Border control is a topic of tremendous importance in countries worldwide; often, it is the main topic that shifts the political landscape to different political parties.
Most people know the subject of border control from the point of view that speaks to control of those crossing our borders or preventing illicit products from coming into the country. Still, they don’t know the true extent of border control.
Protecting state borders is essential. Border patrol prevents the illegal movement of people, drugs, weapons, and contraband, but it also has functions beyond security. Border patrol also plays a role in trade and the protection of national sovereignty.
The Roles of Border Patrol
Border patrol agents play many roles, making their job varied, challenging, and essential. Each day will see new situations and different ways agents must execute their duties.
Illegal Entry and Smuggling
The primary mission of border control is to prevent and detect smuggling and illegal entry of aliens into the country. The avenues of illegal entry are diverse, with smuggling and unlawful entry happening by air, land, and sea.
Smuggling happens using trucks, shipping containers, or air transport that lands at covert airfields. In general, smuggling’s purpose is to make money by assisting a person in entering a country without legal permission.
Smugglers have little concern for the well-being of those they bring across borders. They take advantage of a migrant’s desperation to escape bad situations, using unsafe methods or eventually making them victims of human trafficking.
Too many instances of people dying in unsafe smuggling conditions take place regularly. Preventing smuggling keeps unauthorized individuals from entering the country and can save lives.
Similarly, illegal entry often happens in unsafe conditions, and the response of border control involves both prevention and a need for compassion.
Prevention of Illicit Items
Criminals are financially interested in bringing illegal weapons and drugs across the border to sell. The entry of drugs and weapons threatens the lives of citizens, and every smuggling attempt that is caught represents lives saved.
Items might also be smuggled to avoid trade protection measures, such as tariffs, intended to protect domestically produced goods and raise government revenues. Preventing such goods’ entrance serves the country’s commercial and fiscal interests.
Like human smuggling, illicit items enter the country through a myriad of methods that are easy to execute compared to smuggling human beings. Drugs can be hidden in car tires or mixed with commercial products in a truck or container, making border control’s job even more complex.
Customs Supplementation
Border patrol is a function that assists customs by preventing the illegal transportation of counterfeit and black-market goods. Preventing such items from entering the country is crucial to maintaining domestic industries’ commercial integrity and protecting their intellectual capital.
“Preventing the illegal exit of products can be just as important, if not more, than preventing entry,” says a representative of Securiport Gambia, a border security service company.
“Items prohibited from leaving the country to protect national security or keep crucial technology out of the wrong hands can result in tremendous damage and risk to a country. Preventing them from reaching their destination is crucial.”
Border control also prevents large amounts of cash from leaving the country that can be used in other countries to purchase illicit products that will most likely be smuggled into the country later.
Refugees and Asylees
Determining the status of an entrance, whether it is an illegal or a legitimate case of a person seeking refugee or asylee status, is not an easy process, but essential.
Border control has to determine whether the claim for refugee or asylee status is legitimate. This determination means establishing the existence of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or political opinion.
Protect National Sovereignty
An international border is the boundary of a sovereign country, and preventing illegal crossings of goods or people protects the economic and safety interests of a nation’s citizens. Border control reaffirms a country’s right to exist and control what enters or leaves that country.
Illegal entrants might upset labor markets or drain financial resources. They might also threaten the safety of citizens or promote transnational crime or terrorism.
Illicit, tariffed, or fake goods threaten the safety, of commercial intellectual property, or domestic producers of goods. Drugs result in devastation and crime, weapons make crime more prevalent and violent, and smuggled commercial goods constrain economic growth.
State sovereignty must be protected to ensure sustained equality, freedom, and justice for any nation. It is sovereignty that tells the world a country is one of its laws. Essentially, sovereignty is the ultimate authority in the decision-making process of every state.
Border Control has an Immeasurable Impact
The functions and importance of border control can not be overstated. Protecting the interests of the state and its citizens is a reaffirmation of state sovereignty, making border control one of the government’s most crucial functions.
Because of border control, citizens are safer and more prosperous, and their freedom is protected.