House approves measure to secure Southwest Border
Texas Insider Report: Washington D.C.U.S. Representative Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Texas) announced today the passage of the 2010 Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Bill. The bill provides $600 million in funds to help protect the U.S.-Mexico border by strengthening border security and enforcement efforts along the Southwest border. Ortiz is a co-sponsor of this bill.
We have approved much-needed funding so we can provide our border patrol agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with what they need to secure the border" Ortiz said.
As violence continues in Mexico Ortiz said the country cannot hesitate in the ability to detect deter and disrupt the illegal activity that seeks to infiltrate the border. Last week Ortiz sent a letter to leadership in the House of Representative urging his colleagues to take up this bill immediately.
We must continue to provide the resources funding and training needed to keep our borders safe" Ortiz said.
This additional funding is critical for the various federal agencies that are dedicated to our security efforts."
The bill provides funding for the following: epartment of Homeland Security: $394 million for department efforts to strengthen enforcement on the southern border including:
- Border Patrol Agents: $176 million for 1000 additional Border Patrol agents deployed between the ports of entry along the Southwest Border.
- CBP Officers: $68 million to hire 250 new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at ports of entry along the Southwest Border and maintain 270 CBP officers funded through declining user fees.
- CBP Tactical Communications: $14 million for designing building and deploying an improved tactical communications system for support of enforcement activities on the Southwest Border.
- Border Patrol Forward Operating Bases: $6 million for the construction of two forward operating bases along the Southwest Border for improved border enforcement activities.
- Airborne Interdiction: $32 million to procure two additional CBP unmanned aircraft systems.
- Immigration Enforcement Activities: $80 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hire more than 250 special agents investigators intelligence analysts and mission support staff and for targeted activities directed at reducing the threat of narcotics smuggling and associated violence.
- Workforce Integrity: $10 million for a surge of workforce integrity investigations designed to prevent corruption among CBP officers and agents.
Funding will also go to the Department of Justice: $196 million for Justice Department programs including:
• ATF: $37.5 million for the continued expansion of ATFs Project Gunrunner which targets firearms trafficking across the Southwest border and to increase ATFs capacity to complete firearms trace requests related to border cases.
• DEA: $33.7 million for investigations intelligence surveillance and other operational needs of the DEA to target and pursue major drug trafficking organizations along the border.
• FBI: $24 million for FBI investigative intelligence tactical and forensic responses to gangs violent crime and public corruption in the border region.
• Interagency Enforcement: $21 million for the operation of prosecutor-led task forces involving Federal state and local law enforcement officials to target the biggest most significant drug trafficking organizations with ties to the Southwest border.
• U.S. Marshals: $37.7 million for the U.S. Marshals Service to provide prisoner production and security support for defendants referred by CBP and ICE as well as for an expansion of the Marshals presence in Mexico.
• Federal Prosecutions: $13.1 million for prosecutorial support to address increased cases referred by CBP ICE and DOJ investigative agencies
• Executive Office for Immigration Review: $2.1 million to process and adjudicate removal proceedings involving criminal aliens.
• Detention & Federal Prisons: $27 million for detention and incarceration space to address the increase in the prisoner population resulting from new DHS and DOJ investigative activity.
• The Judiciary: $10 million for the Courts of Appeals District Courts and other judicial services to meet increased workload requirements resulting from immigration and other law enforcement initiatives.
