Working with our state, local, tribal and federal partners has always
been an important component to border security, and we will continue
to do joint planning and joint execution with those partners. In many
cases, the jurisdictions along the southwest border and many places
along the northern border get grant money from the Department of
Homeland Security through a program called Operation Stonegarden.
In a risk-based approach, the Secretary of Homeland Security
allocates grant money out to the states, whether it’s a sheriff’s office
or a local police department that operates in and around the border
environment. Those local law enforcement entities do joint planning
and joint deployments with Border Patrol agents; the grant money is
used in that regard.
We continue to plan with many entities within Mexico; we work
with the Secretariat de Sguridad Publica [SSP], which is the equivalent
to the federal police in Mexico. We also work with the Secretariat
de Defensa Nacional [SEDENA], which is part of their military. We
coordinate with the local commanders of SEDENA—they have one
star generals that are in command of local garrisons in Mexico and
some of their areas of operations are in close proximity to the border.
We also want to be able to let them know about areas of high risk along
our border so that they will be able to match deployment. That might
be in the form of checkpoints in Mexico leading up to the staging areas
along the border. We will also work in the same regard with SSP to
do joint patrols along the border so those areas of exploitation aren’t
being used by the smuggling organizations that own and operate the
plazas in Mexico.
Q: Can you discuss how enhanced tactical communications will
benefit CBP operations?
A: In any operation, communication is critical—whether you’re talking
in the open or certainly in the encrypted environment, which is
how most of our agents are operating right now. Tactical communications
for us is everything from pushing both voice and data across
broader bandwidth. This provides our agents with a greater sense of
situational awareness and to be able to provide a common operating
picture for the decision-makers in the field to get a broad sense of
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