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(This is the third article in a series examining U.S. intelligence reform.)

Washington -- A newly enacted law overhauling the U.S. intelligence system includes provisions to strengthen border security, track and curtail terrorist travel, and increase criminal penalties for terrorist crimes.

The law -- the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 -- authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to increase the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents by at least 2,000 each year beginning in 2006 and continuing through 2010. It also requires that 20 percent of the agents be assigned along the U.S.- Canada border.

Most of the additional immigration and border security provisions in the law President Bush signed December 17 are pertinent to the Department of Homeland Security. The department was created in 2002 in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States September 11, 2001.

The law also authorizes the department to increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by at least 800 each year over five years, beginning in 2006.

The Department of Homeland Security is also authorized to increase by 8,000, in each of the years 2006 through 2010, the number of beds available for immigration detention and deportation operations. Priority will be given to those facing deportation for national security reasons.

The department will begin testing a pilot border-security program along the U.S.-Canadian border, and another along the southwestern U.S. border. The law permits testing of advanced technologies, such as sensors, video, and unmanned aerial vehicles, along the northern border between ports of entry.

Along the southwestern border, Homeland Security must provide the president with a plan for the systematic surveillance of the border region using unmanned aircraft.

Two provisions were included specifically to target terrorist travel. One provision requires the new director of the National Counterterrorism Center to send Congress a strategy that combines intelligence collected on known terrorist travel activity with operations and law enforcement into a cohesive effort to intercept terrorists, find those who help terrorists with travel arrangements, and disrupt terrorist travel domestically and internationally.

The second provision directs the president to lead efforts to develop international agreements to curb terrorist travel with the use of lost, stolen or falsified documents. It calls on countries to share information on lost, stolen, or fraudulent official travel documents, impose criminal penalties on the use or production of such documents, prevent the issuance of passports for bribes, and permit immigration and border control agents to seize fake documents at ports of entry.

The law also includes provisions to:

-- Accelerate the implementation of the automated biometric entry-exit program;

-- Establish a Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center to counter terrorist travel and to advise Congress annually of vulnerabilities in the United States and foreign travel systems that may be exploited by terrorists, human smugglers and traffickers;

-- Increase the number of consular officers in the State Department by 150 annually from 2006 through 2009;

-- Direct the departments of State and Homeland Security to develop by 2008 standardized requirements for travelers coming into or returning to the United States, including U.S. citizens and citizens from Canada and other Western Hemisphere countries, to present a passport or other documentation to establish citizenship andentity;

-- Require the Department of Homeland Security to establish minimum standards ofentification for passengers on domestic commercial airlines; and

-- Deport any alien who has received military-type training from a designated terrorist organization; and bar the admission of any alien who has ordered, or participated in, an act of genocide, torture or killing.

The law does not include a provision that would have made it harder for refugees to gain asylum and would have required expedited deportation of illegal aliens without review by the federal courts.

  Created: 20 Dec 2004 Updated: 20 Dec 2004