What is the Border Patrol?
The Office of Border Patrol (OBP) is one of three enforcement components of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Border Patrol is responsible for securing our nation’s borders between, or otherwise away from, the lawful ports of entry. Another CBP component, the Office of Field Operations (OFO), secures the borders at those ports of entry. CBP Air and Marine Operations supports both OBP and OFO in those specialized environments. The Immigration Act of March 3, 1891 represented the United States’ first truly comprehensive immigration legislation. Among its significant provisions, it established the Bureau of Immigration under the Treasury Department and allowed for the creation of rules governing the inspection of persons arriving in the United States from contiguous countries. The subsequent 33 years saw the passage of a panoply of legislation establishing increasingly restrictive immigration controls. This culminated in the pas
