U.S.-Mexico Border Wilderness Issues

A recently released report takes a look at interagency cooperation on US-Mexico Border Wilderness Issues.

The full report can be downloaded here: http://kirk_emerson.home.mindspring.com/Interagency_Border_Cooperation.pdf

Executive Summary

This report documents interagency cooperation at work on the U.S.-Mexico border to improve both security at the border and the protection of adjacent wilderness areas. Despite the challenges and conflicts that can make such cooperation difficult, there are numerous examples of how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its agencies have been working together with the U.S Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and their land management agencies on our southern border.

This report summarizes the recent history of interagency cooperation with an emphasis on U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and federal land management agencies. It enumerates the different ways in which such cooperation occurs and illustrates this interagency cooperation through six case studies. The report is based on research conducted during the summer of 2010, including over 50 interviews with border security professionals, land management agencies, and border areas stakeholders.