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DHS Announces Long-Term Border and Immigration Strategy
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
November 2, 2005
Fact Sheet: Secure Border Initiative
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced today a
comprehensive multi-year plan to secure America’s borders and reduce illegal
migration, entitled the Secure Border Initiative (SBI).
“We will address all aspects of the border security problem across the board
– deterrence, detection, response, apprehension, detention, and removal,”
said Secretary Chertoff. “The goal of SBI is to transform the way
immigration issues have been viewed. We will address the challenges in each
of these areas with an integrated mix of increased staffing, new technology,
and enhanced infrastructure investment, as well as a new regime of
regulations and legislative proposals.”
Since the events of 9/11, President Bush has placed ever-increasing
importance on immigration control, including border security, and has
devoted significant resources to the stark challenge of illegal migration.
Every day, DHS agencies take significant steps to secure our borders and
enforce immigration laws. DHS currently has more than 11,000 Border Patrol
agents along nearly 7,000 miles of northern and southern border, an increase
of 15 percent over 9/11 levels. An additional 18,000 officers are posted at
our Ports of Entry (POE), and over 8,000 agents and officers are working to
apprehend criminals, absconders, and other individuals illegally in the
United States.
“Despite our substantial progress, we still face a substantial problem. The
ability of individuals to enter our country outside legal channels is a
threat to our homeland security. Flagrant violation of our borders undercuts
the rule of law, undermines our security, and imposes particular economic
strains on our border communities,” said Secretary Chertoff.
SBI is designed to enable DHS to achieve operational control of both the
northern and southern border within five years. Key elements of SBI include:
More agents to patrol our borders, secure our ports of entry and enforce
immigration laws;
Expanded and more efficient detention and removal capabilities to eliminate
“catch and release” once and for all;
A comprehensive and systemic upgrading of the technology used in controlling
the border, including increased manned aerial assets, expanded use of UAVs,
and next-generation detection technology;
Increased investment in infrastructure improvements at the border –
providing additional physical security to sharply reduce illegal border
crossings; and
Greatly increased interior enforcement of our immigration laws – including
more robust worksite enforcement.
Staffing
The President recently signed the DHS Appropriations Bill which provides
funding for an additional 1,000 Border Patrol agents and includes roughly
$3.9 billion in funding and fees for U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement this fiscal year. Included are significant funding increases for
ICE criminal investigators, detention beds, fugitive operations teams, and
Immigration Enforcement agents.
Detention and Removal
DHS will eliminate completely the “catch and release” enforcement problem.
DHS is developing the capability to return every single illegal entrant
amenable to removal -- no exceptions. The goal is to achieve significant
progress on this capability in less than a year. The detention and removal
process will be re-engineered to create an efficient system that will always
have available detention capacity, and will have a streamlined process for
removal while minimizing an alien’s time in detention. This will be achieved
through greater efficiencies in the removal process, cooperation with
foreign governments, increasing detention capacity and expanding expedited
removal.
Technology & Infrastructure
DHS will field the most effective mix of current and next generation
technology with trained personnel. Our goal is to ultimately have the
capacity to integrate multiple state of the art cameras and sensors into a
single comprehensive detection system and expand infrastructure systems
throughout the border where appropriate to strengthen our efforts to reduce
illegal entry.
Interior Enforcement
DHS will strengthen interior enforcement efforts to target those who enter
illegally by unequivocally enforcing our laws and making sure that removal
is achieved. Strong worksite enforcement is key to effective interior
enforcement. DHS must be able to ensure that employees are in our country
legally and are properly authorized to work.
DHS also plans to strengthen interior enforcement by expanding state and
local partnerships with existing state and local law enforcement personnel
through the creation of DHS sponsored task forces focused on border
enforcement; improving the Criminal Alien Program to identify and remove all
incarcerated criminal aliens in federal and state prisons; and increasing
Fugitive Operations until all aliens who received orders of removal are
actually removed.
International
Border-related crime affects communities on both sides of our land
boundaries, and a shared approach is imperative to disrupting criminal
groups and saving lives. SBI will be implemented in a way that entails an
appropriate dialogue with the Governments of Mexico and Canada.
DHS will work with other foreign governments to ensure they provide timely
travel documents in order to remove the backlog of their nationals in our
detention facilities. We will also ensure we maintain a productive dialogue
in order to safely and quickly repatriate migrants back to their nations at
the same rate at which they are arriving.
Temporary Worker Program
SBI will serve as the enforcement complement to the Temporary Worker Program
that President Bush proposed last year. The Temporary Worker Program will
have the effect of enabling migrants to pursue work in regulated, legal
channels – and will increase safety and security by giving us a better idea
of who is entering our country and for what purpose
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