Running head: BORDER AND COASTAL SECURITY 1

Border and Coastal Security

Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Border and Coastal Security

1. Describe the challenges faced by US Customs and Border Protection agents

attempting to secure the border. Be sure to include as a unified response an

answer that addresses these issues:

What is the functional equivalent of the border? Give a specific example.

What is the Fourth amendment exception as it pertains to border searches? Be

specific

How are seizure statistics used to justify the mission of border security? Should

they be? What is missing from the discussion?

Many issues continuously face The United States Customs and Border

Protection agents every day, including making attempts of catching and detaining

smugglers. It is the mandate of the agents to keep the borders safe from external

forces (C.B.P., 2014). As such, there are many things within the nation that they need

to protect from the smugglers. The items may vary from weapons to people, from

money to drugs. The definition of Functional Equivalent of Border (F.E.B.) is not like

that of a border, yet the two appears in the same seizure and search laws (Johnson &

Jones, 2016). This could be something like an airport or shipping dock (C.B.P., 2014).

F.E.B. thus refers to the functional equivalent of the jurisdictional extremity of the

U.S.A., which is extant on air, land, or sea. As an elaboration, stations at intersections,

ports within the country, international airports, are parts of F.E.B.s. Besides, there is a

total of 16 C.P.B. facilities for pre-clearance, which is made of the F.E.B. Canada

consists most of the pre-clearance facilities at Winnipeg, Victoria, Vancouver,

Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Edmonton, Calvary (Johnson & Jones, 2016).

Others are found in Bermuda at St. George, in the Bahamas at Nassau and Freeport,
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and in the Caribbean. There is also a facility located in Miami, Florida for Aruba.

Besides, two airports in Dublin and Shannon in Ireland hosts the European

pre-clearance. Finally, Abu Dhabi hosts the pre-clearance facility for the United Arab

Emirates (C.B.P., 2014).

By definition, the Fourth Amendment exception makes it clear that the core

reason of a search by the Customs agents is not apprehending individuals or

enforcement of criminal law, but ensuring maximum collection of duties, and

ensuring goods that enter or leave the country meet the nation's policies(Henning,

2016). Besides, they engage in seizing the forfeiture goods that enter or leave the

country against the law as well as the unreported monetary items that exceed $10000

(Kerr, 2016). The U.S.A. ninth District Court provides a more legalistic definition.

Two legal clauses bestow search powers in a border on the U.S. agents. One of them

is 19 U.S.C. §482 which permits the agents to search mail, automobiles, and people at

the borders The second one is the Immigration and Nationality Act (I.N.A.) § 287,

that provides the agents with a wide range of powers for interrogating, detaining, and

searching persons, and automobiles (Kerr, 2016).

Seizure statistics are employed in justifying the border security mission since

when the border security officers search people, vehicle, or other belongings, and they

discover that they are illegal, they have the right to arresting that individual trying to

bring it across the border (Johnson & Woodhouse, 2018). This justifies their goal-to

keep the country and its borders safe from external things that may harm the U.S.

citizens. Therefore, the justification of the mission is done by displaying a tangible

metric which may be taken to the policymakers and the citizens for improved

resources and expanded budgets so that the borders remain secure as possible

(Johnson & Woodhouse, 2018). In my own opinion, spending millions of dollars in an

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attempt of stopping people who might do anything to harm the citizens of the United

States is worth it. Some of the outsiders have ill motives, and they can terrorize the

country. Thus, the government must do everything possible to save every life of a

citizen since one saved life is priceless (Johnson & Woodhouse, 2018). The

phenomenon of expenses and return in terms of investment ought not to apply to the

equation when the issue involves protecting the lives of the American citizens.

2. What are "open markets and closed borders" as it pertains to smuggling, free

trade, and border enforcement?

Fundamentally, "open markets and closed borders" is allowing access through

the borders for both goods and individuals, but closing them to the terrorists and other

individuals or groups of individuals who mean harm to a given country, for instance,

drug traffickers and terrorists (Peters, 2015). For an open market, there are easily

accessible with no or few restrictions which prevent an individual or entity from

engaging in participation. For instance, the U.S. stock markets are open in that it

allows the involvement of investors from all over the world. Besides, all the

participants get similar prices which only change depending on the fluctuation of

demand and supply (Peters, 2017). On the other hand, a closed border prevents the

movement of individuals across different jurisdictions with less or no exceptions in

relation to the movement (Peters, 2015). Only legal movement to and from the

country are allowed, and policies are enforced to ensure that this is instilled.

While open market and closed borders seem to be a hard task for the border

enforcement agencies, the method has proved to be the best solution so far in

protecting the country from the situation that it has been for almost two decades

now(Bjerre et al., 2015). The technique is and will remain a stunning subject of

discussion when it comes to border enforcement, free trade, and smuggling. Open
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markets are usually allowed to ensure that people have the supplies they need in their

day to day activities from genuine traders. Additionally, it enables the citizens of the

United States to work from the outside country while maintaining a position in the

respective nation for a company. For instance, the Chief Executive Officer for WWE

may opt to live in China as an international correspondence for the organization so

that Chinese people could enjoy the entertainment from the company. Majority of

these individuals have work visas which permit them to work from outside the

country, though they must have background checks so they can be granted the

privilege.

