AMO Currents - New Lexington Institute paper calls Jones Act vital to U.S. border security, preventing illegal immigration

AMO Currents - Posted: April 4, 2016

New Lexington Institute paper calls Jones Act vital to U.S. border security, preventing illegal immigration

The following article was released by the American Maritime Partnership, a coalition of which American Maritime Officers Service is a member and which American Maritime Officers supports. The Lexington Institute report is available online.

Lexington Institute: "Were the Jones Act not in existence, the Department of Homeland Security would be confronted by the difficult and very costly requirement of monitoring, regulating and overseeing foreign-controlled, foreign-crewed vessels in coastal and internal waters."

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2016) - The Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, released a white paper on March 24, 2016 stressing the critical role that the American maritime industry and the Jones Act play in strengthening U.S. border security and helping to prevent illegal immigration.

As the paper notes, the land border of the U.S. is dwarfed by its 95,000 miles of national shoreline. Domestic transportation on this 'liquid highway' operates under the Jones Act, which requires ships traveling between U.S. ports to be American crewed, American owned, and American built. The new paper warns that, without the Jones Act, most of America's major cities in nearly 40 states could be exposed to foreign threats.

"The task of securing U.S. seaports and foreign cargoes is daunting by itself. It makes no sense to add to the burden facing domestic security agencies by allowing foreign-owned ships operated by foreign crews to move freely throughout America's inland lakes, rivers and waterways."

The report reinforced the critical need for the Jones Act to secure a robust shipyard industrial base and skilled mariners necessary to uphold our nation's defense sealift capability, but it also asserted that the law's benefits to homeland security should not be overlooked.

"The requirement that all the officers and fully 75 percent of the crews of vessels engaged in cabotage be U.S. citizens goes a long way to reducing the risk that terrorists could get onboard or execute an attack on a U.S. target. In effect, there is a system of self-policing that reduces the requirement for law enforcement and homeland security organizations to expend time and effort to ensure that these vessels and crews are safe to traverse U.S. waters. Were the Jones Act not in existence, the Department of Homeland Security would be confronted by the difficult and very costly requirement of monitoring, regulating and overseeing foreign-controlled, foreign-crewed vessels in coastal and internal U.S. waters."