FY 08 Budget Priorities: Protecting the Nation from Dangerous People

Securing our borders remains one of the keys to the security of our nation. Not everybody who enters the country to visit here or do business here or to work here is a dangerous person or someone who is going to harm us. In fact, most individuals who come to this country do it for economic reasons. In a post-9/11 world, we have to make sure that dangerous people do not get in.

Progress in Securing Our Borders

Over the last year, we have made important progress toward the goal.

• Ending catch and release - when a majority of non-Mexicans apprehended at the border were released on their own recognizance - to catch, detain and return. We now have a near a zero release rate for non-Mexicans caught at the border.

• Decrease in arrests of non-Mexicans crossing border over same period year before
  Q3 2006	48% ↓
  Q4 2006	68% ↓
  Q1 2007	58% ↓

  Adding hundreds of new Border Patrol agents and significant new infrastructure at the border.
• Beginning work building a virtual fence across the border with the SBInet contract.
• Working with the National Guard so that they could support the Border Patrol through Operation Jump Start.
• Increasing in work site enforcement - 716 criminal arrests, and more than 3,600 administrative apprehensions.
• Decreasing numbers of arrests all along our southwest border as we stepped up enforcement.

FY08 Budget for Expanded Border Control Efforts

The fiscal year 2008 Budget request supports expanding these efforts substantially.

• $1 billion for the SBInet program to support the deployment of integrated infrastructure and technology solutions across our land borders—fences, sensors and surveillance equipment.
• $778 million for 3,000 additional Border Patrol agents. By the end of the calendar 2008 we will have 18,319 agents on the border, growing from about 9,000 in 2001.
• $78 million to support state and local law enforcement training to help us detect, detain, and remove illegal migrants. This is 50 percent more than fiscal year 2007.
• Add $146 million in fiscal year 2008 for the Unique Identity Initiative; collecting 10 fingerprints from foreign visitors and improving data sharing between US-VISIT's and the FBI's fingerprint programs.
• $252 million to implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) at land ports of entry to ensure all people arriving at U.S. ports of entry have a valid identification while keeping the lines moving.
• $224.2 million to support the Transportation Security Administration's screening operations, including additional support for explosive detection, shifting checking of documents from airline staff to TSA and more career opportunities for the Transportation Security Officers (TSO).
• $38 million additional funding to strengthen watch list screening and vet all domestic air travelers through the Secure Flight system.
• $28.7 million increase to identify and remove incarcerated criminal aliens so they are not released back into the general population via the ICE Criminal Alien Program (CAP).
• $16.5 million to support the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) to verify that transportation workers with access to secure areas meet security criteria.
• $788.1 million for the Coast Guard’s Integrated Deepwater System to strengthen the Coast Guard’s ability to safeguard our seaports from terrorists seeking to enter the country or transport dangerous weapons or materials.
• $30 million for the Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV) program will sustain the expansion of the program to provide increased interior enforcement of our immigration laws and more robust worksite enforcement, allowing employers to remove the guesswork involved with hiring new employees.