Introduction Chairman McCaul, Ranking Member Keating, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, it is a pleasure to appear before you today to discuss the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to secure our Nation’s borders.
No one entity can tackle these transnational criminal enterprises alone. Rather, it requires a multi-agency, multi-national, and layered approach. To that end, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG ) forge strong and cooperative relationships and work closely with state, local, tribal, territorial, Federal, and international partners toward our mission to promote homeland security and uphold public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of Federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration.
To do this, DHS has deployed a multi-layered, risk-based approach to enhance the security of our borders while facilitating the lawful flow of people and goods entering the United States. This layered approach to security reduces our reliance on any single point or program that could be compromised. It also extends our zone of security outward, ensuring that our physical border is not the first or last line of defense, but one of many.
As America’s frontline border agency, CBP is responsible for securing America’s borders while facilitating legal travel and trade. Over the past three years, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dedicated historic levels of personnel, technology, and resources in support of our border security efforts. The President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Budget Request continues these efforts by supporting the largest deployment of law enforcement officers to the frontline in our agency’s history: more than 21,000 Border Patrol agents, 1,200 Air and Marine agents, and 21,100 CBP officers, all who work 24/7 with state, local, tribal, and Federal law enforcement in targeting illicit networks trafficking in people, drugs, weapons, and money. Over the last year, we have brought greater unity to our enforcement efforts, expanded collaboration with other agencies, and improved response times.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) mission is to promote public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of Federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) directorate is responsible for investigating a wide range of domestic and international activities arising from the illegal movement of people and goods into, within, and out of the United States. In addition to overseeing the agency’s international and intelligence functions, HSI investigates, among other things, immigration crime, human rights violations and human smuggling, smuggling of narcotics, weapons, and other types of contraband, financial crimes, cyber crime, and export enforcement issues. ICE is well positioned to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations by targeting the illicit pathways and organizations that engage in the production, transportation, and distribution of illicit contraband.
For more than 220 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has safeguarded the Nation’s maritime interests and natural resources on our rivers and ports, in the coastal regions, and on the high seas, in the Caribbean region and around the world. The Coast Guard saves those in peril and protects the Nation’s maritime border, marine transportation system, natural resources, and the environment. Coast Guard men and women – active duty, reserve, civilian and auxiliarists alike – deliver premier service to the public. The Coast Guard is an adaptable, responsive, military force of maritime professionals whose broad legal authorities, assets, geographic diversity, and expansive partnerships provide a persistent presence in the inland waters, ports, coastal regions, and far offshore areas of operations. This presence, coupled with over two centuries of experience as the Nation’s maritime first responder, provides tremendous value and service to the public. As such, the Coast Guard shapes national maritime policy, including in the Caribbean region, to protect the Nation’s interests.
Overview of CBP Operations in Puerto Rico / U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) In FY 2011, CBP processed approximately 4.8 million travelers and more than 109,000 containers through our ports of entry in the Caribbean. The San Juan Field Office processed over $40 billion in trade, an increase of more than 15 percent from the prior year. During this time, CBP officers arrested 345 people wanted for crimes, including murder, rape, assault, and robbery, and denied entry to nearly 3,000 people at Puerto Rico’s ports of entry. The San Juan Field Office has 626 employees across the region: 318 CBP Officers, 76 Agriculture Specialists, and 111 support positions are assigned to Puerto Rico; and 80 CBP Officers, 11 Agriculture Specialists, and 30 support positions are located in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
CBP’s Caribbean Air and Marine Branch (CAMB) plays a major role in deterring illegal activity in the region through the coordinated use of integrated air and marine forces to detect, interdict, and prevent the unlawful movement of people, illegal drugs, and other contraband in the area. The CAMB is headquartered in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and possesses six aviation assets, including two AS-350 Light Enforcement Helicopters, two UH-60 Medium Lift Helicopters, and two DeHavilland DHC-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft, which are state-of-the-art aircraft used for detecting vessels. Also assigned to CAMB are four marine units located in Fajardo, Ponce, and Mayaguez, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The marine units have ten Midnight Express interceptors, which are the fastest, most capable law enforcement vessels in the world, and five additional support vessels. The 60 enforcement personnel of the CAMB seized approximately 10,250 pounds of narcotics and $2.1 million in currency in FY 2011.
