For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-282-8010

Secretary Chertoff: Well, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome. You know, we’re getting into the fourth and final year of the administration, but as those of us who remember last night recall, sometimes the most interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter.

Now, a short while ago, the President announced his fiscal year 2009 budget for the federal government, which, by the way, is the first online submission to Congress, I think in history. And obviously that includes the budget for the Department of Homeland Security.

As in past years, the President has demonstrated that his commitment to our Department and to the mission of protecting the American people remains unwavering. The President has requested $50.5 billion in total funding for DHS, reflecting a 6.8 percent increase over the previous year’s base budget, and a 62 percent increase since the department’s creation nearly five years ago.

This is a strong and fiscally sound budget that funds vital areas of our mission, including border security and immigration enforcement, secure entification, cargo security, infrastructure protection, emergency response, and the department’s management.

The budget focuses resources on the greatest risks, it builds on our success to date, and most important, it gives our 208,000 employees the tools and support they need to continue to protect the American people.

Today I’m going to highlight some specific areas of the budget across our five priority goals, which are: protecting the nation from dangerous people, protecting the nation from dangerous things, protecting our critical infrastructure, improving our emergency response and building a culture of preparedness, and finally, strengthening our management and institution.

Let me first turn to the issue of protecting our nation from dangerous people. And let me start with that vast space, the thousands of miles that are between our ports of entry. A major priority for the President, this department and the American people is getting control of our borders and keeping dangerous people, criminals, drug dealers and illegal aliens from entering our country or worse, threatening our citizens. We have made an enormous amount of progress over the last year to tighten the border, build fence, train Border Patrol, and deploy technology.

As you can see depicted – and it’s quite a picture – we have currently got 287 miles of fencing built across our Southwestern border; that includes pedestrian and vehicle fencing. We have, as of the end of last year, calendar year 2007, over 15,000 Border Patrol; that’s an increase from a little over 9,000 when the President took office in 2001.

Since August 2006, we have sustained the end to Catch and Release at the border; that was the old method under which people were apprehended, and if they couldn’t be returned in a single day, they were simply released on their own recognizance. The result of this deliberate and consistent effort is that apprehensions are down about 20 percent this past fiscal year, over the prior fiscal year. And that’s very good news; it’s one of a number of metrics that shows that we have turned the tide on illegal immigration and we’re making progress in the right direction.

Now, there’s some unfortunate metrics. We’re seeing increasing violence against our agents as a result of this stepped-up enforcement. That includes the recent killing of an agent struck by a vehicle fleeing into Mexico. Over the past year, violence against the Border Patrol increased 31 percent, and in some sectors almost 700 percent.

Unfortunately, this is an all too predictable consequence of cracking down on illegal activity. Those who profit from illegal businesses fight hard to preserve their market share, and fight hard to preserve their illegal activities, and as a consequence they’re more willing to use violence. Our message, however, is clear: We will push back as hard as necessary, we will not relent, we will not give in, and we will continue to step up the pressure as we gain control of the border.

Now, of course, in addition to violence, illegal activity at the border – trafficking in drugs and other commodities, and also human trafficking – results in environmental degradation at the border. And here you see some of what we find at an illegal alien pickup location in Arizona. And it’s because of the violence, it’s because of the drug trafficking, it’s because of the human trafficking, it’s because of the degradation of the environment in the areas where trafficking takes place, that we are going to continue to build fencing where it meets our operational needs, we’re going to deploy technology where it can assist the Border Patrol, and we’re going to give the Border Patrol every tool necessary and every tool that they can want in order to protect themselves, in order to police the border, and in order to make it clear to drug dealers, drug traffickers, human smugglers, and anybody else who comes in illegally, that we are determined to keep the pressure up at the border in order to fulfill our promise to the American people.

In line with what we’ve done already, and to build on that foundation of a very good year last year, and our commitment to continue, for fiscal year 2009 the President’s budget requests $3.5 billion for the Border Patrol. That’s an increase of almost half a billion dollars to hire, train and equip 2,200 new Border Patrol agents, over and above the 18,000 or so that we expect to have in the Border Patrol by the end of this calendar year.

The additional agents that we propose to fund represents the President’s goal of adding 6,000 new Border Patrol agents by the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, and by the end of next September to get to a total of more than 20,000 Border Patrol agents. That will be more than twice the number that were present on duty when the President took office in 2001.

For our technology-based SBInet, we’re requesting an additional $775 million to be added to the $1.25 billion that was recently appropriated late last year, so that we can continue our efforts to develop and deploy technology and tactical infrastructure, including fencing, at the border to prevent incursions, improve Border Patrol response time, and make it safer for the Border Patrol to operate on the border.

Through this funding, which would be $2 billion in total, we expect to have 370 miles of pedestrian fence and 300 miles of vehicle fence in place by the end of this calendar year. And to give you a visual sense of what that means, it means that we will have barriers and fencing in place from the Pacific Ocean pretty much to the New Mexico-Texas border – except in those areas where there’s a natural obstacle like a mountain or something of that sort that makes fencing unnecessary – we’ll have almost that entire area built up with barriers.

In addition, we will develop a Common Operating Picture technology to give us better awareness of the border through integrated cameras, sensors, radar, and unmanned aerial systems. As you probably know, we acquired a new unmanned aerial system late last year for our third, and then we’re going to have our fourth coming online within a matter of about a month or so.

Now, we all know that enforcing the rules against illegal immigration and trafficking require more than just resources at the border, although resources at the border are necessary. We also have to focus on interior enforcement, which is what attacks that economic engine that drives people to come into this country illegally in the first place.

Again, we made a lot of progress in fiscal year 2007. We increased worksite enforcement, with 863 criminal arrests and over 4,000 administrative arrests. If you look back, this is a huge – it’s a transformative change in tough enforcement at the interior since three years ago and four years ago.

