U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff welcomed US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez to the headquarters of US Customs and Border Protection in Washington, DC, Monday to deliver the Bush administration's third state of immigration address, highlighting progress the federal government has made on enforcing border security and immigration enforcement while boosting temporary worker programs.
For border security, Chertoff highlighted progress on border fending, staffing for U.S. Border Patrol, and the Secure Border Initiative-Network (SBInet) surveillance system.
Currently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has built about 330 miles of fencing out of a target of 670 miles scheduled to be completed by the end of December 2008. The department continues to work with landowners along the U.S. southern border to resolve disputes over the placement of that fencing, Chertoff stated.
"We continue to be open to good-faith discussion about alternatives. But what we are not open to is endless debate or delay. We have an objective that Congress has mandated. It is our intention to meet that objective and to fulfill our obligation to the American people to get this fencing built," he declared.
The number of US Border Patrol agents, meanwhile, is increasing dramatically. In fiscal 2002, the agency had 9,800 agents, but it now has 16,471, Chertoff reported. The agency will have more than 18,000 agents by the end of calendar year 2008.
The increase in agents empowers Border Patrol to crack down on illegal immigration through specialized projects such as Operation Streamline, which focuses on unauthorized foreigners crossing the U.S. border in particular high-traffic areas. Operation Streamline prosecutes those illegal immigrants criminally before returning them to their home countries. The criminal prosecutions have lead to significant reductions in border crossings in the Del Rio, Yuma and Laredo sectors patrolled by US Border Patrol, Chertoff said.
As for SBInet, Project 28 has produced a functional prototype and key members of Congress have been impressed with its progress, Chertoff remarked. DHS will soon award SBInet prime contractor Boeing with additional task orders under the program to proceed with deploying the next legs of the operational version of the system, the secretary added.
In addition, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintains a crackdown on employers hiring illegal immigrants while DHS and other agencies continue to work with their counterparts in Mexico to curb border violence and crime.
Gutierrez addressed temporary worker visas under the H-1B program for high-tech workers and H-2B program for agriculture workers. The United States reached its cap for H-1B workers in one week after the start of the fiscal year, Gutierrez noted.
"[W]e are proposing administrative reforms to our high-skill programs and to the H-2B non-agriculture temporary worker program," he said. "In addition, we have proposed changes to the H-2A agricultural seasonal worker program. The changes will make the H-2A system more efficient and ensure an orderly and timely flow of legal foreign workers."
He cautioned states against enacting piecemeal integration laws, calling for comprehensive immigration reform efforts at the federal level.
"This patchwork of laws is untenable in the long-term. But until Congress acts, we will take steps for our nation's security and our economic stability," Gutierrez commented.