Posted by Secretary Napolitano



Earlier this week, I traveled to Arizona and Texas with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner David Aguilar to see DHS operations at the Southwest Border.

We visited the Port of Hidalgo, Pharr Bridge, CBP’s Air and Marine Branch, and the Border Patrol Forward Operating Base near Falcon Heights where we saw firsthand some of CBP’s capabilities along the Southwest border and recent investments in personnel, technology, and infrastructure. I had the privilege of hearing from and personally thanking some of the dedicated men and women on the front lines. They work hard every day, at great personal risk, to keep the communities along the border and our entire nation safe.

Protecting communities along on our borders is vital to our homeland security, as well as to our economic prosperity. Over the past three years, the Obama Administration has deployed significant resources and worked closely with partners at all levels—including other federal agencies, state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement, the private sector and the government of Mexico- to secure our border.

This work is making a real difference. Nationwide, illegal immigration attempts, as measured by Border Patrol apprehensions, have decreased 53 percent in the past three years, and are less than 20 percent of what they were at their peak. Seizures of illegal drugs, currency, and weapons are all up, while violent crime in some of our largest border cities and communities has remained flat or fallen over the past decade.

As we move forward, we’ll continue to work to ensure our borders are safe and secure, while facilitating the legitimate trade and travel that is so essential to our economy.

Posted by Secretary Napolitano

Today I joined local law enforcement and elected officials from communities along the Southwest border at the White House for a roundtable discussion on the ongoing collaboration among federal, state and local partners to keep our border communities safe and secure while facilitating legal travel and trade.

Protecting communities along our borders is vital to our homeland security and critical to our economic prosperity. Since 2009, DHS and partners across the federal government have deployed unprecedented levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border.  The Border Patrol is better staffed today than at any time in its 87-year history with more than 18,500 agents along the Southwest border, more than double the boots on the ground a decade ago. 

The men and women of DHS work closely with our state and local partners each and every day to ensure the safety and security of our borders.  As a result, the Southwest border is safer, illegal immigration attempts are at historic lows, and we are seizing more cash, drugs, and contraband.

During the meeting, I also conveyed the Obama Administration’s support for these border communities and for communities all across America to helping police officers and first responders who are charged with the responsibility of ensuring a safe, secure and resilient homeland through the American Jobs Act. Even in a difficult economic climate where we are faced with budget cuts across the board, we cannot afford to undermine law enforcement and first responder capabilities and jeopardize public safety. That is why the American Jobs Act provides $5 billion to state and local communities to create or save thousands of police and first responder jobs.

As we discussed in our meeting today, the Southwest border is open for business.  While we continue our work securing our borders, we must also facilitate legitimate trade and travel.  Our efforts to encourage economic development support jobs in communities along the border and all across America.

In August, Secretary Napolitano announced the launch of a new DHS social networking site, Our Border. The site was created to encourage and facilitate discussion about the southwest border. Our Border enables community leaders, activists and concerned citizens to discuss issues relevant to the border with each other and with the department.

This week, we opened a new forum focused on commerce and the southwest border, and specifically narrowed to four topics:

· Tourism
· Bi-National Business
· Commercial Traffic / FAST
· Passenger Traffic / SENTRI

We encourage you to visit the site and join the discussion.

There’s also a section where members are encouraged to introduce themselves to the network. We wanted to share the introduction of “Ramona,” one of our members:

“I'm not a DHS employee or a community leader. I'm not even sure I can be called an activist. I firmly believe that the United States of America is the greatest country in the world and it became that way by embracing immigrants from every other countries in the world. We need to find a way to secure our borders, prevent drug, weapon and human smuggling and still allow Mexico and the United States to grow stronger as supportive neighbors.”

Ramona is one of over 300 members on Our Border, and, like others, she has already joined many of the groups and has participated in a number of the discussion forums. We encourage you to visit the site and get involved in the discussion. We want to hear from you.

Join today