Friday, October 29, 2010
DHS Statement On Increased Security Precautions
"As a precaution, DHS has taken a number of steps to enhance security. Some of these security measures will be visible while others will not. The public may recognize specific enhancements including heightened cargo screening and additional security at airports. Passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams and pat downs, among others. As always, we remind the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to local law enforcement.”
Official TSA Statement on Suspicious Items Onboard Cargo Flights
"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is aware of and monitoring reports of potentially suspicious items onboard cargo flights that landed safely at Newark Liberty and Philadelphia International airports. Out of an abundance of caution the planes were moved to a remote location where they are being met by law enforcement officials and swept.”
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The Release of Department of Homeland Security Counternarcotics Doctrine
I am honored to announce Secretary Napolitano’s recent signing of Department of Homeland Security Counternarcotics Doctrine - a set of fundamental principles that reflect what experts in the field of counternarcotics have learned from decades of experience combating dangerous drug trafficking organizations. This document will guide the ways in which we develop our policy and plans, structure and employ our forces, and procure our resources -- directly affecting our operations on the ground.
The experts who worked on DHS Counternarcotics Doctrine – many of whom have extensive front-line counternarcotics experience – were clear that we need to view this issue comprehensively. We cannot just concentrate on one drug, one way of moving that drug, or one geographical area of the world. Rather, we have to address the whole problem – including demand, production, transport, and consumption. We also can’t do it alone—we must work closely with our federal, state, local, tribal and international partners in order to maximize our efforts to detect, deter and disrupt the illicit movement of drugs. DHS Counternarcotics Doctrine reflects all of these concepts.
The Doctrine also reflects the fact that our efforts to counter drug trafficking are most successful when we work to understand – through good intelligence – what drug producers and traffickers are doing, and how they are doing it in order to anticipate their behavior and in turn more effectively target our operations. DHS Counternarcotics Doctrine stresses that our counternarcotics efforts must be guided by results – we must make sure our strategies and operations reflect the methods that have proven to be the most successful for achieving our mission.
I commend the members of the counternarcotics community who contributed to this document, and I hope all of our interagency, federal, state, tribal, local and international partners will use it as a resource.
Grayling Williams
Director, Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement
Department of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security
Monday, October 25, 2010
How Fusion Centers Help Keep America Safe
Secretary Janet Napolitano’s speech today to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in Orlando, Fla., is a good opportunity to update the American public on the important role that state and major urban area fusion centers are playing in keeping our country safe.
Fusion centers grew out of a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, which found that the federal government had no systematic way for sharing information and intelligence with state and local governments.
Today, we have a national network of 72 recognized fusion centers – one in every state and 22 in major urban areas – and, with Department of Homeland Security support, they are being woven into the national and homeland security fabric of the United States.
What does that mean for the American people? It means you now have a dedicated and well-trained group of men and women in your own communities, working with DHS, FBI, and other federal partners, to keep your police officers, firefighters, public health and safety officials, and other first responders informed about terrorist, criminal, and other homeland security threats.
The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, where I serve, takes information and intelligence from across DHS and the national Intelligence Community, processes and analyzes it, and then shares it with the fusion centers, often in joint products with the FBI. The fusion centers then disseminate it to the some 18,000 state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement organizations, and to thousands more first responders throughout the country. They also support the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces in their terrorism investigations.
Conversely, fusion centers provide the federal government with critical information and subject‐matter expertise from the state and local level, enabling the effective communication of locally-generated information about terrorism back to Washington.
Fusion centers have already proven their value in countering terrorist attacks. For example, they played important roles in the case of the attempted Times Square bombing by Faisal Shahzad and the plot to bomb New York subways by Najibullah Zazi.
DHS is working with each center to improve its baseline level of operational capability. Through the use of grant funding, each center is expected to achieve and maintain the capacity to receive and share threat-related information generated by the federal government, as well as the capacity to gather, assess, analyze, and share suspicious activity reports generated by local law enforcement and the private sector. These same baseline capabilities also ensure that fusion centers establish and maintain privacy and civil liberty protections.
In addition, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and the DHS Privacy Office, provide privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties training to all DHS intelligence officers before they deploy to the fusion centers, and support the training of all fusion center personnel nationwide.
Secretary Napolitano has talked about how our homeland security begins with hometown security. Fusion centers are vitally important tools for keeping both our home towns, and our homeland, safe.
Bart R. Johnson
Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis
Department of Homeland Security
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Resultados Récord en Medidas para el Cumplimiento de Leyes de Inmigración
Dentro de unas horas, la secretaria Janet Napolitano se sumará a John Morton, director del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement o ICE), para anunciar datos récord sobre los esfuerzos del gobierno del Presidente Obama por velar por el cumplimiento de las leyes del inmigración, entre ellos un número sin precedente de deportaciones de criminales extranjeros y de extranjeros en general en el año fiscal 2010, lo que refleja la atención de este gobierno a medidas sensatas y eficaces de aplicación de las leyes de inmigración que les dan prioridad a la deportación de los criminales extranjeros que representan una amenaza para la seguridad nacional o pública.
