Theme: BORDER SECURITY
HOMELAND SECURITY (26 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 7)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 7)
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 6)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 5)
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 4)
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 3)
House OKs border-security bill | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Legislature (weight: 3)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 3)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 3)
Swine Flu: Napolitano Says Border Tightening Not Necessary (weight: 3)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 3)
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 2)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 2)
EDITORIAL: Adrift on border security - Washington Times (weight: 2)
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 2)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 2)
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 2)
Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress) (weight: 1)
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
UA to Co-Lead DHS Center for Border Security and Immigration | UANews.org (weight: 1)
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 1)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 1)
Border security: strengthened visa . - Google Books (weight: 1)
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (weight: 1)
border security - Google Books (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 7)
During the Albuquerque portion of the trip, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano swore in a new 21-member Homeland Security Advisory Council Southwest Border Task Force. The purpose of the new body, Napolitano said in a statement, will be to "present me with concrete recommendations to address the complex challenges we face in this region."
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was not present at the Albuquerque swearing-in ceremony for the new task force. Richardson's office later told a New Mexico online news service that the governor had prior commitments to attend a U.S. Border Patrol ceremony and a boating officer award event The Devil is in the Details On the eve of the Arizona and New Mexico trip, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano outlined her department's four priorities in a presentation at the Aspen Institute.
In order of importance, Napolitano listed anti-terrorism, border security, immigration law enforcement and natural disaster response. In terms of immigration law enforcement, Napolitano told her audience that the Department of Homeland Security would request more funding for the e-Verify computer system that checks the residency status of job applicants. On their tour, Napolitano and other administration officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, detailed other planned administration actions.
Reportedly, last April's event was attended by numerous U.S. police officials including representatives from the El Paso Police Department, UTEP police, Albuquerque Police Department, Bernalillo (New Mexico) County Sheriff's Department and, ironically, the Department of Homeland Security.
A critic of the border wall plan, Calderon has called for "bridges for progress and not walls that isolate and divide." Back on the protest march, meanwhile, Mayor Perez, who was joined by Mayor Francisco Trujillo of Jimenez, Coahuila, said he was uplifted by the results of the November 7 election in the United States that saw President Bush's Republican Party lose control of Congress. Mayor Perez said he was confident the new U.S. Congress would cut the budget for the planned series of walls that will extend 700 miles along Mexico's northern border. On the U.S. side of the border, Richard F. Cortez, the mayor of McAllen, Texas, said in a recent interview with the Mexican press that he and other Texas mayors from "El Paso to Brownsville" hope to meet soon in Laredo, Texas, with United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in order to convey their rejection of the fencing plans.
Long vehicular traffic and pedestrian lines were reported at the border crossing from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, to San Luis, Arizona, after the United States Department of Homeland Security decreed a heightened terrorist alert.
A wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security?s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau and other federal agencies and officials is pending in El Paso federal court on behalf of the family of Las Acequias victim Luis Padilla. The lawsuit charges that an ICE informant known as ?Lalo? actively participated in several of the Las Acequias torture-murders with the knowledge of his supervisors.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 7)
In the wake of the attacks on New York and Washington, Congress established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and assigned immigration enforcement functions to two DHS agencies: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Matt A. Mayer, CEO of Provisum Strategies LLC, is former Counselor to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and former head of the DHS Office of Grants and Training.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, Annual Report 2006, p. 2.
Michael Chertoff, "Second State Review Remarks," U.S. Department of Homeland Security, July 13, 2005, at www.dhs.gov/ xnews/speeches/speech_0255.shtm (February 21, 2007).
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Progress in Modernizing Information Technology," OIG-07-11, November 2006, at www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_07-11_Nov06.pdf (February 21, 2007).
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Budget in Brief: FY 2008, February 5, 2007, p. 75.
For recommendations on improving interagency operations in the DHS, see James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., "Missing Pieces in Homeland Security: Interagency Education, Assignments, and Professional Accreditation," Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum No. 1013,October 16, 2006, at www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandDefense/upload/em_1013.pdf.
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 6)
Even before the March 2003 opening of the Department of Homeland Security plans were underway to involve universities in the new effort for homeland security.
Congress, as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, authorized the new department to "designate a university-based system for several university-based centers for homeland security."
Today, there is a network of universities that receives DHS funding to collaborate with the government to, as the act stipulated, "enhance the Nation's homeland security." It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, with universities benefiting from large grants from a rapidly expanding part of the federal government and with the government benefiting from the sponsored research of hundreds of university scholars. There has yet been no overall evaluation of how this DHS-academy cooperative venture now six years old has contributed to improving homeland security.
According to UTEP's border security center, it aims to "stimulate, coordinate, leverage, and utilize the unique intellectual capital in the academic community to address current and future homeland security challenges, and educate and inspire the next generation homeland security workforce."
The DHS-sponsored and financed center will "foster a homeland security culture within the academic community through research and educational programs."
Elpaso said. Thanks Tom for this excellent paper- your well researched information is very useful to us in El Paso- and along the new Mexico thru Texas frontera. We have been watching UTEP and their involvement with DHS. As you know Homeland Security Director Janet Nopalatino will be comming to the speak at the UTEP - Rep. Reyes Border Security Summit next Monday, August 10.
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 5)
On January 15, the United States Northern Command Joint Task Force-North accidentally released to the public a briefing that expressed concerns over terrorists entering the U.S. from Canada. While the report was taken offline and out of public view shortly thereafter, this briefing is one of many reports centered on U.S./Canadian security policies, including a recent request by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for information relating to the mechanisms and programs currently in place at the U.S. northern border. While the recommendations of the U.S. Northern Command briefing were not made public, the recent focus on the northern border has left many citizens from both countries concerned that the U.S. might decide to increase security measures at the border in a way that would hamper trade and travel. Initiatives to secure the United States from potential terrorists in Canada should extend beyond the border and center on information-sharing and other kinds of anti-terrorism cooperation, instituting processes and programs that respect both nations' sovereignty, and addresses common concerns--without hindering either nation's economic viability.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) in 2004 to increase security on the northern border. This initiative requires proof of identity and citizenship for people crossing the border into the United States. Unfortunately, WHTI has significantly increased wait times at border crossing, delays which have been particularly damaging to those business that rely on the "just in time" process--that is, delivering products (such as fresh produce) just before they are made available for purchase.
Working together on law enforcement initiatives will make each country's homeland security much more efficient. Law enforcement can often disrupt terrorist activity before it starts, and improving cooperation in this area will bear fruit on both sides of the border. A great example of this kind of program is the Integrated Border Enforcement Team, a joint program that targets dangerous people and goods by sharing intelligence and law enforcement capabilities from various agencies. Similar cooperation efforts should be used for security missions.
The U.S. should find ways to encourage the private sector to invest in infrastructure (such as toll bridges) at the northern border. This will not only speed the processing of goods and services but will ensure that terrorists are not sneaking through because of gaps in ailing infrastructure. One way this can be accomplished is through the SAFETY Act, which provides liability protection for companies developing homeland security technologies. This protection is only for companies in the United States and greatly limits the deployment of these necessary technologies.
Jena Baker McNeill is Policy Analyst for Homeland Security and Diem Nguyen is a Research Assistant in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, at The Heritage Foundation. Annie C. Rohrhoff contributed to preparing of this WebMemo.
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 4)
Obama's remarks came hours after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the United States is sending hundreds of federal agents and crime-fighting equipment to the border.
The new federal plan, developed by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, calls for doubling the number of border security task force teams and moving a significant number of other federal agents, equipment and resources to the border. It also involves greater intelligence sharing aimed at cracking down on the flow of money and weapons into Mexico that helps fuel the drug trade, senior administration officials said.
On the U.S. side of the border, more funding will support "prosecutor-led, intelligence-based task forces" that bring together the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to dismantle drug cartels through investigation and extradition and the seizure and forfeiture of assets, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden said. "As we've found with other large criminal groups, if you take their money and lock up their leaders, you can loosen their grip on the vast organizations that are used to carry out their criminal activities."
To help strengthen the U.S. side of the border further, the administration also plans to triple the number of Department of Homeland Security intelligence analysts dedicated to stopping Mexican-related violence. It also will increase the number of immigration officials working in Mexico, double the number of "violent criminal alien" teams on the border, strengthen the presence of border canine units and quadruple the number of border liaison officers working with Mexican law enforcement.
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 3)
The Homeland Security chief, at an El Paso conference, says immigration enforcement, citizenship processes and counter-narcotics efforts are 'inextricably linked' to border safety.
Reporting from El Paso - One day after President Obama concluded a summit in Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that securing the Southwest border required targeting several issues at the same time: illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violence in Mexico. Napolitano said her strategy was unlike the Bush administration's, in which "the issue of the Southwest border was walled off from all other issues." "Our approach is to view Southwest border security along with enforcement of our immigration laws in the interior of the country, counter-narcotics enforcement and streamlined citizenship processes together," she said. "These things are inextricably linked."
Napolitano responded that the U.S. government would do a better job of notifying law enforcement agencies in Mexico of pending deportations and would consider adjusting where deportees are sent. During her speech, Napolitano said that much of the violence south of the border is a result of the Mexican government's aggressive campaign targeting the drug cartels. Although deaths continue in Mexico, she said the U.S. has been able to prevent much of the violence from spilling into the U.S. This year, she said, the government has seized more than $69 million in cash, more than 2.4 million pounds of drugs and more than 500 assault rifles and handguns. The mayors of San Diego and Tucson told Napolitano that crime was down in both of their cities. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar said the entire Southwest border is safer and more secure than in previous years, due in large part to increased personnel and technology, but he posed the question: "How do we now sustain that?" John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, also said the U.S. government is considering extending the Merida Initiative, which provides equipment and training to support Mexico's efforts to fight the drug cartels.
House OKs border-security bill | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Legislature (weight: 3)
AUSTIN Gov. Rick Perry's homeland security czar would have to be confirmed by the Senate, and a much-criticized law-enforcement database on more than a million Texans would move out of the purview of the governor's office to the Texas Department of Public Safety, under legislation overwhelmingly approved by the House on Monday.
Perry appointees in a newly created Border Security Council would oversee the funding grants, which will be doled out by the director of the State Office of Homeland Security a new agency.
Mr. McCraw's position currently falls in the governor's office, but the bill would turn the job into a political appointment director of the State Office of Homeland Security that would require Senate confirmation. He would be in charge of allocating money, which would also be used to draw down federal grants, under the oversight of the Border Security Council. Critics say the setup creates a quid-pro-quo situation, in which county sheriffs that support the governor would get more money than those who don't.
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 3)
As the Congressman said, I have been involved in border issues directly now for more than 15 years as the U.S. Attorney, as a state Attorney General, a border state Governor, and now Homeland Security Secretary. Over this period, I think it is fair to say that our shared challenges have evolved.
Within the Department of Homeland Security we have Citizenship and Immigration Services.
We are not going to sit by at the Department of Homeland Security and wait for change in the laws.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 3)
WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the House appropriations committee criticized the Defense Department on Tuesday for not making the situation in Mexico as big a priority as Afghanistan. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., said the situation in Mexico is far more important than Afghanistan at this point. "We need to raise this to a higher level," Lewis told The Associated Press. Speaking at a homeland security subcommittee hearing, Lewis praised the Homeland Security Department for using unmanned aerial vehicles along the border, but he slammed DoD for not providing helicopters to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to Mexico to confer with Mexican leaders about the Merida Initiative ??? a plan to flood the U.S.-Mexican border region with $1.4 billion in U.S. assistance for law-enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training. The assistance is intended to help Mexican President Felipe Calder??n Hinojosa step up his war against drug cartels and lessen fears about Mexican drug-related violence spilling over American borders. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said she wants her department and other federal agencies to focus on reducing the number of weapons being sent illegally from the U.S. into Mexico.
At a hearing on funding for border security, Price challenged the Homeland Security Department to explain why it has effective control of only 1 percent of the country's 4,000-mile border with Canada.
Swine Flu: Napolitano Says Border Tightening Not Necessary (weight: 3)
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday the policy of passive surveillance for swine flu at U.S. airports and land ports "makes sense" and sterner steps are not yet necessary.
"And we had a homeland security council meeting last night with many departments of the federal government.
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday the policy of passive surveillance for swine flu at U.S. airports and land ports "makes sense" and sterner steps are not ye.
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 3)
Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano is determined to beef up security along the rough and tumble Canadian border. That's right, Canada.
The Department of Homeland Security isn't supposed to be a proving ground for touchy-feely policies. Some may be very sorry that Mexico's feelings will be hurt by tougher security measures along its border, but those measures are dictated by necessity. The dangers to America's national security on its southern border are disproportionately greater than anything presented along the Canadian border.
America's homeland security is of vital importance to Canada, and Canadians know it. Enlisting a further measure of their cooperation is no stretch.
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 2)
The heightened scrutiny is prompting concern and raising questions among a diverse array of groups, from Muslim associations to law firms, corporate groups and technology organizations. Some advocacy organizations say they've asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security how often such searches or seizures take place, who gets selected, what the government does with any copied data, who has access to it, what safeguards are in place, and how the data is stored and eventually destroyed. So far, the organizations say, they haven't gotten clear answers. Two groups have filed a lawsuit to get that information, and some businesses are taking a variety of steps to minimize their risks. Even Congress has gotten involved, holding a hearing last month on the subject of "Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel." "This has the potential for a chilling effect," said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association, which represents about 1,000 companies in this state. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, say their officers follow strict guidelines to safeguard confidential and personal information, and that their ability to conduct such searches is crucial to keeping the nation safe.