The Caribbean Air and Marine Operations Center (CAMOC), a sub-unit of the CBP’s Air and Marine Operations Center (AMOC), is also located in Puerto Rico. CAMOC is a state-of-the-art law enforcement radar surveillance center designed to counter the ongoing threat of airborne drug smuggling and provides detection, monitoring, and coordination between CAMB assets and other Federal and local authorities.
Ramey Sector Border Patrol agents patrol coastal areas in Puerto Rico and work to prevent, deter, and interdict illegal aliens and narcotics. During FY 2011, Border Patrol agents apprehended 642 undocumented aliens and seized more than 2,180 pounds of narcotics between the ports of entry. The Sector also has a full-time Prosecution Unit, a full time Public Affairs Office, a robust Intelligence Unit, and five canine teams deployed in Puerto Rico. These canine teams assist the San Juan Field Office with container checks and ferry operations and are also deployed to support the local law enforcement community.
CBP also supports the six municipalities in Puerto Rico in developing operational plans and preparing funding requests for Operation Stonegarden grants. Utilizing the resulting Operation Stonegarden grants, these municipalities – Aguadilla, Cabo Rojo, Lajas, Ponce, Yabucoa, and Ceiba – work in unison with Border Patrol agents to fuse knowledge, experience, assets, and jurisdictional authorities in an effort to develop actionable intelligence, deter illegal activities, and help protect our coastal communities.
CBP continues its efforts to prevent narcotics and unreported currency from entering Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Collectively, CBP officers and agents seized more than 19,000 pounds of narcotics with an estimated street value of approximately $140 million, and seized more than $7 million in unreported currency in FY 2011.
Overview of ICE Resources in the Caribbean ICE currently has seven domestic offices in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; these include the HSI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) office in San Juan (SAC San Juan); and the subsidiary Resident Agent in Charge (RAC) offices in Fajardo, Arecibo, Ponce, Mayagüez, St. Thomas, and St. Croix. The HSI Caribbean Attaché, physically located in Miami, Florida is responsible for overseeing HSI Assistant Attaché offices in the Nassau, Bahamas; Kingston, Jamaica; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. These offices work with HSI domestic offices and foreign counterparts to combat transnational criminal organizations through capacity building, information sharing, and joint investigations. ICE’s presence in the region, in collaboration with other law enforcement partners, has directly resulted in more than 1,000 criminal arrests, and the seizures of more than 1,200 firearms, 25,500 pounds of narcotics, and nearly $17 million in illicit proceeds from October 2010 through June 2012.
Overview of Coast Guard Operations in Puerto Rico/USVI The Coast Guard and its interagency partners have seen tremendous interdiction successes over the past several years in the Caribbean Transit Zone. The Coast Guard interdicted and seized over 198,000 lbs of contraband (cocaine and marijuana) in FY 2011, and 181,000 lbs thus far in FY 2012.
The Coast Guard interdicted three Self-Propelled Semi Submersible (SPSS) vessels in the Caribbean Sea in FY 2011 and another two in the first two quarters of FY 2012. Though not present in the same numbers as go-fasts, the SPSS and Fully Submersible Vessels (FSV) are potentially an even more insidious threat to the security of the United States for two reasons: (1) their large, up to 10-ton payload and (2) the extraordinary difficulty of detecting these vessels at sea. This makes them a dangerous drug conveyance that could potentially be adapted for transporting other more serious security threats to the United States.
The Caribbean has many areas of shallow water with islands scattered throughout the different transit routes. To prevent drug traffickers from retrieving their illicit cargo after scuttling, the Coast Guard led an interagency response to recover contraband from two of the scuttled SPSS vessels. The other SPSS vessels had been scuttled in waters too deep to safely conduct dive operations. This interagency and international effort led to the recovery of over 12 metric tons of cocaine.
