Special Update: Homeland Security Along the Border

SPECIAL UPDATE: HOMELAND SECURITY ALONG THE BORDER

Washington, Jan 18 -

While Congress is in a District Work Period this month, I continue to focus on effective ways to improve our nation's homeland security and economic security. As you may know, Congress has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) take action to secure our borders and implement interior enforcement of immigration law. As a result, I am pleased to report that the Administration has already made significant progress in improving border security.

The US-VISIT Program

Since 1996, Congress has mandated the implementation of a comprehensive, automated entry and exit system for visitors of the United States. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the critical need for a comprehensive exit/entry system received renewed attention, and the 9/11 Commission called for the expeditious implementation of this much-needed system. As a result, DHS implemented the US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program at 180 ports of entry by December 31, 2004. Congress then set a firm deadline for DHS to implement US-VISIT at all land ports of entry by December 31, 2005.

US-VISIT is a continuum of security measures that collect biometric and biographic information from visitors upon their arrival and departure from U.S. air, sea, and land border ports. With cutting-edge biometric technology such as digital, inkless fingerscans and digital photographs, US-VISIT helps freeze a visitor's identity so that DHS may match the visitor with his/her travel documents, making it virtually impossible for anyone else to claim their identity should their biometrically-enhanced travel documents (such as a visa) be stolen or duplicated.

Using these identifiers, US-VISIT tracks nonimmigrants who overstayed their visas as an important part of its broader emphasis on immigration control. This tracking system is essential to homeland security efforts as the biometric and biographic data are checked against terrorist and criminal watch lists, thereby improving the Department of State's ability to make visa determinations.

I am pleased to report that DHS has successfully met the December 31, 2005 deadline for implementing the US-VISIT program, enabling all visitor ports of entry to provide advanced border security. Now operating at 115 airports, 14 seaports, and all land border crossings across the country, US-VISIT enhances the security of citizens by ensuring that the border is closed to terrorists and violent gang members while safely facilitating legitimate travel and trade across our borders. Since January 2004, more than 39 million visitors have been checked through US-VISIT.

Operation Black Jack

As you may know, drug cartels, human trafficking rings, and violent gangs operating in the U.S. have been linked to increased violence along the U.S. southwest border. In response, DHS launched Operation Black Jack near the Laredo, Texas border in July 2005 to test a comprehensive approach to dismantling criminal organizations that exploit our border and combating the resulting alien smuggling, money laundering, drug smuggling, firearms, and human trafficking. Operation Black Jack was a highly coordinated operation with two strategic goals: (1) Increase information sharing among federal, state, and local law enforcement to match violent crimes with specific cartels, and (2) Attack the human and drug smuggling organizations that provide the "fuel" for border violence. This successful operation conducted by federal, state, and local border security authorities resulted in the arrest of 26 individuals and the seizure of more than $1 million in U.S. currency, 19 assault rifles, 300 pounds of marijuana, and 330 pounds of cocaine.

This month, DHS has announced that it will build upon the success of Operation Black Jack by establishing Border Enforcement and Security Task Forces, which will implement nationally-integrated teams with federal, state, and local law enforcement to combat organized cross-border criminal activity. Like Operation Black Jack, additional task forces will be co-located, intelligence-driven enforcement operations placed in areas where significant border security vulnerabilities exist and where measurable results can be achieved. By targeting criminal cartels, violent gang members as well as terrorists desiring to exploit our border will find significantly fewer criminal avenues through which to cross.

Operation Stonegarden

Border security efforts must be flexible to adapt quickly to the fluid border security challenges. To further assist in these efforts, DHS implemented Operation Stonegarden as a series of innovative pilot programs, giving states flexibility to use DHS grant dollars to support closer state and federal law enforcement agency coordination at our borders. By permanently expanding this successful program, border states and communities will have additional funding and flexibility to strengthen America's borders.

Economic News

This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that non-farm payroll employment increased by 108,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent, down from 5.0 percent in November. Additionally, payroll employment has increased for 31 consecutive months, adding over 4.6 million jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen significantly over that time period from 6.3 percent in June 2003, to the current rate of 4.9 percent. Over 2 million new payroll jobs were created last year.

http://sessions.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=38504