Treating data stored on electronic devices differently from documents carried in luggage "would provide a great advantage to terrorists and others who seek to do us harm," Ahern said. Two organizations the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Asian Law Caucus together filed a lawsuit earlier this year to determine the scope of such searches, saying at the time that the Department of Homeland Security had not responded to previous requests for records.
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 2)
Speakers will include U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who is to make a policy speech on border safety after a trip to Mexico with President Barack Obama.
All but a small part of the fencing has been completed, despite a spate of lawsuits and protests, primarily in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. As of July 24, homeland security officials said, they had completed nearly 634 miles of pedestrian and vehicle barriers.
EDITORIAL: Adrift on border security - Washington Times (weight: 2)
Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano seems to be floundering on immigration and national security issues. Not only is she continuing her quixotic campaign against Real ID, the main federal law safeguarding the integrity of drivers' licenses and keeping them out of the hands of terrorists, but she has also been weak and apologetic about the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do its job - removing illegal aliens from the United States. By contrast, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who had turned his state into a sanctuary for Illegal aliens, has reversed himself regarding drivers' licenses for illegals and complying with Real ID.
If previous history is any indication, any decision by the federal government to use EDLs as drivers' licenses would create "another-four-year rulemaking process, because of the bureaucratic processes and the privacy-rights people going ballistic," said says Janis Kephart, chief of homeland security programs with the Center for Immigration Studies. Judging from her public comments so far on Real ID and drivers' licenses, it is unclear whether Napolitano has given much thought to the real-world problems inherent in her suggested alternative to Real ID.
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 2)
The sixth annual Border Security Conference at UTEP this week featured top government officials, border security contractors, and an announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano of more funding for Operation Stonegarden, a program that "assists local authorities with operational costs and equipment purchases that contribute to border security," according to a DHS news release. Although some speakers -- such as UTEP professors Howard Campbell and Kathy Staudt, and U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, (D-Calif.) -- challenged the law enforcement paradigm that frames U.S. government thinking about the border, the majority of speakers were those involved in putting the frame together. Napolitano, in her speech announcing the extra $30 million for Stonegarden, said that the U.S. and Mexico were winning the Drug War. "We have a unique opportunity now with Mexico to really break up these cartels, and shame on us if we don't take full advantage of that opportunity and go through that window together, and that is one of the fights that we are fighting," she said.
UTEP political science professor Staudt, who spoke on violence against women, poverty and dangerous conditions for immigrants, said the conference represented more of the same. Her colleague in the UTEP Political Science Department, Anthony Z. Zruszewski, said that the approach outlined by the conference and its speakers made sense. He added that the other elements have to be overhauling immigration examining the United States??? dependency on narcotics and weapons. During his speech, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security John Brennan spoke about President Obama and Felipe Calderon???s relationship. Brennan said that he thinks Obama has demonstrated his commitment strictly to the Southwest border by his selection of Janet Napolitano as the secretary of Homeland Security.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 2)
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other officials on Tuesday also joined the president's call. "What the president did last night is to put on the turbo chargers in dealing with this focused, anti-illegal immigrant effort that we've got, on a comprehensive basis," Chertoff said during a press conference in Washington. "And if we take advantage of this, and we move comprehensively in Congress to build the entire program. we can have a transformative effect on the immigration problem the illegal immigration problem that has plagued our country for over 20 years."
Julie Myers, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security 's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced Monday that DHS would expand the "Expedited Removal" process to deport illegal alien families apprehended in areas along the nation's borders.
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 2)
The plan calls for boosting the number of agents from the U.S. departments of justice, treasury and homeland security for border security and stationing new inspection technology at border stations.
Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary due to visit Mexico next week along with Eric Holder, the U.S. attorney general, for a conference on arms-trafficking, said that the administration was still studying the idea of sending extra National Guard reserve troops to boost border security. Speaking on Tuesday, Napolitano said she was confident that Mexico's government "will not fail" in its war against the cartels.
Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress) (weight: 1)
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue a rule with respect to border security searches of electronic devices, and for other purposes.
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
The money will help improve coordination among federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border, said Gov. Bill Richardson in a news release. "This additional funding will allow us to enhance our border security, and I am pleased that New Mexico is one of four states to receive this grant," Richardson said. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the grant funds during the sixth annual Border Security Conference this week at the University of Texas in El Paso.
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Double funding and provide $46.8 million to the Department of Homeland Security to stop the southbound flow of guns and drug money from the U.S. to Mexico. It would allow DHS to add 44 Border Patrol agents and 65 Customs and Border Protection officers.
UA to Co-Lead DHS Center for Border Security and Immigration | UANews.org (weight: 1)
The establishment of the center by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security follows more than two years of work assembling a team of U.S. universities and Mexican and Canadian institutions, government agencies, technology companies and national laboratories. Research at COE BSI will focus on new technologies such as surveillance, screening, data fusion and situational awareness using sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles and other technologies.
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 1)
Rey Koslowski is associate professor of political science and public policy at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy and director of the Center for Policy Research Program on Border Control and Homeland Security at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He is the author of Migrants and Citizens: Demographic Change in the European States System (Cornell University Press, 2000); and editor of International Migration and the Globalization of Domestic Politics (Routledge, 2005).
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 1)
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the get-tough policy clear in recent comments. "One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Napolitano told a conference in Washington.
Border security: strengthened visa . - Google Books (weight: 1)
More The Homeland Security Act of 2002 generally grants DHS exclusive authority to issue regulations on, administer, and enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act and all other immigration and nationality laws relating to the functions of U.S. consular officers in connection with the granting or denial of visas.
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (weight: 1)
Jurisdiction: (1) Immigration, citizenship, and refugee laws; (2) Oversight of the immigration functions of the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Ombudsman Citizenship and Immigration Services; (3) Oversight of the immigration-related functions of the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the Department of Labor; (4) Oversight of international migration, internally displaced persons, and refugee laws and policy; and (5) Private immigration relief bills.
border security - Google Books (weight: 1)
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, United States.
BORDER PATROLS (19 documents)
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 6)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 5)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 3)
Is Border Security Bad for Nature? - TIME (weight: 3)
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 2)
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 2)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 2)
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 2)
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 2)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 2)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Border Security (weight: 2)
Border Security to Become Copyright Police? | Popular Science (weight: 1)
Governors Advance Border Security Partnerships (weight: 1)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 1)
Border Security (weight: 1)
Border Security Conference 2009 (weight: 1)
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 6)
Bush gave a primetime speech tonight on immigration and border security (here's the full text of the speech, and here's the fact sheet on it). A lot of the speech covered familiar ground for those who have followed the immigration and border security debate closely; but he did provide some new specifics on his plan for border security, the most newsworthy element of which is the proposal to deploy up to 6,000 members of the National Guard on the southern border as a stopgap measure. Bush discussed this plan in the context of a proposal to increase the number of Border Patrol agents to 18,000 by the end of 2008, from a current level of 12,000. In essence, this proposal is simply fulfilling existing law in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004 which mandated a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol over five years. One way to help during this transition is to use the National Guard.
The guard will assist the Border Patrol by operating surveillance systems, analyzing intelligence, installing fences and vehicle barriers, building patrol roads, and providing training.
Guard units will not be involved in direct law enforcement activities -- that duty will be done by the Border Patrol. This initial commitment of guard members would last for a period of one year.
After that, the number of guard forces will be reduced as new Border Patrol agents and new technologies come online. It is important for Americans to know that we have enough guard forces to win the war on terror, to respond to natural disasters, and to help secure our border. To paraphrase Bruce Schneier, this idea is "border security theater" - a political proposal designed to grease the legislative skids in Congress, but one that will have little impact on border security, and even worse, is operationally flawed and quite likely to be a costly diversion from other border security priorities. How are these Guardsmen going to be trained? Guarding and patrolling the border requires many types of specialized training: language skills, driving skills, legal knowledge, cultural training, etc. The Border Patrol currently spends about $160 million per year on training to develop and maintain its skilled workforce. Members of the National Guard have not been trained in many of these areas, nor will they immediately possess the skills needed to conduct the activities outlined in the speech - intelligence, surveillance - in a domestic context. Where are they going to live? Unlike with Border Patrol agents, the federal government will be responsibility for providing temporary housing for members of the National Guard deployed at the border. How much is this going to cost? (Although on the other hand, perhaps we've just found a use for the 11,000 FEMA trailers that are sitting in Hope, Arkansas).
Instead of wasting money on stopgap measures, we should accelerate the increase in Border Patrol agents, technology investment, or what is probably the best bet strictly from a cost standpoint (although detestable for symbolic reasons), building a complete border fence.
The irony: using the NG as cheap labor in lieu of more Border Patrol officers to guard against the influx of. cheap labor.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 5)
Unlike the Mexican border -- which is half as long - no drug war or chaos rages in the north. Arrests and drug seizures in 2008 totaled less than 1 percent of those down south. "It's a whole lot quieter up here," said Azel J. Price, a border patrol agent in Buffalo, who previously worked for seven years in Yuma, Ariz. That's not to say that border authorities aren't looking for signs of trouble.
Regardless, the buildup along the northern border continues. The border patrol opened its first northern base for unmanned Predator B aircraft on Feb. 16 at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Other high-tech equipment also will be deployed.
The border patrol unit based in Swanton, Vt., will add ground sensors that detect motion, heat or metal. "To cross in our sector, where we have a land border, it's as simple as crossing the street in Los Angeles," said Mark Henry, operations officer for the Swanton sector.
Up the road, at the border patrol sector headquarters on Grand Island, N.Y., three specialists monitored 10 screens that showed video of railroad and highway bridges, river gorges and other entry points.
A U.S. Border Patrol Agent Andrew Mayer rides a ATV as he looks for signs of illegal entry along the boundary cut into the forest marking the line between Canadian territory on the right and the Vermont.
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 3)
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was not present at the Albuquerque swearing-in ceremony for the new task force. Richardson's office later told a New Mexico online news service that the governor had prior commitments to attend a U.S. Border Patrol ceremony and a boating officer award event The Devil is in the Details On the eve of the Arizona and New Mexico trip, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano outlined her department's four priorities in a presentation at the Aspen Institute.
Most media accounts did not probe details of the story that made little sense to anyone familiar with border geography or the current security situation in the region. An important part of the story contended that foreign terrorists would move from the border town of Laredo, Texas, to the Arizona desert hundreds of miles away in order to stage their bloody attack on Fort Huachuca. News reports did not mention that Laredo-based terrorists would either have to possess a private air force or pass through multiple U.S. Border Patrol highway checkpoints on their way to Arizona.
Guadalupe Bravo was the scene of a well-publicized, international incident between Mexico and the U.S. after Border Patrol agents allegedly crossed into Mexico without in permission on November 10 while in hot pursuit of suspected drug traffickers.
Is Border Security Bad for Nature? - TIME (weight: 3)
Ever since the late 1990s, when U.S. Border Patrol officials embarked on several aggressive, successful clampdowns near El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California, much of the illegal human traffic has shifted to the wilderness areas around New Mexico and Arizona. Like his fellow Arizona border land managers, DiRosa said he is practicing "triage - trying to figure out what to sacrifice to save the whole."
Last year, the Border Patrol apprehended half a million illegal immigrants in Arizona; that means that, even if you only count the illegals who were apprehended and use a conservative estimate of five pounds of garbage for each, 2.5 million pounds of trash were left behind.
DiRosa says "50 to 60% of my budget" is focused on border issues, not wilderness protection. He jokes that he has love-hate relationship with the Border Patrol - where illegals go, the Border Patrol follows, further impacting the wilderness. "It's a Catch-22 - we are joined at the hip," he said.
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 2)
Napolitano spoke during a two-day conference on border security, which brought together elected leaders from Mexico and the U.S., along with the heads of the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Napolitano responded that the U.S. government would do a better job of notifying law enforcement agencies in Mexico of pending deportations and would consider adjusting where deportees are sent. During her speech, Napolitano said that much of the violence south of the border is a result of the Mexican government's aggressive campaign targeting the drug cartels. Although deaths continue in Mexico, she said the U.S. has been able to prevent much of the violence from spilling into the U.S. This year, she said, the government has seized more than $69 million in cash, more than 2.4 million pounds of drugs and more than 500 assault rifles and handguns. The mayors of San Diego and Tucson told Napolitano that crime was down in both of their cities. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar said the entire Southwest border is safer and more secure than in previous years, due in large part to increased personnel and technology, but he posed the question: "How do we now sustain that?" John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, also said the U.S. government is considering extending the Merida Initiative, which provides equipment and training to support Mexico's efforts to fight the drug cartels.
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 2)
The Border Security Force (BSF) is a border patrol agency of the Government of India.
Border Security Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Border Security Force (BSF) is a border patrol agency of the Government of India.
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 2)
Along with the fencing, Congress and former President George W. Bush allocated money for 6,000 more U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The Border Patrol's budget has more than doubled since 2006, and the number of agents has soared from 12,300 to 19,600.
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 2)
The seismic and infrared sensors can detect motion and heat within a 50-foot radius and the metal sensors have a 250-foot range. When combined with remotely controlled video cameras that have a five mile radius, border patrol agents can detect clandestine entries, train cameras on illegal migrants and smugglers, determine their numbers and whether they are carrying weapons and then dispatch the appropriate patrols. 2 Nevertheless, in October 2005, the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System had been deployed along only 4% of the border, with 10,500 sensors operative. 3 Many of the sensors have proved difficult to maintain in a variety of weather conditions and they do not have the ability to differentiate animals from humans.
When patrols are on duty, false alerts triggered by animals divert manpower, and when the Border Patrol does not include a night shift, sensors can end up counting animal border-crossers along with illegal migrants, as was the case in certain sectors along the U.S.-Canadian border before September 11, 2001.