Específicamente, en el año fiscal 2010, el ICE alcanzó un récord en deportaciones en general de extranjeros ilegales, con más de 392,000 deportaciones en todo el país, la mitad de las cuales, más de 195,000, fueron de extranjeros criminales que representan una amenaza para la seguridad pública de la comunidad estadounidense.
En comparación con el año fiscal 2008, los récords del año fiscal 2010 representan un incremento de más de 23,000 deportaciones en general y 81,000 deportaciones de criminales, un aumento de más de 70 por ciento en deportaciones de extranjeros criminales con relación al gobierno previo.
Hemos alcanzado dichos logros al expandir el programa de Comunidades Seguras (Secure Communities), que usa información y servicios biométricos para identificar y deportar a extranjeros criminales en prisiones estatales y cárceles locales, y centrar nuestros esfuerzos por velar por el cumplimiento de la ley en los centros de trabajo en los empleadores que contratan a trabajadores ilegales a sabiendas y repetidamente. En pocas palabras, hemos cambiado fundamentalmente la estrategia del gobierno federal hacia las medidas para velar por el cumplimiento de las leyes de inmigración, y el anuncio de hoy demuestra que estamos obteniendo resultados concretos.
Matt Chandler, Secretario Adjunto de Prensa
Específicamente, en el año fiscal 2010, el ICE alcanzó un récord en deportaciones en general de extranjeros ilegales, con más de 392,000 deportaciones en todo el país, la mitad de las cuales, más de 195,000, fueron de extranjeros criminales que representan una amenaza para la seguridad pública de la comunidad estadounidense.
En comparación con el año fiscal 2008, los récords del año fiscal 2010 representan un incremento de más de 23,000 deportaciones en general y 81,000 deportaciones de criminales, un aumento de más de 70 por ciento en deportaciones de extranjeros criminales con relación al gobierno previo.
Hemos alcanzado dichos logros al expandir el programa de Comunidades Seguras (Secure Communities), que usa información y servicios biométricos para identificar y deportar a extranjeros criminales en prisiones estatales y cárceles locales, y centrar nuestros esfuerzos por velar por el cumplimiento de la ley en los centros de trabajo en los empleadores que contratan a trabajadores ilegales a sabiendas y repetidamente. En pocas palabras, hemos cambiado fundamentalmente la estrategia del gobierno federal hacia las medidas para velar por el cumplimiento de las leyes de inmigración, y el anuncio de hoy demuestra que estamos obteniendo resultados concretos.
Matt Chandler, Secretario Adjunto de Prensa
Record-Breaking Immigration Enforcement Results
In a few hours, Secretary Janet Napolitano will join U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton to announce record-breaking immigration enforcement statistics achieved under the Obama administration—including unprecedented numbers of criminal alien removals and overall alien removals in fiscal year 2010—reflecting this administration’s focus on smart and effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes criminal aliens who pose a national security or public safety threat.
Specifically, in fiscal year 2010, ICE set a record for overall removals of illegal aliens, with more than 392,000 removals nationwide—half of which, more than 195,000, were criminal aliens who pose a public safety threat to American communities.
The fiscal year 2010 records represent increases of more than 23,000 removals overall and 81,000 criminal removals compared to fiscal year 2008—a more than 70 percent increase in removal of criminal aliens from the previous administration.
We've achieved these milestones by expanding the Secure Communities initiative—which uses biometric information and services to identify and remove criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails—and focusing our worksite enforcement efforts on employers who knowingly and repeatedly hire illegal labor. In short, we’ve fundamentally changed the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement, and, as today's announcement demonstrates, we’re getting real results.
Matt Chandler, Deputy Press Secretary
Specifically, in fiscal year 2010, ICE set a record for overall removals of illegal aliens, with more than 392,000 removals nationwide—half of which, more than 195,000, were criminal aliens who pose a public safety threat to American communities.
The fiscal year 2010 records represent increases of more than 23,000 removals overall and 81,000 criminal removals compared to fiscal year 2008—a more than 70 percent increase in removal of criminal aliens from the previous administration.
We've achieved these milestones by expanding the Secure Communities initiative—which uses biometric information and services to identify and remove criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails—and focusing our worksite enforcement efforts on employers who knowingly and repeatedly hire illegal labor. In short, we’ve fundamentally changed the federal government's approach to immigration enforcement, and, as today's announcement demonstrates, we’re getting real results.
Matt Chandler, Deputy Press Secretary
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