The foresight and wisdom of the U.S. Congress deserves a note of thanks for enacting 18 USC § 2285, the Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008, which made the mere operation of these stateless vessels in international waters a crime. This has greatly helped interdiction efforts whereby law enforcement authorities no longer need to recover contraband in order to affect successful arrests and prosecutions.
Since 1980, the Coast Guard has interdicted over 364,000 migrants at sea. The majority of migrant interdictions occur in the Florida Straits, and Windward and Mona Passages. The Coast Guard interdicted 2,474 undocumented migrants who attempted to enter the United States via maritime routes during fiscal year 2011. This statistic represents an 18 percent increase in interdictions when compared with fiscal year 2010 (2,088) and a 29 percent decrease in interdictions when compared with fiscal year 2009 (3,467). The Coast Guard interdicted 796 undocumented migrants in the maritime domain in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, which is more than the numbers interdicted during the first quarters of fiscal years 2011 (410) and 2010 (188), and less than the number interdicted during the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 (1,062).
International/Bi-Lateral Agreements The Coast Guard maintains 45 maritime bi-lateral law enforcement agreements with partner nations, which enable the Coast Guard to coordinate with partner nations and more effectively operate forward deployed boats, cutters, aircraft, and personnel to deter and counter threats as close to their origin as possible. Each bilateral agreement is independently negotiated but follows a standard framework; elements may include: ship boarding; ship rider; pursuit; entry to investigate; over-flight; order to land; and international maritime interdiction support. These agreements also enable the Coast Guard to assist partner nations in exercising their span of control and maritime domain awareness of their waters. Migrant bilateral agreements include an agreement with the Dominican Republic, the Comprehensive Maritime Agreement with the Bahamas, and the Migrant Accords with Cuba.
The Coast Guard-sponsored Multilateral Maritime Counter Drug Summit focuses on strengthening international partnerships and disrupting illicit drug trafficking and associated violence in the transit zone. The Summit is geared towards Western Caribbean countries, with international participation representing ten partner nations in Central and South America.
In the Eastern Caribbean, the Caribbean Law Enforcement and Intelligence Council facilitates communication, information sharing, law enforcement operations planning, and interoperability amongst participating international countries (United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands). It serves to enable face-to-face interaction between key local, Federal and international law enforcement and intelligence organizations throughout the Caribbean region.
The Coast Guard provides international training and education through resident schools and “on the job training” at operational units in the U.S., and through Mobile Education and Training Teams deployed to host counties. Approximately sixty formal resident courses and eleven on-the-job training courses are open for international military student attendance. The Coast Guard courses are developed and conducted to meet mission requirements and are intended to improve performance. Exportable training is one of the Coast Guard’s most versatile and cost effective international training tools, providing training to more than 2,000 international students in approximately sixty countries each year. The Coast Guard delivers a complete package of beginning, intermediate, or advanced training to units, small groups or larger multi-agency audiences. All of these training and education outreach activities result in participants being more capable partners in maritime law enforcement, marine safety and environmental protection, small boat operation and maintenance, search and rescue missions, and port security and infrastructure development for countries with waterway law enforcement programs.
Collaborative Efforts In addition to its operational presence in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, DHS has increased its collaboration with Federal, state, local, and international partners to arrest individuals and target criminal organizations that pose a threat to our communities. This collaboration has resulted in successful operations at and beyond our borders. Collaborative efforts such as the Caribbean Border Interagency Group (CBIG) have proven to be an effective force multiplier by coordinating joint planning and execution of operations among CBP, ICE,USCG, Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program (HIDTA), and Puerto Rico’s Fuerzas Unidas de Rapida Acción (FURA) partners. Through these coordinated efforts, DHS has reduced illegal migrant activity coming into Puerto Rico via the Mona Passage by 90 percent over the last five years, and is successfully mitigating the smuggling threat along Puerto Rico’s western coast.
Operation Caribbean Resilience It is ICE’s assessment that Puerto Rico is a primary Caribbean drug transshipment point from South America to the U.S. mainland. In direct response to the threat of criminal organizations, related violence, and its impact on the quality of life for those residing in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in response to recommendations