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 2)
The Border Patrol now has roughly 15,000 agents and by the end of next year we will have more than 18,300 agents. This doubles the size of the Border Patrol under President Bush's leadership.
The National Guard continues to support the Border Patrol under Operation Jump Start. This partnership has been extremely productive as we work to the build the fence and train Border Patrol agents.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 2)
WASHINGTON - President Bush and members of his administration on Tuesday were defending the president's border security proposal, saying they have enough resources to put National Guard troops at the border and to enforce other immigration reforms. "The program to put guards on the border is one that will enable the Border Patrol to do its job better. It's very important for the American people because it's the Border Patrol that's going to be on the front line of apprehending people trying to sneak into our country," Bush said during an appearance with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Bush said that his proposal to place up to 6,000 Guard members along the southern U.S. border "really is not going to put a strain on our capacity to fight and win a War on Terror as well as deal with natural disasters." He said the administration would be working with governors to make sure the deployment doesn't have a negative impact on their ability to deal with storms or other emergencies.
"We can certainly do what is being asked by our commander in chief," Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, National Guard bureau chief, said at Tuesday's press conference alongside Chertoff. "This is going to be a tremendous enforcement support partnership," added U.S. Border Patrol chief David Aguilar.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection - Border Security (weight: 2)
The priority mission of the Border Patrol is preventing terrorists and terrorists' weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, from entering the United States.
Border Patrol Agent Memorial - 08/06/2007 A list of Border Patrol Agents who lost their lives while serving and protecting the citizens of this great nation.
Border Security to Become Copyright Police? | Popular Science (weight: 1)
In what may be the most baffling and cumbersome move of all, the U.S., Canada, UK, and other EU nations are working behind closed doors on a new trade agreement which could turn border agents into the copyright police. A four-page draft document proposing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was leaked to the press this week which show plans for the creation of an international copyright regulator with its enforcement arm as each nation's border patrols.
Governors Advance Border Security Partnerships (weight: 1)
The Governor also met with U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar to discuss radar technology projects along the border, as well as the agency's commitment to increase the number of Border Patrol agents, particularly in light of the recent decision by the federal government to reduce the number of National Guard troops at the border.
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
We have doubled the number of DHS agents collaborating on looking for and apprehending violent criminal aliens, and we have, as you know, ramped up southbound inspections to search for illegal weapons and cash, adding mobile X-ray machines, license plate readers, more Border Patrol agents, and K-9 detection teams to that effort.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Officials said the escalating violence among Mexican drug cartels is evidence that the U.S. border security plan is working. "They are fighting for territory," Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said of the drug cartels.
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Double funding and provide $46.8 million to the Department of Homeland Security to stop the southbound flow of guns and drug money from the U.S. to Mexico. It would allow DHS to add 44 Border Patrol agents and 65 Customs and Border Protection officers.
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 1)
J. D. has walked the border and has seen firsthand the devastation that illegal immigration inflicts on law-abiding Americans. He's read the intelligence reports, talked to the Border Patrol and the Marines, and knows how intolerable illegal immigration is in a post September 11 world. He's heard all the excuses about how our country can't function without illegal aliens and has compelling answers to them all. In Whatever It Takes, you'll learn: How many cities, and J. D. names names, actually refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement. Your city might be among them. How our law enforcement system is so bound in bureaucracy that it treats illegal aliens like fish, throwing them back into the stream of American life; they even call it "catch and release". Why illegal alien murderers and rapists walk free along our streets and how our perverse laws may actually encourage illegal alien gangs to kill (if they cross into Mexico, they won't be extradited). The Social Security lie: illegal immigrants don't support the system; they're actually hastening its downfall. How illegal immigration steals jobs from American workers and reduces their pay.
Border Security (weight: 1)
Geofences significantly increase the efficiency of border patrols beyond cameras, night vision, and radar.
Border Security Conference 2009 (weight: 1)
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is pleased to invite you to the Border Security Conference: Fostering a 21 st Century Relationship of Cooperation and Shared Responsibility, which will be held on August 10-11, 2009, on the UTEP campus. Now in its sixth year, this annual conference is hosted by UTEP in cooperation with the Office of Congressman Silvestre Reyes. The titles for this year???s panels are: The Merida Initiative: A Shared Responsibility to Confront Illicit Narcotics Trafficking; Integrating Technology and Connecting Communities; Forming a Comprehensive Homeland Security Operation; and The Importance of Strengthening Civic Society, Commerce, and Academia.
SECURITY SECRETARY (13 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 3)
Swine Flu: Napolitano Says Border Tightening Not Necessary (weight: 2)
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 1)
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 1)
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 1)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 3)
During the Albuquerque portion of the trip, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano swore in a new 21-member Homeland Security Advisory Council Southwest Border Task Force. The purpose of the new body, Napolitano said in a statement, will be to "present me with concrete recommendations to address the complex challenges we face in this region."
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson was not present at the Albuquerque swearing-in ceremony for the new task force. Richardson's office later told a New Mexico online news service that the governor had prior commitments to attend a U.S. Border Patrol ceremony and a boating officer award event The Devil is in the Details On the eve of the Arizona and New Mexico trip, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano outlined her department's four priorities in a presentation at the Aspen Institute.
A critic of the border wall plan, Calderon has called for "bridges for progress and not walls that isolate and divide." Back on the protest march, meanwhile, Mayor Perez, who was joined by Mayor Francisco Trujillo of Jimenez, Coahuila, said he was uplifted by the results of the November 7 election in the United States that saw President Bush's Republican Party lose control of Congress. Mayor Perez said he was confident the new U.S. Congress would cut the budget for the planned series of walls that will extend 700 miles along Mexico's northern border. On the U.S. side of the border, Richard F. Cortez, the mayor of McAllen, Texas, said in a recent interview with the Mexican press that he and other Texas mayors from "El Paso to Brownsville" hope to meet soon in Laredo, Texas, with United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in order to convey their rejection of the fencing plans.
Swine Flu: Napolitano Says Border Tightening Not Necessary (weight: 2)
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday the policy of passive surveillance for swine flu at U.S. airports and land ports "makes sense" and sterner steps are not yet necessary.
WASHINGTON -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday the policy of passive surveillance for swine flu at U.S. airports and land ports "makes sense" and sterner steps are not ye.
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 1)
Reporting from El Paso - One day after President Obama concluded a summit in Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that securing the Southwest border required targeting several issues at the same time: illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violence in Mexico. Napolitano said her strategy was unlike the Bush administration's, in which "the issue of the Southwest border was walled off from all other issues." "Our approach is to view Southwest border security along with enforcement of our immigration laws in the interior of the country, counter-narcotics enforcement and streamlined citizenship processes together," she said. "These things are inextricably linked."
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 1)
Obama's remarks came hours after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the United States is sending hundreds of federal agents and crime-fighting equipment to the border.
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
The money will help improve coordination among federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border, said Gov. Bill Richardson in a news release. "This additional funding will allow us to enhance our border security, and I am pleased that New Mexico is one of four states to receive this grant," Richardson said. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the grant funds during the sixth annual Border Security Conference this week at the University of Texas in El Paso.
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
Speakers will include U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who is to make a policy speech on border safety after a trip to Mexico with President Barack Obama.
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
As the Congressman said, I have been involved in border issues directly now for more than 15 years as the U.S. Attorney, as a state Attorney General, a border state Governor, and now Homeland Security Secretary. Over this period, I think it is fair to say that our shared challenges have evolved.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to Mexico to confer with Mexican leaders about the Merida Initiative ??? a plan to flood the U.S.-Mexican border region with $1.4 billion in U.S. assistance for law-enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training. The assistance is intended to help Mexican President Felipe Calder??n Hinojosa step up his war against drug cartels and lessen fears about Mexican drug-related violence spilling over American borders. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said she wants her department and other federal agencies to focus on reducing the number of weapons being sent illegally from the U.S. into Mexico.
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
On January 15, the United States Northern Command Joint Task Force-North accidentally released to the public a briefing that expressed concerns over terrorists entering the U.S. from Canada. While the report was taken offline and out of public view shortly thereafter, this briefing is one of many reports centered on U.S./Canadian security policies, including a recent request by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for information relating to the mechanisms and programs currently in place at the U.S. northern border. While the recommendations of the U.S. Northern Command briefing were not made public, the recent focus on the northern border has left many citizens from both countries concerned that the U.S. might decide to increase security measures at the border in a way that would hamper trade and travel. Initiatives to secure the United States from potential terrorists in Canada should extend beyond the border and center on information-sharing and other kinds of anti-terrorism cooperation, instituting processes and programs that respect both nations' sovereignty, and addresses common concerns--without hindering either nation's economic viability.
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 1)
The sixth annual Border Security Conference at UTEP this week featured top government officials, border security contractors, and an announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano of more funding for Operation Stonegarden, a program that "assists local authorities with operational costs and equipment purchases that contribute to border security," according to a DHS news release. Although some speakers -- such as UTEP professors Howard Campbell and Kathy Staudt, and U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, (D-Calif.) -- challenged the law enforcement paradigm that frames U.S. government thinking about the border, the majority of speakers were those involved in putting the frame together. Napolitano, in her speech announcing the extra $30 million for Stonegarden, said that the U.S. and Mexico were winning the Drug War. "We have a unique opportunity now with Mexico to really break up these cartels, and shame on us if we don't take full advantage of that opportunity and go through that window together, and that is one of the fights that we are fighting," she said.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other officials on Tuesday also joined the president's call. "What the president did last night is to put on the turbo chargers in dealing with this focused, anti-illegal immigrant effort that we've got, on a comprehensive basis," Chertoff said during a press conference in Washington. "And if we take advantage of this, and we move comprehensively in Congress to build the entire program. we can have a transformative effect on the immigration problem the illegal immigration problem that has plagued our country for over 20 years."
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 1)
Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary due to visit Mexico next week along with Eric Holder, the U.S. attorney general, for a conference on arms-trafficking, said that the administration was still studying the idea of sending extra National Guard reserve troops to boost border security. Speaking on Tuesday, Napolitano said she was confident that Mexico's government "will not fail" in its war against the cartels.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 1)
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the get-tough policy clear in recent comments. "One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Napolitano told a conference in Washington.
BORDER PROTECTION (12 documents)
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 4)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 2)
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 2)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Border Security (weight: 2)
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 1)
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 1)
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (weight: 1)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 4)
The heightened scrutiny is prompting concern and raising questions among a diverse array of groups, from Muslim associations to law firms, corporate groups and technology organizations. Some advocacy organizations say they've asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security how often such searches or seizures take place, who gets selected, what the government does with any copied data, who has access to it, what safeguards are in place, and how the data is stored and eventually destroyed. So far, the organizations say, they haven't gotten clear answers. Two groups have filed a lawsuit to get that information, and some businesses are taking a variety of steps to minimize their risks. Even Congress has gotten involved, holding a hearing last month on the subject of "Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel." "This has the potential for a chilling effect," said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association, which represents about 1,000 companies in this state. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, say their officers follow strict guidelines to safeguard confidential and personal information, and that their ability to conduct such searches is crucial to keeping the nation safe.
The department doesn't keep seized electronics unless it suspects wrongdoing, and any U.S. citizen's information that's copied is kept only if it's relevant for criminal or national-security investigations, said a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, Lynn Hollinger.
Khaki, Hyder and the imam are all U.S. citizens. Michael Milne, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Seattle, said he knows of no such form and that asking travelers their views on foreign policy is "certainly not something we would do on a routine basis." Nor do agents focus on travelers because of their religion or ethnicity, he said.
In written testimony for last month's Senate subcommittee hearing, Customs and Border Protection deputy commissioner Jayson Ahern said searches of electronics have led to the arrests of people possessing child pornography. Agents also have found data about nuclear material and explosives that have helped them remove dangerous people from the U.S. or kept them from coming in.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 2)
Most weapons the cartels are using come from the United States, said Mark Koumans, deputy assistant secretary for the department's office of international affairs. Earlier, Rep. David Price, D-N.C., questioned whether taxpayers are getting their money's worth in border protection as people continue breaking through barriers to enter the United States illegally.
Officials from Customs and Border Protection defended the success of the border security measures.
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 2)
The use of information technology for border security has been central to the many immigration reform proposals introduced in the U.S. Congress and the debate that has ensued. 1 The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R.4437), passed by the House in December of 2005, and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S. 2611), passed by the Senate in May 2006, both have provisions requiring implementation of new technologies to support border control efforts at and between ports of entry, particularly along the U.S.-Mexican border.
The DHS replaced America???s Shield with the ???Secure Border Initiative??? (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan which, among other things, involves: ???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.??? 8 In support of the initiative, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a solicitation for the Secure Border Initiative Network (or ???SBI net ???) contract, estimated at $2.5 billion. Normally, government agencies that outsource information system development will issue a set of requirements for the information systems they want and firms bid with proposals to develop and install systems that meet these requirements. CBP held a SBI net ???industry day??? on January 25, 2006 for over 400 private sector participants where DHS Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson took outsourcing a step further. ???This is an unusual invitation.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Clay in cat litter emits harmless radioactive traces of uranium, thorium and other natural elements. "We see this all the time," said Brad Kovach, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection report to Congress in 2008 noted a "significant concern" that extremists could slip across the northern border. It cited the "undisputed presence in Canada of known terrorist affiliate and extremist groups," including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria.
Border Security (weight: 2)
TruePosition® LOCINT™ can significantly expand current or future tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) to fortify and extend border protection efforts.
To protect America from harm, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) agency must detect and remove the people and goods that pose a threat from the legitimate annual flow of over 400 million people, 20 million cargo containers, and 130 million conveyances.
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 1)
Last week, a Perry spokeswoman said that federal border protection had been underfunded for some time and that the 1,000 extra troops Perry requested would fill in gaps that state and local agencies have been covering.
