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"Secure the borders first" has been the cry from Republicans in Congress before they'd agree to comprehensive immigration reform. That stance seems to be changing, as some experts say demanding border security first is backward.

In less than two years, U.S. Border Patrol agents have killed 18 Mexicans along the border — including eight people throwing rocks. Now the Department of Homeland Security is examining its policy on deadly force along the border.

Mikhail Sebastian is stateless. Born ethnically Armenian in what was then the U.S.S.R. and today is Azerbaijan, he came to the U.S. and was eventually allowed to stay and work. Now, he is stranded on American Samoa where immigration officials say he "self-deported."

The agents worked out of the recently renamed Brian Terry station near Tucson. Terry was an agent killed in 2010. His death revealed the "Fast and Furious" program — a botched effort to track drug cartels by allowing guns to go south of the border.

Since 1986, the U.S. has steadily built an infrastructure on its Southern border and inland. All told, the nation has spent nearly $200 billion in today's dollars. Roughly 80,000 government workers depend on immigration enforcement, along with defense contractors large and small. NPR's Ted Robbins reports immigration is down, but there's no end in sight for the border-industrial complex. (This piece initially aired Sept. 12, 2012, on Morning Edition).

In today's dollars, the bill for U.S. immigration enforcement since 1986 comes to $219 billion — roughly the cost of the space shuttle program. About 80,000 government workers depend on immigration enforcement. Despite a drop in illegal immigration, the border industrial complex is here to stay.

The agents say Obama's new immigration policy makes them break federal laws.

The city of Houston released a short six minute film instructing people what to do in case of a mass shooting in a public place. There are three basic responses: run, hide and fight the shooter.

Most of the arrests were made in the United States, but the operation also netted suspects in Spain, the Philippines, Argentina and the U.K.

The Justice Department study found the abuse disproportionately hits gay and bisexual inmates.