Bill coming due for last decade's border buildup.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

* Congressional mandates of the 2000s designed to bolster the Southwest border are coming back to impact the federal budget in a negative way, said a former Customs and Border Protection commissioner.

In 2011, some 87 percent of CBP's budget was consumed by personnel costs, which is 6 percent higher than 2009, said Ralph Basham, now a principal at the Command Consulting Group.

Part of the congressional push to increase security in the Southwest was the doubling of the number Border Patrol agents, he said at the National Defense Industrial Association Homeland Security Symposium in Arlington, Va.

In the Yuma sector in Arizona in 2005, about 313 agents apprehended 138,000 illegal border crossers. In 2011, there were 969 agents assigned there, and the number dropped to 5,833 apprehensions. That is six apprehensions per year per agent.

"The trend is unsustainable," he said.

Thirteen percent of the budget is all that remains in order to purchase and maintain infrastructure and equipment, and pursue new technology. The Border Patrol's budget has swelled from about $1 billion in 2000 to $3.5 billion in the 2012 budget.

All this comes as equipment put in place in 2005 is wearing out, he said.

"And right now, unless something changes dramatically, that [87 percent] number is going to continue to go up," he said.

Basham also gave some insight into how the legislation that specified the amount of fencing built on the border was created.

The digits for the number of miles of...