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 1)
Spy plane shows worth as flood-fighting tool normally is employed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to scout the Canadian border for drug traffickers, illegal immigrants and terrorists.
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
Minutes prior to the chaotic scene, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers listened to automatic gunfire rip the early morning calm of Palomas.
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 1)
Among the center's partners are Customs and Border Protection, Electronic Warfare Solutions, and the major military contractor SAIC. Both NCBSI and CDSR were until recently headed by founding director Ret.
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Double funding and provide $46.8 million to the Department of Homeland Security to stop the southbound flow of guns and drug money from the U.S. to Mexico. It would allow DHS to add 44 Border Patrol agents and 65 Customs and Border Protection officers.
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (weight: 1)
Jurisdiction: (1) Immigration, citizenship, and refugee laws; (2) Oversight of the immigration functions of the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Ombudsman Citizenship and Immigration Services; (3) Oversight of the immigration-related functions of the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the Department of Labor; (4) Oversight of international migration, internally displaced persons, and refugee laws and policy; and (5) Private immigration relief bills.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
In the wake of the attacks on New York and Washington, Congress established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and assigned immigration enforcement functions to two DHS agencies: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
CUSTOMS AND BORDER (11 documents)
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 4)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 1)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 1)
Border Security (weight: 1)
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (weight: 1)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 4)
The heightened scrutiny is prompting concern and raising questions among a diverse array of groups, from Muslim associations to law firms, corporate groups and technology organizations. Some advocacy organizations say they've asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security how often such searches or seizures take place, who gets selected, what the government does with any copied data, who has access to it, what safeguards are in place, and how the data is stored and eventually destroyed. So far, the organizations say, they haven't gotten clear answers. Two groups have filed a lawsuit to get that information, and some businesses are taking a variety of steps to minimize their risks. Even Congress has gotten involved, holding a hearing last month on the subject of "Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel." "This has the potential for a chilling effect," said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association, which represents about 1,000 companies in this state. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, say their officers follow strict guidelines to safeguard confidential and personal information, and that their ability to conduct such searches is crucial to keeping the nation safe.
The department doesn't keep seized electronics unless it suspects wrongdoing, and any U.S. citizen's information that's copied is kept only if it's relevant for criminal or national-security investigations, said a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, Lynn Hollinger.
Khaki, Hyder and the imam are all U.S. citizens. Michael Milne, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in Seattle, said he knows of no such form and that asking travelers their views on foreign policy is "certainly not something we would do on a routine basis." Nor do agents focus on travelers because of their religion or ethnicity, he said.
In written testimony for last month's Senate subcommittee hearing, Customs and Border Protection deputy commissioner Jayson Ahern said searches of electronics have led to the arrests of people possessing child pornography. Agents also have found data about nuclear material and explosives that have helped them remove dangerous people from the U.S. or kept them from coming in.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Clay in cat litter emits harmless radioactive traces of uranium, thorium and other natural elements. "We see this all the time," said Brad Kovach, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection report to Congress in 2008 noted a "significant concern" that extremists could slip across the northern border. It cited the "undisputed presence in Canada of known terrorist affiliate and extremist groups," including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria.
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 1)
Spy plane shows worth as flood-fighting tool normally is employed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to scout the Canadian border for drug traffickers, illegal immigrants and terrorists.
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
Minutes prior to the chaotic scene, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers listened to automatic gunfire rip the early morning calm of Palomas.
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 1)
Among the center's partners are Customs and Border Protection, Electronic Warfare Solutions, and the major military contractor SAIC. Both NCBSI and CDSR were until recently headed by founding director Ret.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Officials from Customs and Border Protection defended the success of the border security measures.
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Double funding and provide $46.8 million to the Department of Homeland Security to stop the southbound flow of guns and drug money from the U.S. to Mexico. It would allow DHS to add 44 Border Patrol agents and 65 Customs and Border Protection officers.
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 1)
The DHS replaced America???s Shield with the ???Secure Border Initiative??? (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan which, among other things, involves: ???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.??? 8 In support of the initiative, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a solicitation for the Secure Border Initiative Network (or ???SBI net ???) contract, estimated at $2.5 billion. Normally, government agencies that outsource information system development will issue a set of requirements for the information systems they want and firms bid with proposals to develop and install systems that meet these requirements. CBP held a SBI net ???industry day??? on January 25, 2006 for over 400 private sector participants where DHS Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson took outsourcing a step further. ???This is an unusual invitation.
Border Security (weight: 1)
To protect America from harm, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) agency must detect and remove the people and goods that pose a threat from the legitimate annual flow of over 400 million people, 20 million cargo containers, and 130 million conveyances.
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security (weight: 1)
Jurisdiction: (1) Immigration, citizenship, and refugee laws; (2) Oversight of the immigration functions of the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Ombudsman Citizenship and Immigration Services; (3) Oversight of the immigration-related functions of the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the Department of Labor; (4) Oversight of international migration, internally displaced persons, and refugee laws and policy; and (5) Private immigration relief bills.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
In the wake of the attacks on New York and Washington, Congress established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and assigned immigration enforcement functions to two DHS agencies: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
BORDER STATES (10 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 13)
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 1)
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
EDITORIAL: Adrift on border security - Washington Times (weight: 1)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 1)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 1)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 13)
International Peace Brigades for Chihuahua? A well-known Mexican border state politician and social activist called this week for international human rights observers to come to the state of Chihuahua. Interviewed on CNN's Aristegui program, Victor Quintana, Chihuahua state legislator for the center-left PRD party and advisor to the Democratic Campesino Front, said the Mexican government's anti-drug Joint Operation Chihuahua failed to end narco-violence, encouraged human rights abuses and left the citizenry defenseless, as evidenced by the kidnap-murders this month of Mormon community activist Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law Luis Widmar in northern Chihuahua. "This is a sign of the failed state we are living in," Quintana contended.
Disaffected members of the Piedras Negras police force in the Mexican border state of Coahuila returned to work Wednesday, April 22, after staging an overnight work stoppage.
Of all illegal drug users, 465,000 were classified as addicts in 2008-up from 307,000 in 2002. Perhaps overstating his case, Jose Carlos Hernandez Aguilar, a Chihuahua City-based criminal researcher, recently warned that 50 percent of the northern border state's population could be addicted to drugs by 2020.
Five coastal or border states led the list of hot spots for illegal arms confiscations in recent years.
"According to the information that we have in the state and according to the information the federal government has given us, there is the possibility, the high possibility, that we could have another round of violence," warned Aldo Fasci Zuazua, assistant state attorney general of the northern border state of Nuevo Leon.
Last weekend, the bodies of a father and his son were dumped near separate army installations in the northern border state of Tamaulipas.
Lapolaka.com, November 25, 2006. Mayors in Texas and the northern Mexican border state of Coahuila are mobilizing their opposition to the new series of border walls planned by the Bush Administration.
Since the beginning of the year, at least 40 murders attributed to organized crime feuds have been logged in the border state, while brazen kidnappings, popularly known as "levantones," have shaken the peace.
Various reports now point to Nuevo Leon's strategic location along drug-smuggling corridors; the growth of the street-level narco business, and the importance of arms trafficking in the northern border state.
The death toll and motives might be different, but the newspaper headlines in question actually hail from Mexican newspapers that print daily stories about narco-violence that's extended from northern border states to the central and southern parts of the nation.
Counting a far smaller population than Mexico's capital city, the border states of Baja California and Chihuahua nevertheless host significant numbers of tienditas, with Baja California having more than 2,000 and Chihuahua anywhere from 1-2,000.
Fox pointed to other states in central and southern Mexico as having good public security situations. Tamaulipas Governor Eugenio Hernandez labeled the situation in his border state a matter of national security requiring greater federal intervention.
A shake-up of key public safety personnel in the violence-torn border state of Tamaulipas continues.
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 1)
Napolitano also announced an additional $30 million in federal funds for local law enforcement in California and other border states to better fight trafficking and violence.
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
The grant supplements money approved for New Mexico in June through Operation Stonegarden, which is funded through the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009. Border states are receiving additional funding based on their level of risk, heavy cross-border traffic and border-related threat intelligence.
EDITORIAL: Adrift on border security - Washington Times (weight: 1)
Since becoming DHS secretary, Napolitano has said that governors need options to make identification more secure, but not necessarily "under the rubric of Real ID." As a compromise alternative, she suggested going to a system of "enhanced drivers' licenses," or EDLs, used in three border states - Washington state, New York State and Vermont - in place of a passport to enter the U.S. from neighboring countries.
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
As the Congressman said, I have been involved in border issues directly now for more than 15 years as the U.S. Attorney, as a state Attorney General, a border state Governor, and now Homeland Security Secretary. Over this period, I think it is fair to say that our shared challenges have evolved.
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 1)
Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona lays out his first hand experiances and views as a Southern Border State Congressman, on the failure of our countries elected and un-elected.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
The process should begin in June," Chertoff said. It's not clear exactly how the troop forces will be divvied up just yet, and the officials said they did not yet know how much the new troop movement would cost. It will be up to individual border state governors to decide how to use their Guard forces, and Blum said the cost estimates will be clearer later this week.
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 1)
Overall, this proposal has all the marks of being costly and ineffective. This analysis doesn't even cover the issue of the National Guard already being overstretched as a result of the war in Iraq and the Guard's disaster management responsibilities, which is also a concern. If border states want to spend their own money sending their National Guard forces to the border, fine.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 1)
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the get-tough policy clear in recent comments. "One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Napolitano told a conference in Washington.
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
"One of the things that I think we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border."
SOUTHWEST BORDER (9 documents)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 8)
The White House - Press Office - Administration Officials Announce U.S.-Mexico Border Security Policy: A Comprehensive Response & Commitment (weight: 4)
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 2)
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 2)
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 2)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 1)
CBP Border Security Spotlight (weight: 1)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 8)
For the past eight years or so, the federal government's approach to the Southwest border was to treat it as a problem set and to treat it as something to be dealt with separately from our nation's broader challenges with immigration, security, counternarcotics enforcement and international relations.
In essence--and in some instances quite literally--the issue of the Southwest border was walled off from other issues and dealt with as a discrete entity.
Well, let me tell you, the issues we have with the Southwest border are not discrete and separate. They are related to all of the other issues I just named.
Our approach is to view Southwest border security along with immigration--or enforcement of the immigration laws in the interior of the country--counternarcotics enforcement and streamline citizenship processes together. These things are inextricably linked.
The overall approach is very, very different. It is more strategic, it's more cooperative, more multilateral, and in the long run, it will be more effective. It begins with the paradigm that you cannot segregate the Southwest border from the rest of our nation, nor can we segregate our efforts on the Southwest border from the efforts and the partnership we must have with Mexico. As I said from the start, as we make this shift, one of the things we also know is that we cannot as a federal agency do this by ourselves. You cannot just say the Southwest border, it's off over here--I'm talking Washington-speak now, okay? It's over here, and DHS will deal with all of it. That's not the right way to approach it.
For that reason, I'm pleased to announce today that we're putting an additional $30 million into Operation Stonegarden for the Southwest border. This is a program that helps border counties, border cities, border towns, deal with border-related crimes. Now this builds on $45 million we already deployed to the Southwest border this spring, so for you law enforcement folks in the audience, what this means is that in the past eight months, almost 85 percent of all Stonegarden money nationally has gone right here to the Southwest border.
We have tripled the number of DHS intelligence analysts working on the Southwest border.
We have the job, as I said before, to enforce the law and we need to do that smartly, effectively, strategically, and we need to do that making sure that the Southwest border is not set off by itself, but is part and parcel of our national strategy on illegal immigration, on security, on counter-drugs. We know that the American people value immigration in many different ways, but they value this concept, that we are a nation of laws, but also a nation of immigrants, and that those two things are not mutually inconsistent.
The White House - Press Office - Administration Officials Announce U.S.-Mexico Border Security Policy: A Comprehensive Response & Commitment (weight: 4)
DOJ, DHS, and Treasury are all ramping up personnel and efforts directed at the Southwest border.
DOJ is confronting the criminal enterprises responsible for violence in Mexico and trafficking drugs, illegal arms and bulk cash across the Southwest border.
Placing 16 new positions in its Southwest border field divisions (29% of DEA's domestic agent positions (1,171 agents) are now allocated to the DEA's Southwest border field divisions. DEA is forming four additional Mobile Enforcement Teams (METs) to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking operations and associated violence, both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels.
OCDETF - DOJ's Organized Drug Enforcement Task Forces Program - is adding personnel to its strike force capacity along the Southwest border.
Border security not an isolated issue, Napolitano says -- latimes.com (weight: 2)
Reporting from El Paso - One day after President Obama concluded a summit in Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that securing the Southwest border required targeting several issues at the same time: illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violence in Mexico. Napolitano said her strategy was unlike the Bush administration's, in which "the issue of the Southwest border was walled off from all other issues." "Our approach is to view Southwest border security along with enforcement of our immigration laws in the interior of the country, counter-narcotics enforcement and streamlined citizenship processes together," she said. "These things are inextricably linked."
Napolitano responded that the U.S. government would do a better job of notifying law enforcement agencies in Mexico of pending deportations and would consider adjusting where deportees are sent. During her speech, Napolitano said that much of the violence south of the border is a result of the Mexican government's aggressive campaign targeting the drug cartels. Although deaths continue in Mexico, she said the U.S. has been able to prevent much of the violence from spilling into the U.S. This year, she said, the government has seized more than $69 million in cash, more than 2.4 million pounds of drugs and more than 500 assault rifles and handguns. The mayors of San Diego and Tucson told Napolitano that crime was down in both of their cities. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar said the entire Southwest border is safer and more secure than in previous years, due in large part to increased personnel and technology, but he posed the question: "How do we now sustain that?" John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, also said the U.S. government is considering extending the Merida Initiative, which provides equipment and training to support Mexico's efforts to fight the drug cartels.
