Q&A: DHS Implementation of the Executive Order on Border Security and Immigration Enforcement

"On February 20, 2017, Secretary John Kelly signed a memorandum implementing the president’s Executive Order entitled “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements,” issued on January 25, 2017. This document is designed to answer some frequently asked questions about how the Department will operationally implement the guidance provided by the president’s order.

Q1. What is CBP currently doing as part of the construction of the wall?

A1. CBP is taking immediate action in response to the president’s executive order. We have identified locations near El Paso, Texas, Tucson, Arizona, and El Centro, California, where we will build a wall in areas where the fence or old brittle landing-mat fencing are no longer effective.

The Border Patrol is also in the midst of an operational assessment, which will identify priority areas where CBP can build a wall or similar physical barrier on the border where it currently does not exist...."
DHS and border security

Barriers Along the U.S. Borders: Key Authorities and Requirements

"Federal law authorizes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to construct barriers along the U.S. borders to deter illegal crossings. DHS is also required to construct reinforced fencing along at least 700 miles of the land border with Mexico (a border that stretches 1,933 miles). Congress has not provided a deadline for DHS to meet this 700-mile requirement, and as of the date of this report, fencing would need to be deployed along nearly 50 additional miles to satisfy the 700-mile requirement. Nor has Congress provided guidelines regarding the specific characteristics of fencing or other physical barriers (e.g., their height or material composition) deployed along the border, beyond specifying that required fencing must be reinforced...."
U.S. Border Barriers

Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry

"Border enforcement is a core element of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) effort to control illegal migration, with the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) within the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as the lead agency along most of the border. Border enforcement has been an ongoing subject of congressional interest since the 1970s, when illegal immigration to the United States first registered as a serious national problem; and border security has received additional attention in the decade following the terrorist attacks of 2001..."
Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry

CBP’s[Customs and Border Patrol] 2011 Fiscal Year in Review

"U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today released year-end data on fiscal year (FY) 2011 border enforcement and management efforts, highlighting trends that reflect the Administration’s ongoing commitment to securing the border and facilitating legitimate trade and travel through targeted operations, enhanced partnerships and unprecedented deployment of personnel, technology and infrastructure along the border...

U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions—a key indicator of illegal immigration—decreased to 340,252 in FY 2011, down 53 percent since FY 2008 and one fifth of what they were at their peak in FY 2000. Of these apprehensions, 87,334 people had a record in the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a law enforcement database of individuals with criminal charges and convictions..."

Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Fact Sheet
"Securing the Border

* DHS has completed more than 216 miles of pedestrian fence and 154 miles of vehicle fence on the southwest border, for a total of approximately 370 miles.
* The Border Patrol now has more than 17,600 agents and by the end of this year we will have more than 18,300 agents. This doubles the size of the Border Patrol over the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 level.
* We are using technology along the border in connection with tactical infrastructure, where Border Patrol deems necessary. Some technology currently used includes: unattended ground sensors, truck-mounted mobile surveillance systems, remote video surveillance systems, unmanned aerial systems, and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft to detect, classify, track and respond to illegal border crossings.
* DHS saw a more than 17 percent reduction in apprehensions of illegal aliens at the southern border in FY 2008. This is an indication that there are fewer attempts to cross the border illegally..."

2007 Border Crossing Data
"The number of truck crossings into the United States from Canada and Mexico was 11.4 million in 2007, 0.3 percent higher than in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration. Almost 6.6 million truck crossings were into the U.S. from Canada , down 1.4 percent from 2006, and almost 4.9 million crossings were from Mexico , up 2.6 percent from 2006. Border-crossing data posted on the BTS website includes numbers of incoming trucks, trains, buses, containers, personal vehicles, and pedestrians entering the United States through land ports and ferry crossings on the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico border. Border-crossing data from 1995 to 2007 can be found on the BTS website at http://www.transtats.bts.gov/BorderCrossing.aspx or http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=1358

Border Searches of Laptops and Other Electronic Storage Devices
"The Fourth Amendment generally requires a warrant to support most searches
and seizures conducted by the government. Federal courts have long recognized that
there are many exceptions to this general presumption, one of which is the border
search exception. The border search exception permits government officials, in
most “routine” circumstances, to conduct searches with no suspicion of wrongdoing
whatsoever. On the other hand, in some “non-routine” and particularly invasive
situations, customs officials are required to have “reasonable suspicion” in order to
conduct a search."