How Legalizing Marijuana Is Securing the Border: The Border Wall, Drug Smuggling, and Lessons for Immigration Policy

1. Sources: Arcview Market Research, “The State of Legal Marijuana Markets,” 1st-6th editions; author's calculations based on drug valuations and amounts from Customs and Border Protection, “Local Media Releases,” 2013-2018; U.S. Department of State, “Narcotics Control Reports”; Customs and Border Protection, “Enforcement Statistics FY 2018,” August 31, 2018; Air and Marine Operations, Reports and Testimony, 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017.
2. 48 Office of Inspector General, “Independent Review of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Reporting of FY 2007 Drug Control Performance Summary,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security, April 2008, ; Office of Inspector General, “Independent Review of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Reporting of FY 2010 Drug Control Performance Summary Report,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security, January 2011, ; U.S. Border Patrol, “Stats and Summaries-Sector Profile,” ; Customs and Border Protection, “CBP Enforcement Statistics FY2018,” ; and Customs and Border Protection, “Border Patrol Agent Nationwide Staffing by Fiscal Year,” 2017.
3. After decades of no progress in reducing marijuana smuggling, the average Border Patrol agent between ports of entry confiscated 78 percent less marijuana in fiscal year (FY) 2018 than in FY 2013.
4. Source: Author's calculations based on Customs and Border Protection, “Enforcement Statistics FY 2018,” August 31, 2018; Customs and Border Protection, “U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Checkpoint Drug Seizures in Pounds,” October 12, 2018; Border Patrol, “Staffing Statistics,” December 12, 2017; Fedscope, “Employment Cubes,” 2013-2018.
5. Source: Author's calculations based on drug valuations and amounts from Customs and Border Protection, “Local Media Releases,” 2013-2018; Customs and Border Protection, “Enforcement Statistics FY 2018,” August 31, 2018; Border Patrol, “Staffing Statistics,” December 12, 2017; Fedscope, “Employment Cubes,” 2013-2018.
6. Source: Author's calculations based on drug valuations and amounts from Customs and Border Protection, “Local Media Releases,” 2013-2018; Customs and Border Protection, “Enforcement Statistics FY 2018,” August 31, 2018; Border Patrol, “Staffing Statistics,” December 12, 2017; Fedscope, “Employment Cubes,” 2013-2018.
7. Source: Author’s calculations based on drug valuations and amounts from Customs and Border Protection, “Local Media Releases,” 2013-2018; Customs and Border Protection, “Enforcement Statistics FY 2018,” August 31, 2018; Customs and Border Protection, “U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Checkpoint Drug Seizures in Pounds,” October 12, 2018.
8. Because marijuana was the primary drug smuggled between ports of entry, where Border Patrol surveils, the value of the agency's seizures overall on a per-agent basis has declined 70 percent.
9. For this reason, Figure 4 presents seizures both between and at ports of entry.57 In FY 2013, marijuana accounted for 98 percent of all border and customs drug seizures both between and at ports of entry by weight.
10. Separating out these seizures reveals that hard drugs seized at ports of entry were 11 times more valuable than those seized between ports of entry or those seized at interior checkpoints from April to August 2018 just 7 percent of the value of the non-marijuana seizures by OFO and Border Patrol occurred between ports of entry (Figure 7).
11. In FY 2018, the average inspector at ports of entry made drug seizures that were three times more valuable overall than those made by Border Patrol agents between ports of entry a radical change from 2013 when Border Patrol agents averaged more valuable seizures.
12. From FY 2003 to FY 2009, Border Patrol doubled its workforce and constructed hundreds of miles of fences, yet this increased enforcement did not reduce marijuana smuggling.47 Each agent annually seized virtually the same quantity of marijuana through 2013, indicating roughly the same overall inflow of the illegal substance.48 From 2013 to 2018, however, the amount of marijuana each Border Patrol agent seized declined by 78 percent.
13. Following the full legalization of marijuana sales in six states beginning with Colorado and Washington in FY 2014, the rate of seizures by Border Patrol declined 78 percent, from 114 pounds per agent in FY 2013 to 25 pounds per agent in FY 2018.
14. Northern Border,” Syracuse University, ; Customs and Border Protection, “Border Patrol Agent Nationwide Staffing by Fiscal Year,” 2017; Border Patrol, “Nationwide Illegal Alien Apprehensions Fiscal Years 1925-2017”; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Yearbook of Immigration Statistics”; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “General Collection-Annual Reports,” August 9, 2017.

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