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 2)
The money will help improve coordination among federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border, said Gov. Bill Richardson in a news release. "This additional funding will allow us to enhance our border security, and I am pleased that New Mexico is one of four states to receive this grant," Richardson said. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the grant funds during the sixth annual Border Security Conference this week at the University of Texas in El Paso.
More than 84 percent of the fiscal year 2009 funds will go to the southwest border, up from 59 percent in FY 2008.
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 2)
"But for the past eight years or so, the federal government???s approach to the Southwest border was to treat it as a problem set and to treat it as something to be dealt with separately from our nation???s broader challenges with immigration, security, counternarcotics enforcement and international relations." In his opening speech, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a co-sponsor of the conference with UTEP, said that it was essential to have leaders from both the United States and Mexico engaged. One element of that partnership is the Merida Initiative, a program meant to send about $1.5 billion to Mexico for training and equipment, such as helicopters and surveillance gear mostly supplied by U.S. contractors. The program is controversial for several reasons -- the money itself, the question of whether it will go to corrupt officials and actually strengthen cartels, and the concern that using the military against its own population through the Drug War is a recipe for human rights abuses.
UTEP political science professor Staudt, who spoke on violence against women, poverty and dangerous conditions for immigrants, said the conference represented more of the same. Her colleague in the UTEP Political Science Department, Anthony Z. Zruszewski, said that the approach outlined by the conference and its speakers made sense. He added that the other elements have to be overhauling immigration examining the United States??? dependency on narcotics and weapons. During his speech, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security John Brennan spoke about President Obama and Felipe Calderon???s relationship. Brennan said that he thinks Obama has demonstrated his commitment strictly to the Southwest border by his selection of Janet Napolitano as the secretary of Homeland Security.
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
During the Albuquerque portion of the trip, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano swore in a new 21-member Homeland Security Advisory Council Southwest Border Task Force. The purpose of the new body, Napolitano said in a statement, will be to "present me with concrete recommendations to address the complex challenges we face in this region."
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Increase by nearly 18 percent funding for the Justice Department's Southwest Border Initiative, which is aimed at slowing the flow of criminals, weapons and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. This $2 billion request would support efforts by Mexico to combat drug cartel violence and apprehend dangerous criminals.
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 1)
DHS has completed more than 76 miles of pedestrian fence for a total of more than 150 miles of pedestrian fence and 115 miles of vehicle fence on the Southwest border.
CBP Border Security Spotlight (weight: 1)
Map Follows Progress of Southwest Border Fence Project (pdf - 3,853 KB.)
SOUTHERN BORDERS (9 documents)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 5)
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 2)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
USBorderWatch.com - Border Security Is National Security! (weight: 1)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 1)
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 5)
"One of the things that I think we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border."
Feelings, not reason, are often the trigger for policy. How can President Obama look Mexican President Felipe De Jesus Calderon Hinojosa in the eye and say that the United States will need to do more along its southern border if he can't say the same thing to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper? It just wouldn't be fair. It would hurt Calderon's feelings.
The Department of Homeland Security isn't supposed to be a proving ground for touchy-feely policies. Some may be very sorry that Mexico's feelings will be hurt by tougher security measures along its border, but those measures are dictated by necessity. The dangers to America's national security on its southern border are disproportionately greater than anything presented along the Canadian border.
The porous southern border isn't merely an entry way for hardscrabble Mexicans looking for a better life in the good old U.S. of A. Plenty of criminals enter unchecked as well; and, very possibly, sleeper cell terrorists.
The nation's southern border makes the old Wild West look tame. At least the old west had the Earps and the cavalry.
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 2)
Bush gave a primetime speech tonight on immigration and border security (here's the full text of the speech, and here's the fact sheet on it). A lot of the speech covered familiar ground for those who have followed the immigration and border security debate closely; but he did provide some new specifics on his plan for border security, the most newsworthy element of which is the proposal to deploy up to 6,000 members of the National Guard on the southern border as a stopgap measure. Bush discussed this plan in the context of a proposal to increase the number of Border Patrol agents to 18,000 by the end of 2008, from a current level of 12,000. In essence, this proposal is simply fulfilling existing law in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004 which mandated a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol over five years. One way to help during this transition is to use the National Guard.
In coordination with governors, up to 6,000 guard members will be deployed to our southern border.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Soon, a new network of telescopic and infrared video cameras mounted atop 80-foot-tall metal towers will rise above critical locations. The beefed-up border security is not taking place along America's chaotic southern border - riven by drug smuggling, gun running and illegal immigration - but, rather, its traditionally boring northern boundary with Canada.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the get-tough policy clear in recent comments. "One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Napolitano told a conference in Washington.
USBorderWatch.com - Border Security Is National Security! (weight: 1)
Welcome to U.S. Border Watch U.S. Border Watch was created to bring awareness and action in the fight to secure both our Northern and Southern borders.
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
AUSTIN -- Congressional leaders traveled the nation, hosting hearings and ginning up political furor over illegal immigration, lax security on the southern border and drug violence in Mexico. That was three years ago, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in a heated re-election battle, promised to use state dollars to bolster border security in the absence of federal action.
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 1)
Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona lays out his first hand experiances and views as a Southern Border State Congressman, on the failure of our countries elected and un-elected.
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 1)
DHS saw a more than 20 percent reduction in apprehensions of illegal aliens at the Southern border in Fiscal Year 2007. This is an indication that there are fewer attempts to cross the border illegally.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
In a nationally televised speech Monday, Bush called for up to 6,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to the southern U.S. border and for Congress to pass a guest worker plan. He stressed that the United States is not militarizing its southern border and that the Guardsmen will not serve in a law enforcement capacity. Bush will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz., on Thursday to continue to press for his proposal.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
A strategy to gain operational control of the U.S. southern border should focus on building up the means to limit illegal crossings between the land points of entry, to interdict smuggling by air and sea, to discourage unlawful presence inside the country, and to provide adequate legal alternatives to support south-north migration flows. Immigration services can serve this strategy in two ways. Fast and efficient services will act as incentive for those who wish to come here to opt for legal migration over illegal entry.
NATIONAL SECURITY (9 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 4)
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 3)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 3)
USBorderWatch.com - Border Security Is National Security! (weight: 1)
Border Security to Become Copyright Police? | Popular Science (weight: 1)
EDITORIAL: Adrift on border security - Washington Times (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 1)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 4)
Since President Calderon assumed office in December 2006, more than 11,000 Mexicans have perished in narco-related violence. Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, technical secretary for the National Security Public System, said this week that approximately 90 percent of the victims were delinquents, with the remainder belonging to the security forces. Citizens who are not involved in drug trafficking or other criminal activities should rest assured that they are not "the target of violent actions of delinquent groups," Rubido said. The federal official's body count ignored the growing number of civilians killed or injured in cross-fire, including the man and his 10-year-old daughter who were recently slain in Chihuahua City when the truck they were riding in was strafed by bullets from gunmen blasting away at each other on the street.
While acknowledging that corruption had "popped up" in the Mexican military, Bersin differentiated the armed forces from local and state police forces and the judiciary. Mexico's military, he said, is "the lever on which President Calderon is attempting this historic transformation of Mexico, and it is one in which we are heavily invested and one in which we see are own national security implicated."
Fox pointed to other states in central and southern Mexico as having good public security situations. Tamaulipas Governor Eugenio Hernandez labeled the situation in his border state a matter of national security requiring greater federal intervention.
Said Bours, ?The problem in the mountains of Sonora, Alamos and Yecora is a problem of cultivation, and the problem in the north, basically Nogales and Caborca, is a problem with the trafficking of drugs.? The army?s new deployments will follow recent the introductions of more than 1,600 troops in crime-ridden zones like Alamos. Bours underscored that organized crime activities in his state pose a risk to Mexico?s national security, contending that ?Bulgarians and Russians? were present in the immigrant trade, while in other countries guerrilla groups have united with drug traffickers. Although the Mexican army has been long involved in anti-drug activities, Bours? announcement indicates how the military is stepping up its role in combating illegal immigration, traditionally the legal responsibility of the National Migration Institute Since the early days of the Fox administration, Mexican soldiers have taken over highway checkpoints throughout Mexico where travelers? immigration status is sometimes checked. The Sonora governor did not disclose how many extra troops will be stationed in his state. His announcement was preceded by a March meeting between Defense Secretary General Gerardo Clemente Vega Garcia and the governors of Sinaloa, Sonora, Chihuahua and Durango. At the meeting, Defense Secretary Vega pledged his full cooperation with the civilian governors in the drug war.
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 3)
Whatever It Takes is a wide-ranging and highly entertaining read, in which Congressman J. D. Hayworth exposes the ongoing battle where terrorists seek ways to exploit our porous borders and attack our homeland as well as the hypocrisy, greed, and political correctness that could literally destroy our nation. That's the no-nonsense approach of Arizona congressman J. D. Hayworth, one of America's most outspoken and eloquent conservative spokesmen. He knows what we need to do to regain control of our borders, ensure our national security, enforce our laws, protect our jobs, and keep America from being overwhelmed by illegal immigration.
The book's eleven chapter titles demonstrate a logical and methodical progression designed to deepen understanding of the major social, cultural, economic, political, and national security impacts and implications of our national approach to and policies about illegal immigration: Overrun; Crime and Illegal Immigration; Assimilation: Out of Many. ?; Language, Political Correctness, and Illegal Immigration; Mexico: Friend or Foe?; Is America Complicit in Illegal Immigration?; The Left and Right Are Wrong; Is Illegal Immigration the Answer to Social Security?; Guest Worker Amnesty Surrender; Is Opposing Illegal Immigration a Political Loser for Republicans?; and What to Do about Illegal Immigration. While most of Hayworth's criticisms were squarely aimed at liberal rhetoric and politicians, I felt he was balanced in exposing the many conservative acts of omission and cowardice in addressing illegal immigration over the years. The extensive documentation of primarily media and congressional testimony excerpts, coupled with the politically-correct and often illogical rhetoric from illegal immigration advocates and activists were mind-numbing, but absolutely essential for understanding this critical issue from many different, yet inter-related perspectives.
Hayworth clearly understands the challenges facing our nation in reversing years of bending-over-backwards efforts to systemically ignore, justify, and benefit from illegal immigration while neglecting our borders and national security, especially in our post-9/11 world: "None of what I have suggested will be easy.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 3)
Improving immigration services directly affects national security. Having a USCIS that provides fast, responsive, and accurate services is a critical component of any effective strategy for enhancing border security, particularly on the U.S.-Mexican border, which accounts for most of those who enter this country illegally.
Better immigration services could significantly affect south-north migration flows. The more than 500,000 individuals that it is estimated enter the United States annually between the U.S. ports of entry strain federal, state, and local enforcement, preventing them from focusing their resources on the most serious criminal and national security risks.
An effective immigration service will be better able to screen for criminal or national security threats that attempt to infiltrate through America's legal points of entry. The USCIS needs to provide both better services and better security. The right funding model, organizational processes, and interagency operations are key to ensuring that the agency can do both of these jobs well.
USBorderWatch.com - Border Security Is National Security! (weight: 1)
Whatever it takes to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and return the power to the people. BOYCOTT ABSOLUT U.S. Border Watch along with the more than 100 other groups and organizations of the National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition (N.I.I.B.C.) are launching a formal, national, and sustained boycott against Absolut Vodka and all the product lines of it's parent company Pernod-Ricard for promoting, encouraging, and pandering to the separatist that threaten the Sovereignty, and National Security of the United States of America.
Border Security to Become Copyright Police? | Popular Science (weight: 1)
The nice boarder people look on my computer decide I illegally downloaded that disc and what? I no longer own a laptop? What happened to due process? And don't go telling me an illegally downloaded CD is a threat to National security.
EDITORIAL: Adrift on border security - Washington Times (weight: 1)
Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano seems to be floundering on immigration and national security issues. Not only is she continuing her quixotic campaign against Real ID, the main federal law safeguarding the integrity of drivers' licenses and keeping them out of the hands of terrorists, but she has also been weak and apologetic about the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do its job - removing illegal aliens from the United States. By contrast, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who had turned his state into a sanctuary for Illegal aliens, has reversed himself regarding drivers' licenses for illegals and complying with Real ID.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
In a second vote, the Senate agreed 79-16 to an amendment by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., that says prior to implementation of any guest worker program, the onus is on the president to determine whether or not the implementation of the program would strengthen U.S. national security. Such a determination would trigger the guest worker program.
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 1)
UPDATE 05/17/06 9:52 AM : Here's a handy stat, courtesy of the National Security Round Table : 6,000 guardsmen "comes out to one soldier for every mile of border broken down into three 8 hour shifts."
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
The Department of Homeland Security isn't supposed to be a proving ground for touchy-feely policies. Some may be very sorry that Mexico's feelings will be hurt by tougher security measures along its border, but those measures are dictated by necessity. The dangers to America's national security on its southern border are disproportionately greater than anything presented along the Canadian border.
BORDER CROSSINGS (7 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 3)
CBP.gov - home page (weight: 2)
Border Security to Become Copyright Police? | Popular Science (weight: 1)
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 1)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
Border Security (weight: 1)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 3)
Two men were machine-gunned to death the evening of May 15 in front of a large crowd inside the San Martin Bar, an establishment which is located across the street from the local delegation of the federal attorney general's office. One of the victims, Roberto Acosta, was reportedly celebrating his birthday. An evening earlier, two severed heads were found within yards of their bodies near a Mexico-US border crossing south of the city.