In addition, to continue to build on this very substantial effort, we’re requesting $1.8 billion, which is an increase of $153 million over this past fiscal year, to help ICE expand detention beds by 1,000 so that there will be a total of 33,000 beds in fiscal year 2009. This is a 78 percent increase from where we were just four years ago, and gives us the capacity not only to have ended Catch and Release at the border, but to make sure that we are detaining as many as possible in the interior when we conduct enforcement operations.

In all, we’re requesting $3 billion in fiscal year 2009 for ICE interior enforcement-related activities. That’s an increase of over $300 million from this past fiscal year. It will include funding for increased fugitive operations; the Criminal Alien Program, which goes into prisons andentifies people who are criminal aliens who should be deported rather than released on the street; it supports anti-gang initiatives; and, of course, continued worksite enforcement.

Yet a third element of the strategy here is to work with employers so that it’s easier for them to comply with the law, which, of course, means we have to do less of our own enforcement because the worksite begins to take care of itself.

We’re requesting for fiscal year 2009 $100 million for E-Verify, an increase in $40 million. As you know, this program allows employers to use an automated system to run employment authorization checks against DHS and Social Security Administration databases.

Currently, more than 50,000 companies are enrolled, and we expect that number to more than double this year. This is a proven tool that attacks one of the most common ways in which illegal aliens fraudulently obtain work in the workplace, by using phony Social Security numbers or mismatched Social Security numbers.

And, as indicated by the increased enrollments, this is a program that is becoming ever more popular with employers themselves. That’s why it’s particularly important that this year Congress reauthorize the program so that these employers can continue to benefit from E-Verify and not have to play detective when they hire new employees.

Finally, because we recognize that the issue of enforcing the law against illegal migration is one which has to engage state and local law enforcement as well, we’re requesting $92.5 million, which includes a $12-million increase, to continue to train state and local law enforcement officers under our 278(g) program. This is a force multiplier for immigration enforcement. It also assures that when a locality chooses to work with us to help us enforce the immigration laws, that their police are properly trained to do it in the right way. To date, we have signed 34 Memoranda of Agreement with state and local law enforcement under this program, and there’s a long line of other jurisdictions that want to sign up as well.

Now, of course, common sense tells you that although a lot of attention is paid to those people who sneak in between the ports of entry, it makes no sense to fortify the land border only between the ports of entry while allowing people to simply walk through the ports of entry willy-nilly whether they’re legal or illegal. And therefore, we need to continue to move forward on our efforts to strengthen our ports of entry and to prevent fraud and smuggling at our ports of entry as people attempt to bring in drugs or illegally traffick in human beings or, worse yet, come in to commit crimes or terrorist activities.

The President’s budget supports our efforts to strengthen travel document security andentity management, which is the key to making sure that our ports of entry do not become an open door to illegal migration, even as we are building fences and barriers between the ports of entry.

Let me talk about some of our progress to date. First, we’re requesting $140 million this fiscal year to support the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. This is somewhat less than we received in ‘08 because we expected in this fiscal year ‘08, we will be building the vast majority of the infrastructure we need to have WHTI in place, ready to be up and running, by June 2009 when we can begin the process of implementation.

We anticipate that in 2009, 39 of the high-volume land ports will be covered by WHTI-accessible infrastructure, which will cover 95 percent of all vehicle passenger traffic. This, by the way, will not only add to security, it will actually make it quicker to get through the ports of entry. So for those who are worried about long lines at the ports of entry, land ports of entry, this is actually the cure to the problem, and something we ought to embrace as quickly as possible.

Of course, I don’t need to remind you that having this kind of initiative to secure our land borders and make sure people can’t come in with phony documents was a critical 9/11 Commission recommendation. And recently, last November, the Government Accountability Office, GAO, published a report which emphasized the vulnerabilities that remain if we allow thousands of different kinds of documents to be presented at the border, or allow people to simply walk in by announcing themselves under the honor system as American citizens.

Now, although WHTI itself cannot be implemented until June 2009, we have taken some steps last week to at least close as much of the gap as we can, using existing documentation. That’s why we have indicated that we will no longer proceed on the honor system, where people are allowed simply to make an oral declaration of citizenship. And we are reducing – we’ve reduced dramatically the number of kinds of documents that can be presented as establishing entification and citizenship at our land borders.

I urge Congress to allow us to complete the process of implementation in June 2009 without continuing to kick the can down the road. Preliminary reports from this past week have indicated it is possible to transition into a new, more secure regime of management at the border without causing undue stress and delays. But at this point, staying on course and staying on the message is the best way we can guarantee that we will continue to move forward and honor this very important 9/11 Commission recommendation.

Another important tool at the border is US-VISIT. As you know, we have now moved from a two-print regime to a 10-print regime, not only at our consulates overseas but increasingly at our air ports of entry here in the United States. A few weeks ago we announced the rollout of 10-print US-VISIT at Dulles Airport. It’s recently opened up at Logan. This, of course, has nothing to do with the Super Bowl. And we’re going to continue to roll this thing out over time.

As a consequence, we’ve requested $390.3 million for US-VISIT for fiscal year 2009, which will allow us to continue to build out this important biometric capability at all of our major ports of entry.

Another important 9/11 Commission recommendation was the need to make sure that driver’s licenses do not become weapons in the hands of terrorists as they were on September 11th. As you know, this past fiscal year 2008, there has been $360 million available in funding, potentially, for states that want to have support for their REAL efforts. This fiscal year 2009 we’re requesting $50 million to facilitate State compliance, and there will be another $150 million in grants that will potentially be available to states for this purpose in fiscal year 2009.

I want to emphasize, though, the most important contribution we have made to allow REAL to be implemented in a way th