Read her Full Remarks on Border Security
Texas Insider Report: EL PASO Texas The Obama Administration has engaged in an unprecedented effort to bring focus & intensity to Southwest border security coupled with a reinvigorated smart and effective approach to enforcing immigration laws" said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano at the University of Texas-El Paso yesterday. Napolitano sought to highlight the Administrations unprecedented efforts over the past two years to secure the Southwest border."
Napolitanos remarks as prepared for delivery are available here.
Almost two years into the Southwest Border Initiative and the verdict is in: our approach is working illegal immigration is decreasing deportations are increasing and crime rates have gone down. We are increasing collaboration with federal state local & tribal and Mexican partners while facilitating legal trade and travel."
During her remarks Secretary Napolitano highlighted the Obama administrations efforts to:
- Strengthen Southwest border security by increasing the number of Border Patrol agents from approximately 10000 in 2004 to more than 20700 in 2010;
- Doubling the number of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel assigned to Border Enforcement Security Task Forces;
- Increasing the number of intelligence analysts working along the U.S.-Mexico border;
- Quintupling deployments of Border Liaison Officers; and
- Beginning screening of southbound rail and vehicle traffic for the illegal weapons and cash that are helping to fuel the cartel violence in Mexico.
Napolitano also underscored the results of these investments noting that Border Patrol apprehensions a key indicator of illegal immigration have
Decreased 36 in the last two years and are less than half of what they were at their peak;- Violent crime in border communities has remained flat or fallen in the past decade; and
- Statistics have shown that some of the safest communities in America are along the border.
Additionally Secretary Napolitano reiterated the Departments continued commitment to partnering with federal state local and tribal law enforcement to enforce Americas immigration laws and prioritize the removal of criminal aliens that pose a threat to public safety.
In FY 2010 ICE removed over 195000 illegal aliens convicted of crimes the most ever removed from our country in a single year.
The continued growth of DHS programs such as Secure Communities which has helped DHS identify and remove tens of thousands of criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails by running their fingerprints against federal immigration databases when they get booked into the system reflects the success of these partnerships.
DHS has expanded Secure Communities from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to more than 1000 this weekincluding all jurisdictions along the Southwest border.
DHS has also stepped up labor enforcement arresting a record number of employers last year who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and strengthening the efficiency and accuracy of E-Verify which continues to grow by more
than 1000 businesses a week to assist employers in abiding by the law.
In the coming months DHS will continue to deploy additional resources to the Southwest border including two new forward operating bases to improve coordination of border activities improved tactical communications systems and 1000 new Border Patrol Agents funded through the
Emergency Supplemental for Border Security passed and signed into law in August 2010.
Secretary Napolitanos remarks as prepared for delivery are available here. For more information about the Departments unprecedented efforts to secure the Southwest border visit
www.dhs.gov
