Secure Border Initiative (SBI) Update

Release Date: 12/08/05 00:00:00

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
December 8, 2005

Latest News

120 Hondurans Removed on JPATS Flight. Dec. 7, 2005, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed approximately 120 Honduran aliens from the United States via a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) flight out of Laredo, Texas. Most of the Hondurans removed on this flight were issued travel documents as a result of a recently-launched Video Teleconferencing (VTC) pilot project between ICE and the government of Honduras. The program, which is designed to speed the issuance of travel documents, and ultimately, the removal process for Honduran detainees, allows Honduran consular officers to interview these detainees via teleconference to confirm their nationality, rather than through in-person interviews. ICE and Honduran officials launched the VTC pilot project on October 12, 2005.

1,700 Border Patrol Agents Assigned. Dec. 7, 2005, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff announced the fiscal year 2006 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agent deployment schedule. An additional 1,700 CBP Border Patrol agents will be assigned to the southwest border as follows: Arizona, 643 agents, Texas, 452 agents, California, 352 agents, and New Mexico, 253 agents.

ICE Agents Arrest 42 Illegal Aliens at Secure Facilities. Dec. 1, 2005, ICE special agents carried out two separate enforcement actions resulting in the arrest of 42 aliens who were illegally working at a military base in New Mexico and at the international airport in Louisiana. In the New Mexico operation, ICE special agents teamed up with the Air Force Office of Special Investigation and base Military Police to arrest 22 Mexican nationals who were illegally working for one of six subcontractors on a housing project at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, NM. ICE special agents arrested 20 illegal aliens who were unlawfully employed by a local company in Kenner, La. The company reportedly provided workers to several critical infrastructure facilities in the greater New Orleans area, including New Orleans International Airport and the Veterans Administration Hospital.

Under SBI, more than 3,850 non-Mexican individuals were turned over to ICE custody for detention in connection with the Expedited Removal (ER) program. Thus far, ICE has removed roughly 2,750 of these individuals from the country, a removal rate of 71 percent under SBI. The average length of stay in ICE detention for aliens placed into ER is currently 20 days.

Utilized throughout all sectors of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) has identified 606 homicide suspects and 154,530 suspected criminals between the ports of entry since its inception Sept. 1, 2004.

Dec. 4, 2005, CBP Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended a group of 19 illegal aliens east of the Douglas Port of Entry. At the Douglas processing station, all of the subjects’ fingerprints were submitted into the IAFIS, checking for criminal histories and searching over 49 million records in the Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint database.

One of the individuals, Jose Medina-Castañeda, a 43-year-old Mexican national who was illegally in the United States, was identified as having an outstanding felony warrant for murder/homicide in Los Angeles. Upon the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office verifying the warrant and confirming extradition to Los Angeles, Medina-Castañeda was booked in the Cochise County Jail where he awaits extradition to California.

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This page was last reviewed/modified on 12/08/05 00:00:00.