U.S. Border Security: A Reference Handbook

(Hardback)

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This text provides an integrated view of post-9/11 security concerns over the United States's shared border with Mexico and Canada in regards to terrorism, unauthorized migration, drug and arms smuggling, and other illegal trade. The challenges facing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol are daunting. There are 19,841 miles of American land and water boundaries to protect, and 95,000 miles of shoreline and defined air space subject to homeland security surveillance. Additionally, the booming drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, combined with the ever-increasing number of migrants wanting to reach our land of opportunity, has resulted in a grim death toll: more than 5,000 known migrant deaths have occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border during 19952008, and in 2009, an estimated 9,635 Mexicans were killed in drug-related violence, with 2,573 people killed in Ciudad Juarez alone. U.S. Border Security focuses on the contrast between border security before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This text also examines the controversial topics of illegal immigration, counterterrorism, drug and weapons trafficking, human smuggling, the impact of border security on the movement of people and goods, and the effect of the war on terrorism on civil and human rights.

Reviews

this handbook on border security was a timely release in the 2010 election year, and will continue to be valuable. This useful compendium fills a gap on the reference shelf. The glossary and index are both helpful, but each would benefit from cross-references. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers. * Choice *

Author Bio

Judith A. Warner, PhD, is professor of sociology and criminal justice in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, TX.