Legal gun shops and gun shows are frequently cited as sources for the deadly contraband, and sometimes arrests are made. To stem the flow of weapons across the border, proposals are or in place or in the air to tighten sales at U.S. gun shows, increase vehicle checkpoints at border crossings and improve data bases of weapons purchases by U.S. citizens so guns could be better traced if they wind up in the wrong hands south of the border.
Long vehicular traffic and pedestrian lines were reported at the border crossing from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, to San Luis, Arizona, after the United States Department of Homeland Security decreed a heightened terrorist alert.
CBP.gov - home page (weight: 2)
Border Crossing Document Requirements Have Changed! New travel document requirements are now in effect.
If you arrive in the United States by land or sea, you will need one of six approved documents. Learn more about this initiative and about making your border crossing more efficient.
Border Security to Become Copyright Police? | Popular Science (weight: 1)
As if the security in airports and controls at border crossings weren't slow and intrusive enough, governments around the world are quietly passing laws to allow them to search the contents of your laptop and other electronic devices, like iPods and cellphones. A United States court last month gave border agents carte blanche to hold a laptop for days and even copy its entire contents. The UK government has given its agents authority to search computers at its borders for pornography.
Local News | Privacy vs. border security: Critics say laptop searches cross the line | Seattle Times Newspaper (weight: 1)
"I thought it was going too far." Khaki's story joins what seem to be growing numbers of similar reports from people many of them Muslims or of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent who say that their laptops, cellphones or other electronic devices were searched or seized at airports or U.S. border crossings, and that they've been questioned extensively.
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) in 2004 to increase security on the northern border. This initiative requires proof of identity and citizenship for people crossing the border into the United States. Unfortunately, WHTI has significantly increased wait times at border crossing, delays which have been particularly damaging to those business that rely on the "just in time" process--that is, delivering products (such as fresh produce) just before they are made available for purchase.
Border Security (weight: 1)
In today's uncertain world, government agencies face increasingly complex challenges in the battle to monitor and secure their borders. Illegal immigration and threats of terrorist acts are on the rise, and those who perpetrate these acts constantly find new ways to use wireless technology to plan and execute illegal border crossings and other types of illegal trafficking.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
Simply increasing security at the border has not dramatically decreased illegal border crossings.
NATIONAL GUARD (6 documents)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 7)
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 4)
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 2)
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 1)
Governors Advance Border Security Partnerships (weight: 1)
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 7)
WASHINGTON - President Bush and members of his administration on Tuesday were defending the president's border security proposal, saying they have enough resources to put National Guard troops at the border and to enforce other immigration reforms. "The program to put guards on the border is one that will enable the Border Patrol to do its job better. It's very important for the American people because it's the Border Patrol that's going to be on the front line of apprehending people trying to sneak into our country," Bush said during an appearance with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Bush said that his proposal to place up to 6,000 Guard members along the southern U.S. border "really is not going to put a strain on our capacity to fight and win a War on Terror as well as deal with natural disasters." He said the administration would be working with governors to make sure the deployment doesn't have a negative impact on their ability to deal with storms or other emergencies.
The states also will be eligible for federal reimbursement for use of National Guard forces. Bush renewed his call for a temporary worker program that runs in conjunction with tighter border security, which he says must happen together for immigration reform to be effective.
In a nationally televised speech Monday, Bush called for up to 6,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to the southern U.S. border and for Congress to pass a guest worker plan. He stressed that the United States is not militarizing its southern border and that the Guardsmen will not serve in a law enforcement capacity. Bush will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz., on Thursday to continue to press for his proposal.
The Guardsmen would mostly serve two-week stints before rotating out of the assignment, so keeping the force level at 6,000 over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops. The troops would be paid for with some of the $1.9 billion requested from Congress to supplement border enforcement this year. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said he intends to call a hearing on the National Guard deployment "at the earliest possible opportunity." Bush also said he would ask Congress for additional funding and legal authority to end "catch and release."
"We can certainly do what is being asked by our commander in chief," Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, National Guard bureau chief, said at Tuesday's press conference alongside Chertoff. "This is going to be a tremendous enforcement support partnership," added U.S. Border Patrol chief David Aguilar.
Chertoff said the ramp-up will begin in June, but won't take place all in one lump. "Bear in mind it's not going to happen simultaneously, and we're not going to put 6,000 National Guard on the border in one day.
I particularly appreciated the temporary use of the National Guard," Chambliss said. "What I didn't particularly appreciate were his comments on how someone can just get into this country if they write a check and learn English."
Defense Tech: Bush's Border Security Theater (weight: 4)
Bush gave a primetime speech tonight on immigration and border security (here's the full text of the speech, and here's the fact sheet on it). A lot of the speech covered familiar ground for those who have followed the immigration and border security debate closely; but he did provide some new specifics on his plan for border security, the most newsworthy element of which is the proposal to deploy up to 6,000 members of the National Guard on the southern border as a stopgap measure. Bush discussed this plan in the context of a proposal to increase the number of Border Patrol agents to 18,000 by the end of 2008, from a current level of 12,000. In essence, this proposal is simply fulfilling existing law in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004 which mandated a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol over five years. One way to help during this transition is to use the National Guard.
After that, the number of guard forces will be reduced as new Border Patrol agents and new technologies come online. It is important for Americans to know that we have enough guard forces to win the war on terror, to respond to natural disasters, and to help secure our border. To paraphrase Bruce Schneier, this idea is "border security theater" - a political proposal designed to grease the legislative skids in Congress, but one that will have little impact on border security, and even worse, is operationally flawed and quite likely to be a costly diversion from other border security priorities. How are these Guardsmen going to be trained? Guarding and patrolling the border requires many types of specialized training: language skills, driving skills, legal knowledge, cultural training, etc. The Border Patrol currently spends about $160 million per year on training to develop and maintain its skilled workforce. Members of the National Guard have not been trained in many of these areas, nor will they immediately possess the skills needed to conduct the activities outlined in the speech - intelligence, surveillance - in a domestic context. Where are they going to live? Unlike with Border Patrol agents, the federal government will be responsibility for providing temporary housing for members of the National Guard deployed at the border. How much is this going to cost? (Although on the other hand, perhaps we've just found a use for the 11,000 FEMA trailers that are sitting in Hope, Arkansas).
Overall, this proposal has all the marks of being costly and ineffective. This analysis doesn't even cover the issue of the National Guard already being overstretched as a result of the war in Iraq and the Guard's disaster management responsibilities, which is also a concern. If border states want to spend their own money sending their National Guard forces to the border, fine.
Chertoff: Well, the National Guard is really, first of all, not trained for that mission.
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 2)
The National Guard continues to support the Border Patrol under Operation Jump Start. This partnership has been extremely productive as we work to the build the fence and train Border Patrol agents.
The National Guard has assisted with the apprehension of nearly 124,000 illegal aliens and the seizure of more than 900 vehicles, 250,000 pounds of marijuana, nearly 5,000 pounds of cocaine, and more than $68,000 in currency since the start of Operation Jump Start.
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 1)
The agents will be given updated equipment and surveillance technology to help track the movement of cash, drugs and weapons. At a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday, Phoenix, Arizona, Mayor Phil Gordon called the administration's initiative "a great first step," but added, "it's a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed." Phoenix finds itself at the center of a "perfect storm" of drug runners and human smugglers, he said. While most traditional crimes are down, crimes such as drug-related kidnappings and torturing are overwhelming Gordon's police department. "Most nights we have over 60 Phoenix police officers (and) some federal agents rushing to rescue those on a reactive basis," Gordon said. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has also sought additional help for his state. Last month, Perry said he asked Napolitano for aviation assistance and "1,000 more troops that we can commit to different parts of the border." Perry said it didn't matter to him what kind of troops came. "As long as they are boots on the ground that are properly trained to deal with the border region, I don't care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents."
Governors Advance Border Security Partnerships (weight: 1)
The Governor also met with U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar to discuss radar technology projects along the border, as well as the agency's commitment to increase the number of Border Patrol agents, particularly in light of the recent decision by the federal government to reduce the number of National Guard troops at the border.
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 1)
Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary due to visit Mexico next week along with Eric Holder, the U.S. attorney general, for a conference on arms-trafficking, said that the administration was still studying the idea of sending extra National Guard reserve troops to boost border security. Speaking on Tuesday, Napolitano said she was confident that Mexico's government "will not fail" in its war against the cartels.
MEXICAN BORDER (6 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 10)
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 3)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 2)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 10)
International Peace Brigades for Chihuahua? A well-known Mexican border state politician and social activist called this week for international human rights observers to come to the state of Chihuahua. Interviewed on CNN's Aristegui program, Victor Quintana, Chihuahua state legislator for the center-left PRD party and advisor to the Democratic Campesino Front, said the Mexican government's anti-drug Joint Operation Chihuahua failed to end narco-violence, encouraged human rights abuses and left the citizenry defenseless, as evidenced by the kidnap-murders this month of Mormon community activist Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law Luis Widmar in northern Chihuahua. "This is a sign of the failed state we are living in," Quintana contended.
According to the longtime political leader, people uninvolved in the fight between rival drug cartels are increasingly falling victim to bands of criminals on the one hand and Mexican security forces on the other.
The anti-drug offensive, the Mexican president insisted, was touching off "desperate reactions" by crime groups feeling the pressure of the federal boot. Despite the president's upbeat assessments, drug cartels significantly escalated their confrontations with Mexican security forces this week.
Disaffected members of the Piedras Negras police force in the Mexican border state of Coahuila returned to work Wednesday, April 22, after staging an overnight work stoppage.
Emotionally distraught families, usually numbering in the hundreds, gather outside the gates of a violence-torn Mexican prison in the hopes of hearing any tidbit of information about the fate of loved ones inside. The latest such drama was restaged early this week in the northern Mexican border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, as relatives anxiously waited to find out the names of survivors and victims of an early morning October 20 riot that left at least 21 inmates dead and another 17 hospitalized.
None of the stories explained the means by which scores of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and even anti-tank missiles would be moved from the Mexican border to the proximity of Fort Huachuca.
Articles by Armando Rodriguez and editorial staff. She might not have a hit ballad crooned in her name, but Rosa Emma Carvajal Ontiversos was something of legend in the Mexican border town of Palomas across the New Mexico line.
Blood flowed generously on the streets of Mexican border and other cities during the last days of President Vicente Fox's term.
Lapolaka.com, November 25, 2006. Mayors in Texas and the northern Mexican border state of Coahuila are mobilizing their opposition to the new series of border walls planned by the Bush Administration.
A renewed warning for U.S. travelers in northern Mexico touched off another round of criticism by Nuevo Laredo businessmen. Prompted by continued drug-related violence, the U.S. State Department renewed its advisory on April 26 cautioning U.S. visitors to northern Mexican border cities.
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 3)
Along the highway, I passed through two police checkpoints, one ostensibly to catch illegal immigrants (Afghans, mostly, who cross the border almost as frequently as Hispanics do the Mexican border with the United States), the other to catch smugglers (mostly opium and heroin, again from Afghanistan). FactCheck: How Many Mexican Guns Come From U.S.? weeks, efforts by the United States and Mexico to stop the illegal transfer of guns and drugs along their shared border have 17 March 2009.
The most recent one expired in 1994. He says he'd rather enforce laws on the books that make it illegal to send assault weapons across the Mexican border.
U.S. name 'border czar' to watch Mexican border official who was charged with cracking down on illegal immigration in the 1990s, to fill the post at officials and discuss coordinating efforts to disrupt illegal smuggling and reduce illegal immigration.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the get-tough policy clear in recent comments. "One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Napolitano told a conference in Washington.
Unlike the Mexican border -- which is half as long - no drug war or chaos rages in the north. Arrests and drug seizures in 2008 totaled less than 1 percent of those down south. "It's a whole lot quieter up here," said Azel J. Price, a border patrol agent in Buffalo, who previously worked for seven years in Yuma, Ariz. That's not to say that border authorities aren't looking for signs of trouble.
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 2)
"One of the things that I think we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border."
Napolitano's fair play drivel may well be designed to curry favor with Hispanic Americans who chafe at a U.S. crackdown on the Mexican border.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Mexico's government has deployed 5000 police and army reinforcements to the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez??to help combat the ongoing crime violence near the U.S. border.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
The House bill emphasizes border security and calls for construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border. It also makes no guest worker provision. "I am not going to get into this 'what if'. the Senate has to pass a bill," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "I don't underestimate the difficulty in the House and Senate coming to an agreement on this issue, but I do think it's possible because I think the American people expect us to do something responsible here." White House spokesman Tony Snow said that the House and Senate need to find a "middle ground" on the question over granting amnesty, which he said the president opposes, and deporting every illegal immigrant, which the president also opposes. "What the president's trying to do is, it's a middle course, but it's also a leadership course" by laying down benchmarks that give the House and Senate firm guidance, Snow said. FOX News' Major Garrett, Molly Hooper, Trish Turner, Sharon Kehnemui Liss and Greg Simmons contributed to this report.
SECURITY CONFERENCE (5 documents)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 2)
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 2)
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 1)
Border Security Conference on USTREAM: The 2009 Border Security Conference. Conference (weight: 1)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 2)
As the spending continues, so does debate over how secure the border is and how the United States can keep the raging drug war from spilling north. Those discussions will go on Monday and Tuesday at a Border Security Conference at the University of Texas at El Paso.
