DHS Update on the Southwest Border Next Steps
Over the past year and a half, the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), working with its federal, state, local, tribal and Mexican
partners, has made significant progress in cracking down on border-related
crime and smuggling while facilitating legitimate travel and commerce.
The Administration is committed to building on these
successes and addressing current challenges with our partners in order to keep
our communities safe from threats of border-related violence and crime. To that
end, the Department is implementing the following initiatives to strengthen and
expand upon existing, successful efforts.
These initiatives come in addition to President Obama's
request for $500 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border security and
law enforcement activities, and his deployment of up to an additional 1,200
National Guard troops to assist the ongoing efforts to secure the border and
combat cartel violence.
New Measures to Enhance the Security of America's Border
Communities
The following initiatives will be budget-neutral.
Creating New Partnerships with State & Local Law
Enforcement
DHS is forging a new partnership with the Major Cities
Chiefs Association to create the "Southwest Border Law Enforcement
Compact"—designed to boost law enforcement at the border by enabling
non-border state and local law enforcement agencies to detail officers to state
and local law enforcement agencies along the Southwest border.
Building Information Sharing Capabilities Among All Law
Enforcement Partners
DHS is working with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
create a new system that will fully link the information systems of all state,
local and tribal law enforcement entities operating along the Southwest border
with those of DHS and DOJ.
DHS is strengthening the analytic capability of fusion
centers across the Southwest border to receive and share threat information,
improving our ability to identify and mitigate emerging threats.
DHS is establishing a suspicious activities reporting
program for the Southwest border. This will help local officers recognize and
track incidents related to criminal activity by drug traffickers and utilize
this information for targeted law enforcement operations on both sides of the
border.
Enhancing Technology and Targeting to Crack Down on
Smuggling and Border Crime
DHS will deploy additional Border Patrol agents, ICE
investigators, air assets and other technologies to the Arizona border to
conduct targeted operations against the cartels that exploit the Tucson Sector
border region.
DHS and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
are partnering to develop and implement Project Roadrunner, an integrated
license plate reader recognition (LPR) system. Project Roadrunner was conceived
to target both north- and southbound drug trafficking and associated illegal
activity along the Southwest border. Under this partnership, ONDCP will provide
DHS with previously-purchased fixed and mobile cameras—expanding DHS' existing
capabilities at minimal cost. This effort is ongoing and will expand as legal
and logistical issues are resolved.
DHS is expanding the Department’s Illegal Drug Program to
four additional Southwest border ports of entry—for a total of six locations—to
target drug traffickers whose trafficking activity can be tied to Mexico and
return them to Mexico to face prosecution by Mexican authorities.
CBP has obtained an approval from the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) for a Certificate of Authorization (COA) that will allow
CBP Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) flights to operate along the Texas border
and throughout the Gulf Coast region. CBP will base a UAS at the Corpus Christi
Naval Air Station, Texas, as soon as all necessary agreements and resources are
finalized to sustain a permanent UAS presence there.
Prioritizing the Arrest and Removal of Dangerous Criminal
Aliens
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expanding the
Joint Criminal Alien Removal Task Forces by nine officers forming two
additional teams. These task forces are comprised of ICE officers and local law
enforcement agents who work together to identify and arrest convicted criminal
aliens in our communities.
ICE is deploying 40 officers to work with state and local
jails that are within 100 miles of the Southwest border to ensure the
identification of all removable convicted criminal aliens detained in those
jails who, if released, would pose a danger to public safety.
Expanding Unprecedented Law Enforcement Partnerships with
Mexico
The Department is increasing joint training programs with
Mexican law enforcement agencies—focusing on money laundering investigations
and cracking down on human trafficking and exploitation.
Ongoing Initiatives to Secure the Southwest Border
Over the past year and a half, the Department has launched
unprecedented security initiatives designed to provide additional manpower,
technology and infrastructure to high-risk Southwest border regions; coordinate
more closely with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners; and
forge new cooperative arrangements with Mexican law enforcement authorities
that bolster security on both sides of the border.
Surging Additional Manpower, Technology and Infrastructure
to the Border
The Border Patrol is better staffed than at any time in its
85-year history, having nearly doubled the number of agents from approximately
10,000 in 2004 to more than 20,000 today.
DHS has doubled the number of personnel assigned to
Southwest Border Enforcement Security Task Forces; tripled the number of ICE
intelligence analysts working along the U.S.-Mexico border; quadrupled
deployments of Border Liaison Officers; and begun screening 100 percent of
southbound rail shipments for illegal weapons, drugs and cash—for the first
time ever.
DHS has deployed additional canine teams trained to detect
drugs and weapons, as well as non-intrusive inspection technology to identify
anomalies in passenger vehicles that may indicate the presence of drugs,
weapons, or other contraband, to the Southwest border.
The 652 miles of border fencing mandated by Congress is
nearly complete—and DHS expects to complete the remaining six miles by the end
of the year.
Building New Partnerships with State, Local and Mexican Law
Enforcement
The federal government has worked closely with state and
local law enforcement along the border—leveraging the resources and
capabilities of over 50 law enforcement agencies to crack down on transnational
criminal organizations.
DHS has increased the funds state and local law enforcement
can use to combat border-related crime through Operation Stonegarden—a
Department of Homeland Security funded grant program designed to enhance border
security by developing multilateral enforcement efforts between the U.S. Border
Patrol and state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. Based on risk,
cross-border traffic and border-related threat intelligence, nearly 84 percent
of 2009 Operation Stonegarden funds went to Southwest border states.
Forging Unprecedented Cooperation with Mexico
Secretary Napolitano and her Mexican counterparts have
signed numerous bilateral agreements and declarations of cooperation to bolster
cooperation in the areas of enforcement, planning, information and intelligence
sharing, joint operations and trade facilitation along the Southwest border.
Strengthening Immigration Enforcement by Prioritizing
Dangerous Criminal Aliens
ICE has prioritized enforcement against convicted criminal
aliens who pose the most danger to communities while strengthening oversight
and consistency in immigration enforcement across the country.
ICE has expanded the Secure Communities program, which uses
biometric information to identify dangerous criminal aliens in state and local
jails and remove them from the United States. Since its launch in October 2008,
Secure Communities has identified more than 34,900 aliens charged with or
convicted of the most serious, violent or major drug offenses, and removed more
than 8,500 to date.
ICE has changed the way it approaches worksite enforcement,
prioritizing investigations of employers who exploit undocumented workers or
commit criminal offenses.
Tangible Results of the Department's Efforts in the Past 18
Months:
Overall Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal aliens
decreased from over 723,800 in fiscal year 2008 to over 556,000 in fiscal year
2009, a 23 percent reduction, indicating that fewer people are attempting to
illegally cross the border. From 2004-2009, the number of Border Patrol
apprehensions along the Southwest border has decreased by 53 percent.
Seizures of contraband rose significantly across the board
last year compared to the year before: illegal bulk cash seizures rose 14
percent; illegal weapons seizures rose 29 percent; and illegal drugs seizures
rose 15 percent.
So far this year, ICE has removed more than 117,000 aliens
convicted of crimes—a 37 percent increase as compared to the same time last
year.
In fiscal year 2009, ICE conducted more than 1,400 I-9
audits of employers suspected of hiring illegal labor—triple the number of
audits conducted in fiscal year 2008.