A closed border limits the alternatives which may be accessible for smugglers,

and they become careless as a result, making the process of catching them easier. The

border security agents keep the borders safe from smugglers. Apart from the case

described above, any ordinary citizen traveling outside or into the country remains

subject to checks at the borders to block people who could potentially bring harm to

American citizens (Bjerre et al., 2015). Thus, the boundaries are kept at a closed

position. Besides terrorists, there could be other immigrants coming into the country

illegally for unknown reasons with no proper passports and visas. These are blocked

during the scrutiny, and this means that the border is closed to such people. Despite

the tight security at the borders, some terrorists still manage to find their way through.

However, the more border enforcement agents catch the terrorists, the more they learn

their tricks. Thus, the work of these agents is ensuring the borders are always closed.

Former President George Bush sad that "This great and peaceful border must be open

to business, must be open to people—and it's got to be closed to terrorists and

criminals" (Peters, 2015). Thus, a lot of coordination is required to ensure that the
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country remains as safe as possible while leaving room for the entrance of genuine

immigrants.

3. What has been the economic impact of terrorism on U.S. and Global Markets

since 9/11 look at this from 9/11 to the present?

The economic effects associated with terrorism may be calculated from

various points of view. For instance, there is a direct impact on productivity and costs

to property and indirect ones incurred when making an attempt to respond to the

attack (Kristina, 2018). There have been trials to calculate the economic effects of

terrorism for a long time. Majority of the evaluations of the financial costs of

terrorism start with an explanation of the costs of the 9/11 attack. Though there were

metal and physical impacts of the attack, the economic devastation was the most felt.

The financial result of the attack has been compared to the Japanese 1995 earthquake

that caused a $120 billion loss and killing thousands of people (Gaibulloev & Sandler,

2019).

One of the significant effects of the 9/11 attack is the plummeting of the stock

market, and it continued to be weak while trying to recover. The war on terror started,

and the expenses increased to facilitate the forces' new budget, which was needed for

them to continue with their undertakings (Kristina, 2018). Although some findings

from some scholars show that the direct costs were not as high as people feared it

could be, the government lost a lot of money that would have otherwise been used for

other development purposes (Gaibulloev & Sandler, 2019). Massive help has been

received from congressional allocations to the private institutions, the federal reserve's

quick response to both global and domestic market demands, as well as the size of the

U.S. economy. The cost of these responses, however, has been too much. The

spending by Defense and Homeland security has been the greatest ever since.
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Generally, the financial impact of the attack can be classified into a direct

consequence, the effect on the financial markets, the effect on homeland security, and

effect n supply chains. It has been estimated that the total direct cost for the whole

attack $20billion; This was a lot of losses, and it was about 0.2% of the country's

G.D.P. at the moment (Gaibulloev & Sandler, 2019)t. Although the country's

economy could comfortably absorb the numbers, the effect was substantial. The other

impact was on financial markets. For one week after the attack, all New York's

financial markets remained closed for the first time. The short-term costs on financial

markets resulted because of the destruction of the transaction processing and

communication systems in the World Trade Center. Recovery took time, and this

meant a retarded growth for a portion of the country's economy. The other impact has

been on Homeland Security. The country has been spending at least $500 billion

every year after the aftermath of the war, and this carried almost a quarter of the

country's budget (Gaibulloev & Sandler, 2019). This effect has mainly been felt by

the departments that directly engage to combat and prevent terrorism, mostly Defense

and Homeland Security. The increased sense of threat from terrorism since the 9/11

attack has made the budget raise every year. Government expenses on security and

defense are crucial for any country. However, considering opportunity cost, the

resources are unavailable for other sectors such as tax cuts, education, and health

(Kristina, 2018). The higher the risk of terror and the need for combating it, the higher

the opportunity cost. Therefore, the question remains whether the additional

expenditure on combating terrorism should be perceived as a response to the attacks,

or a political program that terrorists have enabled. Finally, supply chains have greatly

been affected since the 9/11 (Gaibulloev & Sandler, 2019). For instance, the extra
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security layers at the borders and airports increase supply chain costs in terms of time

and money.
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References

Bjerre, L., Helbling, M., Römer, F., & Zobel, M. (2015). Conceptualizing and

measuring immigration policies: A comparative perspective. International

Migration Review, 49(3), 555-600.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (n.d). challenges faced by US Customs and

Border Protection agents. Retrieved

from http://www.cbp.gov/contact/ports/preclearance/preclear-locations

Gaibulloev, K., & Sandler, T. (2019). What we have learned about terrorism since

9/11. Journal of Economic Literature, 57(2), 275-328.

Henning, K. M. (2016). Reasonable Police Mistakes: Fourth Amendment Claims and

the Good Faith Exception after Heien. . John's L. Rev., 90, 271.

Johnson, R. L., & Woodhouse, M. (2018). Securing the return: How enhanced US

border enforcement fuels cycles of debt migration. Antipode, 50(4), 976-996.

Johnson, C., & Jones, R. (2016). Where is the Border?. In Placing the border in

everyday life (pp. 17-28). Routledge.

Kerr, O. S. (2016). The effect of legislation on Fourth Amendment protection. Mich.

L. Rev., 115, 1117.

Kristina, L.H. (2018). Economic Sanctions. Greenhaven Publishing.

Peters, M. E. (2015). Open trade, closed borders immigration in the era of

globalization. World Politics, 67(1), 114-154.

Peters, M. E. (2017). Trading barriers: immigration and the remaking of

globalization. Princeton University Press.

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