A state audit last spring showed the department had allocated millions in resources, including a helicopter and about 100 cars, that were meant for the border to other areas of the state. Another audit, released last week, said that demands to put more state troopers in the border region were exacerbating a critical personnel shortage in the department. Howard Campbell, a sociology and anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, who will be one of the featured speakers at the Border Security Conference, said the United States needed to rethink its approach to border security. Military-style tactics of building barriers and installing more armed officers on the border, he said, ignore the root problems that cause illegal immigration, drug trafficking and the cartel wars in Mexico. "It's sending the message to Mexico that the U.S. views the situation almost as if Mexico were a hostile enemy," Campbell said. As long as American drug consumption continues and U.S. companies need cheap labor, he said, the demand for those resources will remain. "We're deeply complicit," he said. The United States, he said, would improve security by finding ways to allow workers to legally come to the country and by investing in prevention and treatment of drug addiction to reduce consumption.
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 2)
The newest DHS university research is the Center of Excellence in Command, Control and Interoperability (C2I), which is led by Purdue University and Rutgers University. According to DHS, this center will "create the scientific basis and enduring technologies needed to analyze massive amounts of information from multiple sources to more reliably detect threats to the security of the nation and its infrastructures, and to the health and welfare of its populace." The August 10 visit of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to El Paso to meet with the and to speak at the 2009 Border Security Conference will likely highlight the role of one of these centers of excellence, namely the National Center for Border Security and Immigration.
NCBSI was launched at the 2008 Border Security Conference at UTEP, a conference officially sponsored by Cong.
State gets $2.6M for border security - New Mexico Business Weekly: (weight: 1)
The money will help improve coordination among federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies along the southwest border, said Gov. Bill Richardson in a news release. "This additional funding will allow us to enhance our border security, and I am pleased that New Mexico is one of four states to receive this grant," Richardson said. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the grant funds during the sixth annual Border Security Conference this week at the University of Texas in El Paso.
Border Security Conference provides a law enforcement framework for the U.S.-Mexico line - Newspaper Tree El Paso (weight: 1)
The sixth annual Border Security Conference at UTEP this week featured top government officials, border security contractors, and an announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano of more funding for Operation Stonegarden, a program that "assists local authorities with operational costs and equipment purchases that contribute to border security," according to a DHS news release. Although some speakers -- such as UTEP professors Howard Campbell and Kathy Staudt, and U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, (D-Calif.) -- challenged the law enforcement paradigm that frames U.S. government thinking about the border, the majority of speakers were those involved in putting the frame together. Napolitano, in her speech announcing the extra $30 million for Stonegarden, said that the U.S. and Mexico were winning the Drug War. "We have a unique opportunity now with Mexico to really break up these cartels, and shame on us if we don't take full advantage of that opportunity and go through that window together, and that is one of the fights that we are fighting," she said.
Border Security Conference on USTREAM: The 2009 Border Security Conference. Conference (weight: 1)
Border Security Conference on USTREAM: The 2009 Border Security Conference.
NORTHERN BORDERS (5 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 14)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 5)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 4)
Border Security Conference 2009 (weight: 2)
CBP Border Security Spotlight (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 14)
The northern border city of Nuevo Laredo was torn by intense violence from 2003 to 2006 but is relatively quiet today in comparison with other places.
Jaime Gonzalez Duran, alias "The Hummer," was arrested November 7 along with two other men in the northern border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, by the Mexican army and Federal Preventive Police.
Of all illegal drug users, 465,000 were classified as addicts in 2008-up from 307,000 in 2002. Perhaps overstating his case, Jose Carlos Hernandez Aguilar, a Chihuahua City-based criminal researcher, recently warned that 50 percent of the northern border state's population could be addicted to drugs by 2020.
A popular substance, especially in the northern border region, is heroin.
"According to the information that we have in the state and according to the information the federal government has given us, there is the possibility, the high possibility, that we could have another round of violence," warned Aldo Fasci Zuazua, assistant state attorney general of the northern border state of Nuevo Leon.
Last weekend, the bodies of a father and his son were dumped near separate army installations in the northern border state of Tamaulipas.
A critic of the border wall plan, Calderon has called for "bridges for progress and not walls that isolate and divide." Back on the protest march, meanwhile, Mayor Perez, who was joined by Mayor Francisco Trujillo of Jimenez, Coahuila, said he was uplifted by the results of the November 7 election in the United States that saw President Bush's Republican Party lose control of Congress. Mayor Perez said he was confident the new U.S. Congress would cut the budget for the planned series of walls that will extend 700 miles along Mexico's northern border. On the U.S. side of the border, Richard F. Cortez, the mayor of McAllen, Texas, said in a recent interview with the Mexican press that he and other Texas mayors from "El Paso to Brownsville" hope to meet soon in Laredo, Texas, with United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in order to convey their rejection of the fencing plans.
Various reports now point to Nuevo Leon's strategic location along drug-smuggling corridors; the growth of the street-level narco business, and the importance of arms trafficking in the northern border state.
The death toll and motives might be different, but the newspaper headlines in question actually hail from Mexican newspapers that print daily stories about narco-violence that's extended from northern border states to the central and southern parts of the nation.
Source: Nuevo Dia ( Nogales ), May 11 and 12, 2006. Even from his federal prison cell, accused drug lord Osiel Cardenas could still wield considerable power and public influence. In Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Cardenas ' name surfaced in twin scandals that surfaced this week after public celebrations in honor of Children's Day were held in the northern border cities and supposedly sponsored by the alleged chieftan of the Gulf drug cartel.
El Universal, April 28, 2006. Even from his federal prison cell, accused drug lord Osiel Cardenas could still wield considerable power and public influence. In Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Cardenas ' name surfaced in twin scandals that surfaced this week after public celebrations in honor of Children's Day were held in the northern border cities and supposedly sponsored by the alleged chieftan of the Gulf drug cartel.
As in neighboring Michocan state and Tamaulipas state on the northern border, the involvement of police in violent crimes, either as victims or suspected victimizers, has been particularly prominent in Acapulco and Guerrero state. Another outstanding characteristic is the blatant nature of the crimes, often committed in visible public places without anyone ever detained.
While the northern border cities serve as the final staging points for the export of drugs to the U.S. market, Guerrero stands as a key entry point for South-American-produced cocaine.
In Mexico, maras have been linked to immigrant smuggling on the southern and northern borders, drug trafficking and violent crimes.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 5)
Changes are coming more quickly now, driven by fears of terrorists exploiting the relative quiet of the northern border and complaints that the U.S. has been disproportionately soft on Canada.
Before February 2008, the northern border was so open that an oral declaration of citizenship was sufficient to enter the United States.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection report to Congress in 2008 noted a "significant concern" that extremists could slip across the northern border. It cited the "undisputed presence in Canada of known terrorist affiliate and extremist groups," including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria.
In a November 2008 report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office cited "networks of illicit criminal activity and smuggling of drugs, currency, people and weapons between the two countries." Canadian officials, however, say the threats are overplayed and recently chided Napolitano after she suggested terrorists regularly cross the northern border. In an interview on "The National," Canada's main evening TV news show, Napolitano said April 20 that "to the extent that terrorists have come into our country. it's been across the Canadian border." Asked if she was talking about the Sept. 11 perpetrators, she replied, "Not just those, but others as well."
Regardless, the buildup along the northern border continues. The border patrol opened its first northern base for unmanned Predator B aircraft on Feb. 16 at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. Other high-tech equipment also will be deployed.
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 4)
On January 15, the United States Northern Command Joint Task Force-North accidentally released to the public a briefing that expressed concerns over terrorists entering the U.S. from Canada. While the report was taken offline and out of public view shortly thereafter, this briefing is one of many reports centered on U.S./Canadian security policies, including a recent request by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for information relating to the mechanisms and programs currently in place at the U.S. northern border. While the recommendations of the U.S. Northern Command briefing were not made public, the recent focus on the northern border has left many citizens from both countries concerned that the U.S. might decide to increase security measures at the border in a way that would hamper trade and travel. Initiatives to secure the United States from potential terrorists in Canada should extend beyond the border and center on information-sharing and other kinds of anti-terrorism cooperation, instituting processes and programs that respect both nations' sovereignty, and addresses common concerns--without hindering either nation's economic viability.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) in 2004 to increase security on the northern border. This initiative requires proof of identity and citizenship for people crossing the border into the United States. Unfortunately, WHTI has significantly increased wait times at border crossing, delays which have been particularly damaging to those business that rely on the "just in time" process--that is, delivering products (such as fresh produce) just before they are made available for purchase.
Every day approximately $1.5 billion in goods and 300,000 people cross the northern border.
The U.S. should find ways to encourage the private sector to invest in infrastructure (such as toll bridges) at the northern border. This will not only speed the processing of goods and services but will ensure that terrorists are not sneaking through because of gaps in ailing infrastructure. One way this can be accomplished is through the SAFETY Act, which provides liability protection for companies developing homeland security technologies. This protection is only for companies in the United States and greatly limits the deployment of these necessary technologies.
Border Security Conference 2009 (weight: 2)
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is pleased to invite you to the Border Security Conference: Fostering a 21 st Century Relationship of Cooperation and Shared Responsibility, which will be held on August 10-11, 2009, on the UTEP campus. Now in its sixth year, this annual conference is hosted by UTEP in cooperation with the Office of Congressman Silvestre Reyes. The titles for this year???s panels are: The Merida Initiative: A Shared Responsibility to Confront Illicit Narcotics Trafficking; Integrating Technology and Connecting Communities; Forming a Comprehensive Homeland Security Operation; and The Importance of Strengthening Civic Society, Commerce, and Academia.
We hope you will join us for the 2009 Border Security Conference: Fostering a 21 st Century Relationship of Cooperation and Shared Responsibility. Please explore this website for more information and to register.
CBP Border Security Spotlight (weight: 1)
Video: CBP Unmanned Aircraft Program Expands to Northern Border CBP Air and Marine recently brought the first unmanned aircraft to the northern border, stationing it in North Dakota.
BORDER REGIONS (5 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 5)
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 2)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 5)
A popular substance, especially in the northern border region, is heroin.
In another section of the Mexico-US border region, soldiers reportedly clashed with narcos in the Chihuahua border town of Palomas across from New Mexico on June 12.
The narco-video, in which four presumed members of the Gulf Cartel-linked Zetas (an armed gang founded by US-trained deserters from the Mexican armed forces) are shown tortured and being interrogated by alleged members of the Mexican Federal Agency for Investigations (AFI) before supposedly being executed, is more evidence of how narco-violence has spread from the US-Mexico border region to the Mexican interior, especially to the states of Michoacan and Guerrero along the strategic southern Pacific cocaine import corrdior.
As the northerners battle it out for control of the U.S. border region, newer forces in the south could well be gathering strength and reconfiguring the equation in the current state-wide political transition and mayhem over the market.
Current or former law enforcement officers have been a frequent target in the wave of gangland-style slayings jolting the border region.
Obama to beef up Mexico border policy - CNN.com (weight: 2)
More agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives will be deployed to the border region.
The agents will be given updated equipment and surveillance technology to help track the movement of cash, drugs and weapons. At a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday, Phoenix, Arizona, Mayor Phil Gordon called the administration's initiative "a great first step," but added, "it's a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed." Phoenix finds itself at the center of a "perfect storm" of drug runners and human smugglers, he said. While most traditional crimes are down, crimes such as drug-related kidnappings and torturing are overwhelming Gordon's police department. "Most nights we have over 60 Phoenix police officers (and) some federal agents rushing to rescue those on a reactive basis," Gordon said. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has also sought additional help for his state. Last month, Perry said he asked Napolitano for aviation assistance and "1,000 more troops that we can commit to different parts of the border." Perry said it didn't matter to him what kind of troops came. "As long as they are boots on the ground that are properly trained to deal with the border region, I don't care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents."
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
A state audit last spring showed the department had allocated millions in resources, including a helicopter and about 100 cars, that were meant for the border to other areas of the state. Another audit, released last week, said that demands to put more state troopers in the border region were exacerbating a critical personnel shortage in the department. Howard Campbell, a sociology and anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, who will be one of the featured speakers at the Border Security Conference, said the United States needed to rethink its approach to border security. Military-style tactics of building barriers and installing more armed officers on the border, he said, ignore the root problems that cause illegal immigration, drug trafficking and the cartel wars in Mexico. "It's sending the message to Mexico that the U.S. views the situation almost as if Mexico were a hostile enemy," Campbell said. As long as American drug consumption continues and U.S. companies need cheap labor, he said, the demand for those resources will remain. "We're deeply complicit," he said. The United States, he said, would improve security by finding ways to allow workers to legally come to the country and by investing in prevention and treatment of drug addiction to reduce consumption.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to Mexico to confer with Mexican leaders about the Merida Initiative ??? a plan to flood the U.S.-Mexican border region with $1.4 billion in U.S. assistance for law-enforcement training and equipment, as well as technical advice and training. The assistance is intended to help Mexican President Felipe Calder??n Hinojosa step up his war against drug cartels and lessen fears about Mexican drug-related violence spilling over American borders. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said she wants her department and other federal agencies to focus on reducing the number of weapons being sent illegally from the U.S. into Mexico.
Al Jazeera English - Americas - US boosts Mexico border security (weight: 1)
Calderon declared tough action against the country's drugs gangs shortly after entering office in 2006, sending thousands of troops to the volatile border regions, a move which sparked an explosion of violence from the drugs cartels.
BORDER INITIATIVES (5 documents)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 3)
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 2)
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 1)
Is Border Security Bad for Nature? - TIME (weight: 1)
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 3)
The federal government has spent more than $3.7 billion on border security, including building 700 miles of fence, beefing up patrols and helping Mexico fight drug cartels. Texas has spent nearly $200 million on its own border initiatives, sending dollars to help local officers patrol the border, installing Web-based surveillance cameras and buying more helicopters and squad cars to track down criminals and undocumented immigrants.
