Persistent budget cuts haven’t stopped the flow of money spent on technology and manpower to try and stop the flow of drug smugglers and illegal immigrants, NPR reports.
Over the past 25 years, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars building fences and detention centers and pursuing suspects with Blackhawk helicopters, according to NPR.
The industrial complex that has emerged on the border also is spreading farther into the U.S.
“It is safe to say that there has been more money, manpower, infrastructure, technology, invested in the border-protection mission in the last three years than ever before,” says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
