Right-wing media figures are fearmongering over the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) newly announced decision to shut down several Border Patrol stations. In fact, the CBP's decision is a strategic one, aimed at focusing efforts on high-priority areas closer to the border.

Within the next six months, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will close nine Border Patrol stations to move forty-one agents closer to the southern and northern borders, media outlets are reporting, citing CBP spokesman Bill Brooks. Brooks said that some of stations that will be closed are hundreds of miles from a border and that the decision is part of a strategy to use resources wisely and “increasingly concentrate our resources on the border.”

In a statement to Fox News, Brooks likewise said, “These deactivations are consistent with the strategic goal of securing America's borders, and our objective of increasing and sustaining the certainty of arrest of those trying to enter our country illegally.” He continued: 

By redeploying and reallocating resources at or near the border, CBP will maximize the effectiveness of its enforcement mandate and align our investments with our mission.

Nevertheless, right-wing media seized on the announcement to fearmonger about border security. The Drudge Report posted the following headline:

Drudge's headline linked to a FoxNews.com article, which has the same headline. However, FoxNews.com's article clearly explains that the CBP is closing the stations to “reassign agents to high-priority areas closer to the border.”

Fox News Radio reporter Todd Starnes, in a post to his Twitter feed, wrote: “Obama is shutting down 9 border patrol stations ... and the invasion continues.” (Following the June 25 Supreme Court ruling striking down several parts of Arizona's immigration law, Starnes similarly warned of “Mexican Invaders.”)

Starnes also wrote: “Obama wants to close 9 border stations ... Maybe he's turning them into voting stations instead?”