In 2006, the department caught nearly 1.1 million undocumented crossers. As this fiscal year comes to a close, Reilly said, agents have caught about 470,000. The downturn in the economy and lack of work opportunities contribute to the reduced traffic, Reilly said, but he said the border security initiatives were also a big factor.
Katherine Cesinger, a spokes woman for Perry, said the border initiatives were intended to deter crime.
Immigration Reforms and Border Security Technologies (weight: 2)
The newly established Secure Border Initiative (SBI) will deploy a combination of surveillance technologies, data analysis systems and dispatching systems to help stop illegal migration between ports of entry???systems that the Senate bill describes as a ???virtual fence.??? US-VISIT, an automated biometric entry-exit system, is becoming the main tool for screening travelers at the point of entry. US-VISIT was mandated by immigration and border security legislation passed before and after September 11, 2001, and Congress is now calling for an acceleration of full implementation and enhancement of its security features. Full system deployment of both programs may have a significant effect on reducing illegal immigration and making it more difficult for terrorists to enter the U.S. Yet these systems currently cover only a fraction of the border and are required of a small percentage of those who pass through ports of entry. In many cases, they can be evaded with stolen or fraudulent travel documents. Given that those who want to elude these systems will exploit loopholes and gaps, the systems??? effectiveness would depend upon complete implementation of all systems along all borders and ports as well as requiring entry and exit data from all travelers.
The DHS replaced America???s Shield with the ???Secure Border Initiative??? (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan which, among other things, involves: ???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.??? 8 In support of the initiative, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a solicitation for the Secure Border Initiative Network (or ???SBI net ???) contract, estimated at $2.5 billion. Normally, government agencies that outsource information system development will issue a set of requirements for the information systems they want and firms bid with proposals to develop and install systems that meet these requirements. CBP held a SBI net ???industry day??? on January 25, 2006 for over 400 private sector participants where DHS Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson took outsourcing a step further. ???This is an unusual invitation.
Border Lines: Border Security and the Academy (weight: 1)
Given the failures and controversies surrounding the department's Secure Border Initiative including the border fence and high-tech surveillance systems ("virtual fence") there is good cause to question the involvement of universities in the support and development of DHS border security infrastructure and strategies. The huge sums of DHS funds flowing to private contractors such as Boeing also raise questions about the degree to which research and education about border issues is shaped by monetary incentives.
Is Border Security Bad for Nature? - TIME (weight: 1)
The $7.6 billion federal Secure Border Initiative passed last year calls for the construction of 370 miles of pedestrian fence along the border by 2008 - 129 miles in Arizona, 153 in Texas, 76 in California and 12 in New Mexico. Pedestrian fences have so far proved useful in inhibiting human traffic, but conservationists and others worry they limit access to the habitat for endangered species such as jaguars and the antelope-like Sonoran Desert pronghorn.
Obama calls for more investment in border security - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com (weight: 1)
Increase by nearly 18 percent funding for the Justice Department's Southwest Border Initiative, which is aimed at slowing the flow of criminals, weapons and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. This $2 billion request would support efforts by Mexico to combat drug cartel violence and apprehend dangerous criminals.
BORDER ENFORCEMENT (5 documents)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
Security & Law Enforcement Issues (weight: 1)
Advocating that marijuana be regulated like alcohol, Houston contended that any policy initiative relegating cannabis use to the control of criminal organizations is "nothing but a full-employment plan for professional drug warriors and cartel bosses alike…" The Obama administration's prioritization of border security over immediate immigration reform was spelled out in a June 4 interview of border czar Alan Bersin with journalist and KUNM radio News Director Jim Williams in Albuquerque. Bersin laid out three pre-conditions for comprehensive immigration reform, including border enforcement, workplace enforcement and "interior" enforcement directed at 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The border czar defined interior enforcement as deporting undocumented persons who commit crimes in this country. "They need to be identified, arrested and removed from this country," Bersin told Williams.
DHS: Remarks by Secretary Napolitano at the Border Security Conference (weight: 1)
We've doubled the number of agents that ICE has assigned to the border enforcement security teams, which include American, Mexican, state, local, tribal law enforcement agents working together to crack down on smuggling.
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
Working together on law enforcement initiatives will make each country's homeland security much more efficient. Law enforcement can often disrupt terrorist activity before it starts, and improving cooperation in this area will bear fruit on both sides of the border. A great example of this kind of program is the Integrated Border Enforcement Team, a joint program that targets dangerous people and goods by sharing intelligence and law enforcement capabilities from various agencies. Similar cooperation efforts should be used for security missions.
FOXNews.com - Bush Defends Border Security Proposal - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum (weight: 1)
The Guardsmen would mostly serve two-week stints before rotating out of the assignment, so keeping the force level at 6,000 over the course of a year could require up to 156,000 troops. The troops would be paid for with some of the $1.9 billion requested from Congress to supplement border enforcement this year. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said he intends to call a hearing on the National Guard deployment "at the earliest possible opportunity." Bush also said he would ask Congress for additional funding and legal authority to end "catch and release."
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 1)
Edwin Meese III and Matthew Spalding, "The Principles of Immigration," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1807, October 19, 2004, at www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/upload/70696_1.pdf. For recommendations on coordinating activities between these agencies, see James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., "Integrating Immigration, Customs, and Border Enforcement Should Be a Priority," Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum No.1006,July 21, 2006, at www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandDefense/upload/em_1006.pdf.
SECURITY OFFICIALS (4 documents)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
Hamas says Egypt bolstering Gaza border security - Haaretz - Israel News (weight: 1)
Border Security (weight: 1)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
All but a small part of the fencing has been completed, despite a spate of lawsuits and protests, primarily in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. As of July 24, homeland security officials said, they had completed nearly 634 miles of pedestrian and vehicle barriers.
Hamas says Egypt bolstering Gaza border security - Haaretz - Israel News (weight: 1)
Egypt has been under consistent international pressure, particularly from the United States and Israel, to do more to end smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces destroyed many of the cross-border tunnels during its January offensive in the Gaza Strip, and since then Egypt has destroyed many others, Egyptian and Palestinian security officials say.
Border Security (weight: 1)
After drawing an electronic perimeter on a map (even beyond physical fences or visual surveillance), any mobile phone that crosses that barrier triggers a real-time alert. This significantly extends the reach of border security beyond current fence and video surveillance tactics, techniques, and procedures such as cameras, night vision, and radar. In the event of a large border incident, such as a massive breach or a terrorist attack, border security officials can actively track the mobile phones of the fleeing perpetrators, and quickly and efficiently deploy security teams -- all in real time.
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
The nation's top security official is saying that plowing tax dollars into more security along the Canadian border has nothing to do with current or imminent or potential threats to the American homeland, but to fairness.
SECURITY MEASURES (4 documents)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 2)
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 2)
On January 15, the United States Northern Command Joint Task Force-North accidentally released to the public a briefing that expressed concerns over terrorists entering the U.S. from Canada. While the report was taken offline and out of public view shortly thereafter, this briefing is one of many reports centered on U.S./Canadian security policies, including a recent request by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for information relating to the mechanisms and programs currently in place at the U.S. northern border. While the recommendations of the U.S. Northern Command briefing were not made public, the recent focus on the northern border has left many citizens from both countries concerned that the U.S. might decide to increase security measures at the border in a way that would hamper trade and travel. Initiatives to secure the United States from potential terrorists in Canada should extend beyond the border and center on information-sharing and other kinds of anti-terrorism cooperation, instituting processes and programs that respect both nations' sovereignty, and addresses common concerns--without hindering either nation's economic viability.
Adding new security measures at the border without hurting the two economies would be extremely difficult.
Billions on border: Security, drug war to be debated at conference - El Paso Times (weight: 1)
Stephen Meiners, senior tactical analyst for Latin America at the Stratfor global intelligence agency, said higher prices for illicit drugs in the United States and indications that Mexican criminals are turning more to kidnapping and extortion for money are signs of some abatement in drug trafficking. Security measures such as the fence, he said, could be factors. It's hard to find evidence that security policies alone are driving those changes. "This is not an issue that can be solved by law enforcement or by any one tool for that matter," Meiners said. Slowing immigration numbers can be attributed primarily to economic conditions, he said.
Lawmaker challenges border security priorities - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com (weight: 1)
Officials from Customs and Border Protection defended the success of the border security measures.
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 1)
The Department of Homeland Security isn't supposed to be a proving ground for touchy-feely policies. Some may be very sorry that Mexico's feelings will be hurt by tougher security measures along its border, but those measures are dictated by necessity. The dangers to America's national security on its southern border are disproportionately greater than anything presented along the Canadian border.
CANADIAN BORDER (4 documents)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 6)
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 1)
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
American Thinker: Napolitano's Politically Correct Border Security (weight: 6)
Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano is determined to beef up security along the rough and tumble Canadian border. That's right, Canada.
In a dramatic break with the Bush administration, Napolitano is offering a novel rationale for stepped up vigilance on the Canadian border. A rationale that her boss, the President, must beamingly approve of as "real change."
The nation's top security official is saying that plowing tax dollars into more security along the Canadian border has nothing to do with current or imminent or potential threats to the American homeland, but to fairness.
The Department of Homeland Security isn't supposed to be a proving ground for touchy-feely policies. Some may be very sorry that Mexico's feelings will be hurt by tougher security measures along its border, but those measures are dictated by necessity. The dangers to America's national security on its southern border are disproportionately greater than anything presented along the Canadian border.
By comparison, the Canadian border is a Quaker community writ large.
Bulked up security along the Canadian border may, for the most part, wind up as all talk.
U.S. begins beefing up Canadian border security (weight: 2)
The U.S. has ramped up security along the Canadian border ever since Sept. 11.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the get-tough policy clear in recent comments. "One of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border," Napolitano told a conference in Washington.
Border Security on Newsweek (weight: 1)
Spy plane shows worth as flood-fighting tool normally is employed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to scout the Canadian border for drug traffickers, illegal immigrants and terrorists.
U.S., Canada Working Together on Improving Border Security (weight: 1)
Cost: The Canadian border is large, spanning 5,525 miles. It would cost the U.S. government a tremendous amount of resources to successfully secure the physical border. Given the economic (not to mention public diplomacy) consequences associated with such an effort, the U.S. should not spend precious resources in this manner.
SOCIAL SECURITY (3 documents)
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 2)
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 2)
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 2)
Amazon.com: Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror (9780895260284): J. D. Hayworth: Books (weight: 2)
J. D. has walked the border and has seen firsthand the devastation that illegal immigration inflicts on law-abiding Americans. He's read the intelligence reports, talked to the Border Patrol and the Marines, and knows how intolerable illegal immigration is in a post September 11 world. He's heard all the excuses about how our country can't function without illegal aliens and has compelling answers to them all. In Whatever It Takes, you'll learn: How many cities, and J. D. names names, actually refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement. Your city might be among them. How our law enforcement system is so bound in bureaucracy that it treats illegal aliens like fish, throwing them back into the stream of American life; they even call it "catch and release". Why illegal alien murderers and rapists walk free along our streets and how our perverse laws may actually encourage illegal alien gangs to kill (if they cross into Mexico, they won't be extradited). The Social Security lie: illegal immigrants don't support the system; they're actually hastening its downfall. How illegal immigration steals jobs from American workers and reduces their pay.
The book's eleven chapter titles demonstrate a logical and methodical progression designed to deepen understanding of the major social, cultural, economic, political, and national security impacts and implications of our national approach to and policies about illegal immigration: Overrun; Crime and Illegal Immigration; Assimilation: Out of Many. ?; Language, Political Correctness, and Illegal Immigration; Mexico: Friend or Foe?; Is America Complicit in Illegal Immigration?; The Left and Right Are Wrong; Is Illegal Immigration the Answer to Social Security?; Guest Worker Amnesty Surrender; Is Opposing Illegal Immigration a Political Loser for Republicans?; and What to Do about Illegal Immigration. While most of Hayworth's criticisms were squarely aimed at liberal rhetoric and politicians, I felt he was balanced in exposing the many conservative acts of omission and cowardice in addressing illegal immigration over the years. The extensive documentation of primarily media and congressional testimony excerpts, coupled with the politically-correct and often illogical rhetoric from illegal immigration advocates and activists were mind-numbing, but absolutely essential for understanding this critical issue from many different, yet inter-related perspectives.
DHS: Fact Sheet: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement (weight: 2)
E-Verify works by allowing participating employers to electronically compare employee information taken from the Form I-9 (the paper based employee eligibility verification form used for all new hires) against more than 425 million records in the Social Security Administration's (SSA) database and more than 60 million records in DHS immigration databases.
DHS issued a regulation earlier this year which outlines specific steps an employer should take if they receive a "no-match" letter from the SSA informing them they have an employee whose name and Social Security Number do not match the government records. The regulation sets forth clear guidance for businesses to comply with "no-match" notices and provides a safe harbor for employers who follow the guidance and perform due diligence so they are not found in violation of their legal obligations. The implementation of this regulation has been delayed to lawsuits filed by the ACLU and U.S. Chamber of Commerce preventing DHS from issuing "no-match" letters. This page was last reviewed/modified on November 6, 2007.
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services (weight: 2)
Enhancing Interagency Cooperation. To do its job effectively, the USCIS must integrate its activities with many federal agencies including ICE, CBP, the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Labor, and the Social Security Administration (SSA). Building the capacity to conduct interagency operations well is essential to providing both better services and security.
Whether receiving digital transmission of employer "no-match" letters from the SSA to ICE for follow-up investigations or electronically verifying immigration documents for the SSA when an immigrant applies for a Social Security card, the USCIS must have the legal authority, resources, and workforce to ensure that federal agencies are working together, not at cross purposes. Permitting information to flow freely among federal agencies, such as sharing of Social Security no-match data.