Border security

Forget ICE, the real problem is CBP

Today, CBP spends more than $13 billion yearly, approaching 20 times what it spent in 1990.

But like an iceberg, this is only the tip. The ranks of uniformed agents have swelled to nearly 20,000. Customs and Border Protection has 60,000 employees who check fruit, passports — and fly their own air force: Blackhawks, old Hueys and new European helicopters along with P-3 long-range surveillance planes and the MQ-9, the same Predator surveillance drone that prowls the skies of Afghanistan.

The agency dwarfs in size any police force in America, including the FBI. Customs and Border Protection personnel, along with ICE, comprise the bulk of the Department of Homeland Security — which, though established only in 2002, now is bigger than the active U.S. Marine Corps, founded in 1775.